What are my rights as a landlord?

[egravy]

My husband and I have a rental house and the people that live there are not under a current lease. Last week we had 2 large deposit reversals in our bank. They were 2 months worth of rent and the bank they are drawn on is reversing the deposit saying it is "unauthorized". Apparently, the signature is not valid. We have given them until the 7th(July) to become current with everything or we are going to be serving them with a 30 day eviction notice. They have been on time with the rent maybe a handful of times in 3 years. Basically, they are living in our house right now rent free for the last 2 months b/c of this check fiasco. They normally pay us in money orders. We don't know what the heck to do b/c we know they have a lot of rights (they don't know that though). Are we in the right for asking for all of the $$ and to serve them if they don't come up with it?

 

[jacksgal]

As a Landlord its important you know your states guidelines for rental property. Since you don't and you have not listed your state we can only guess. You first send them a notice called "three day pay rent or quit". Once the three day period has passed then you go to court and seek an unlawful detainer or eviction. You should get an Attorney for this so you dont mess it up. Once eviction is usccessful and it will be for non payment of rent. You can seek all unpaid rent and legal costs for judgement

 

[egravy]

Thank you for your response. We live in TN. I will inform my husband of your reply.

Thank!
E

 

[LBLL]

As the Landlord you have many rights. You have the right to be paid your rent on time every month as the agreement that both the landlord and the tenants states that you all signed.

The tenant does not have the right to pass bad checks or bad paper. By doing this they are violating 2 laws.
The rental agreement and the laws attached to it.
The laws on passing bad checks.

 

[egravy]

We have just served them an eviction notice. The tenant forged the signature of one check and traced over the #'s on another. The account holder of the checks has already filed a police report and we are doing the same. They are just dumb people. We got them to sign a statement saying they will be responsible for the back rent and all damages. They don't know that we know they signed those checks and I think they feel like they are going to get away scot free. My husband just left the house and got them to sign the eviction notice too. We subscribed to EZ Landlord forms so all of the documents are real. They have to be out on the 14th. We have been brushing up on all of our state landlord/tenant laws and we wil probably end up taking them to court, if they are not in jail