Holdover Tenant

Being a landlord was fun and all, but we decided we’d had enough. Our plan was that, when our current tenant Susie’s lease expired, we were going to sell the condo we’d been renting to her and use the profits to buy a boat. But boy, were we in for a surprise. When we went over to there to do a move-out inspection and collect the keys, Susie informed us that she didn’t plan on leaving and handed us a rent check instead.

Susie has just become a holdover tenant: someone who stays in their rental property past the expiration of their lease, without the permission of the property’s owner.

To those out there asking, “Can she even do that?” the answer is no, not really, but what we as landlords can legally do about it varies by state. Generally speaking, we have two options.

First, we can accept that rent check and let Susie stay. Maybe she’s got a really good reason for not leaving, like she’s buying a house of her own and needs a place to live until it closes in two months, so we decide to rent to her for a little while longer.

Or we can go with Option #2, which is to not accept the rent check, tell her to make like a tree and leave posthaste, and initiate eviction proceedings. Depending on where the condo is, those options might each play out a little differently and take differing amounts of time and money to deal with. But either way, we’re probably going to have to hold off on buying that boat, at least for a little while.