Asking MTM tenant to vacate - complicated?

[NYHawk]

In the case of an MTM tenant, you CAN evict someone for having a roommate. The law does not protect the right of an MTM tenant to have a roommate for more than 30 days.

There is no such law and a MTM tenant can't be evicted simply for having a roommate. A MTM tenant has all of the rights of a tenant with a lease. The only difference between a tenant with a lease and a MTM tenant is either the landlord or the MTM can terminate the monthly tenancy. If the landlord does not like that the MTM has a roommate he or she can elect to terminate the MTM tenancy, but no reason has to be given.

OP wrote:

Logically the solution to the problem would be to tell the tenant they are acutally saving money themselves by helping me out - a win-win situation right?!

There is absolutely no logic to that stupid illogical statement. How the hell is it possible that the tenant, who has to move and pay $200 - $300 more per month in rent, could possibly be saving money? It, of course, is not possible, despite the OP's twisted illogical attempt to justify her goal of evicting the MTM tenants.

Bottom line, as the OP's above stupid statement makes perfectly clear, the OP is a landlord trying to justify her goal of evicting her tenants. Regardless of the reason, this forum should not be helping the OP at all, IMHO.

[dkw]

Some one referred to me as a "he" so that's why I brought up the fact that I'm a girl. And yes I'm quite adult and very responsible and definitely no dasmel in distress. The point I'm making is that my tenants are old enough to be my parents, so I'm quickly falling into the role of the little girl that lives downstairs.

And yes I did tons of researh and budgeting before I started buying the house. It was just my bad luck the I was "in contract" when the sub prime fiasco hit so the mortgage I ended up with was - lets just say not what I was planning for and if I didn't take it I'd have to kiss my downpayment goodbye.

Nyhawk - to be honest these are not the right tenants for me but I was prepared to live with them for 1 year (purely for personal tax reasons where if I keep the rent at the current level I get certain write-offs that would offset other things, blah, blah). Basically there was a benefit for me and hopefully for them too when they requested they wanted to stay in the unit. The benefit for me is now diminshing, and as cold as it sounds that's the bottom line - and yes I'm quickly being transformed into an evil money grubbing LL.

As far as the tenant saving money it's exactly as you explained- if I don't like that the tenant has a roommate I think it has been established that I can just give 30 days notice and they have to go out and find an apt for $200-$300 more. On the other hand, if they don't have the roommate, my utility bill doesn't go up (I save), I don't have any reason to ask them to leave (they save).

Hey you know all this can be solved if my tenant wins the lotto and can buy a big ass house for him and his family that has a washer dryer - lets all make wish that my tenant, or a tenant somewhere wins the lotto today!

--- oh yeah btw I forgot to add - I'm so not making a profit. Building future wealth maybe, but with 85% of my salary going toward paying for this "wonderful" house there is no profit for miles!!!

[dealing3000]

You are much better off going to a pro LL board than this one. This board is in existence solely to help out your tenants, not you.

That being said be nice and give them time. Maybe even give them a list of places in the neighborhood that are available for similar rents.

As a RE guru myself, why in the world would you purchase at the top of your range in this market? RE is headed in a downward spiral very, very fast. I live in North Jersey and know it very well. You might have been better off ditching the DP and saving yourself the headache. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess. The "building equity" portion of your payments will most likely not even start to hit until 2011-2012.

[TenantNet]

Isn't that often the case with amateur landlords, we believe the get-rich-quick sales pitch, end up losing their shirts and getting tenants mad at them? They don't realize that it's the tenants' home and tenants have rights. Yes it's a business as well, but a good business doesn't just kick people out. I know LL's that charge moderate rents and still make a reasonable profit ... because they know how to run their business. Then they ask for pity because they're a small LL.

[dkw]

LOL it’s been a year and my tenant has yet to move out.

I bit the bullet back in Jan 2008 and told them I needed the place back. We went back and forth on a couple of dates and we settled on mid-July 2008.

So like an "ass" I took money out of my 401k for the necessary repairs to re-rent the place and ran around looking for a contractor etc. Come July 20+ when boxes don't appear, I ask my tenant what's up! He gives me this story about having a health scare with his heart and that he had to spend some time in the hospital and the contact for his new apt gave it someone else. What do you say after that other than "no worries, you can have some more time to find a new place" right.

Well not even a week later I hear him banging around in the apt and the following Sunday when I go to put the trash out to the curb there is all this old carpet from upstairs. Who knew strenuous exercise cured heart troubles.

Anyways over the next couple of weeks he continues to pull the carpet out, put down new sticky tiles, paint, throw out furniture. I didn't make any comment because hey it’s no skin off my nose right? But why invest in an apt you know the owner wants back unless your not planning on moving at all.

Who knows, I guess if I want the apt back this summer (for real this time) I'll just have to be more formal with the written 30 days notice and go from there.