Tenant’s lease violations call for quick action by the manager

Question: I am an apartment manager. We have a no-pets policy, which is written into the lease, but one renter got two dogs anyway. Initially he said he would get rid of them, but he hasn’t. Other tenants have complained about the barking. He also pays his rent late every month. We give him three-day notices to pay or quit every month, but that’s growing tiresome. Can we evict him on either of these issues?

Answer: You cannot automatically evict this tenant for the dogs, even though “no pets” is written into the lease. If he has had them for a while -- and it sounds like that may be the case -- you may have lost the right to evict him over this.

When tenants break a component of a lease, you must act swiftly to enforce your rights. If you try to evict on the dog issue with a three-day notice to perform or quit, a judge might rule that you waived your right to enforce the lease by allowing the situation to go on for too long before acting.

If you waited a couple of months for the tenant to get rid of the dogs, relying on his promise to do so, you should be fine. If, on the other hand, you waited longer than that, accepting the rent with knowledge of the continuing breach of the lease, a judge is likely to find for the tenant as a result of your waiver.

Although you might be barking up the wrong tree by trying to evict for the dogs, you may very well be able to evict on the issue of late or nonpayment of the rent. Rent due on the first of the month is only due on the first if it is a regular banking business day (Monday through Friday). If the rent due date falls on a weekend or holiday, it kicks over to the next banking business day. For instance, rent due on Saturday the first isn’t due until Monday the third. If that Monday is a holiday, the rent due date then becomes Tuesday the fourth.

Whenever the rent is late, you should issue a three-day notice to pay or quit, as you have in the past. If you serve the notice, and the rent is not paid within the three days, not including the day of service, you do not have to accept the rent thereafter (unless the third day of the notice falls on a weekend or holiday, in which case the same weekend/holiday rule applies) and may proceed with eviction for nonpayment.

Four-year limit on late-rent fees

Question: My landlord sent me a ledger with charges originating up to 11 years ago. Some of the charges are late fees, but I paid the rent on time every month with cashier’s checks; I have the copies of the checks to prove it. He will not discuss these charges with me, but he is insistent that I owe them.

Is there a statute of limitations on these kinds of charges?

Answer: If these charges are legitimate (reasonable charges for damages caused by the late payment of rent) and were deducted from the security deposit along the way, there is no problem with what the landlord is doing and they are legal.

However, if the landlord is trying to collect them after 11 years, he is out of luck because there is a four-year statute of limitations on enforcing damages for the breach of a written agreement.

Any late-rent fees that are more than 4 years old and are just now being assessed to you are not collectible. Late-rent fees that were incurred during the last four years are collectible if they are legitimate.

You say in your letter that you have copies of the cashier’s checks with which you paid the rent. They may help prove that you paid the rent, if that’s the issue. Unfortunately, the issue is not if you paid the rent but when you paid it. Obviously, rent receipts dated on or before the rent due dates and signed by the owner are ideal.

Barring that, if the owner deducts late fees from your deposit that you believe are bogus, you will probably have to sue him in Small Claims Court to recover your money.

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