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Evicting a tennant
Hi all,
I posted this on an old thread, but I'm afraid it may be dead. Therefor I'm reposting here.
I had a tenant who did not pay rent for several months, so I sent registered mail stating that I wanted to end the rental contract December 31, 2015. He received the mail and immediately paid all the backed rent. Now he is paying the rent in full, but a week late. He is completely caught up on backed rent, but I'm sick of chasing him all week to get my rent. I agreed after he paid the backed rent that he could remain living there assuming he paid every month on time. Can I still expect him to move out December 31, as I stated in my letter even though he is all caught up on rent, and paying every month albeit late?
One thing I have never understood about the value of a registered letter (or a recorded delivery letter) is that it proves delivery of an envelope but says absolutely nothing about the content. I wish someone would explain about the legal status of such letters.
Returning to your question, to step things up send another letter with a copy of the previous letter, and send it "avec accuse de reception" so proof of its receipt is physically in your hands. Providing that you are demanding that they move out according to the stipulations of the contract, they should pack up and go.
read the contract. This will clearly define notice periods etc.
And really... a few phone calls at the beginning of the month to make sure rent is paid is not much compared to the hassle of eviction, possible court cases you may not win, cleaning up the place once he/she has left, then putting the flat/property back on the market before it generates an income. TBH, you're probably better off speaking to your creditors (assuming you need the rental income to pay mortgage/rent etc) and explain that yur rent is always paid one week late, but it will be paid.
Or I know a few guys who can get him in out in 10 minutes.
No magistrate is going to dissolve a rental contract where he tenant is only a week late on rent every month.
While all this depends on what the rental contract says, I think that you would be well advised to talk to a notaire/notaris, preferably the one who drew up the original contract. At the moment, I suspect that you are at risk of putting yourself on the wrong side of the law, possibly seriously so. It is quite difficult for the landlord to bring a rental contract, even a short term one, to a premature end in Belgium and I strongly suspect that at the moment you have no legal reasons for doing so. As J says, receiving the rent a week late every month isn't going to cut any ice at all with the judiciary.
When did the lease start? What is the lease period (nine years, one year, two years..)? When would the leasing period normally end? When did you send the letter?
What did you put as a justification when you send the letter, giving notice that you want to end the lease on 31 December 2015? Are you aware that in Belgium, you cannot simply end a lease prematurely by sending a registered letter even if the tenant has not paid his rent for several months? In such a case you always have to get a court judgment.
Fully depending on the answers to the questions above, you could be well within your rights (if for example it is a short-term lease which would end on 31 December 2015 anyway, and you sent the letter by the end of October at the latest) or you could be completely in the wrong legally. Based on the info you've given so far, impossible to tell.
