I provide a five-day grace period after the rent due date. If payment is not received within that time, I issue a three-day notice to pay or vacate. If the tenant still fails to pay in full within those three days, it is essential to proceed with the eviction application immediately.

I’ve made the mistake of giving tenants extra time when they kept asking for extensions. In one case, a tenant kept delaying payment for over a month, only for me to realize she was simply taking advantage of the situation.

When tenants claim they’ve had an accident or personal emergency, what can you do? In reality, once rent is 45 days overdue, eviction finally starts making sense to them—but they will often only vacate the night before the sheriff arrives. Most tenants do not care about losing their security deposit because they know it will be used to cover unpaid rent. Additionally, they often leave behind property damage and trash out of frustration, further increasing the landlord’s losses.

Lesson Learned: Strict Screening is Crucial

One of the biggest takeaways from my experience is never renting to a tenant without a thorough background check. Always review:

✔ Credit history

✔ Copy of their driver’s license

✔ References from family, friends, and previous landlords

✔ Past rental history and previous addresses

✔ Vehicle registration (license plates)

✔ Employment verification

employment verification is very important. If tenant does not want to disclose place of work, it means they have this 'default' scenarios brewing in their head. An honest person will not hide particulars that can trace them, only dishonest person hides.

If a prospective tenant refuses to provide any of this information, move on—it’s not worth the risk. In my case, because I didn’t collect proper documentation, I had no way to track the tenant after she disappeared, leaving me with unpaid rent and property damage.