Landlord has lost his copy of the lease with tenant

Joe: Yes. I am a landlord, a pretty generous landlord but I do have a tenant that’s about five months behind with the rent. I pulled out my lease about two months ago to bring it to an attorney and I’ve since misplaced their lease. I realize that’s a bit sloppy and I’m going to start scanning all my leases for the future but what could I do without a lease with the tenants?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Well, Joe, I think there’s two issues going on; you’ve lost your lease, number one and number two, why have you gone for five months and not have been paid rent? 

Joe: Because I’m a nice guy, I kind of work with people, they do have two children in there. They tried to start paying me like $100 there, $150 there and I feel bad for them so--

Attorney Tom Olsen: Joe, I think the good news is this, is that at the end of the day if you have to evict these people for non-payment of rent, the fact that you do not have a copy of your existing lease is not going to stop you or slow you down. So, it would be nice if you had one but if you don’t, you don’t. That’s okay. 

Now, Joe, Rob Solomon is the attorney at my office that does landlord tenant work and Rob is at Olsen Law Group right now. You might want to hang up with me and call Rob at Olsen Law Group right now and ask him about this particular issue. And again, you can reach Rob Solomon at my office right now; he does our landlord tenant work at 407-423-5561.