Choosing your tenants is a very significant part of filling in a vacancy. They have to be reliable, responsible, and can pay the rent on time. One of the things to do when screening tenants is doing background checks, including a person’s criminal record.

You would be fortunate to land a good tenant with a spotless record, and one can only hope it stays that way. But what happens when one of your tenants gets arrested and detained?

No landlord would want to deal with a situation such as a jailed tenant, but there is always a possibility. We do not have any control over our tenants’ actions. The only thing we can do is knowing how to deal with it the proper way.

Some would think that if a tenant goes to jail, it means that he gets automatically evicted from his rented house. No, that is not the case. Do not assume that or that you can start the eviction process, because you just might be breaking the law yourself.

1. Confirm

It may come as a shock if you get the news that one of your tenants got arrested. You know that their going to jail will affect you too. Some landlords will not even know that their tenant is in jail and will quickly assume that they abandoned their unit.

The first thing that you must do is to verify if the tenant was, indeed, jailed. Someone close to them will probably notify you, but if someone did not inform you and you have not heard from the tenant, you have to reach out to their emergency contacts.

Remember to avoid asking directly if the tenant got incarcerated. Just tell them that you need to talk to your tenant as soon as possible, which will lead us to step two.

2. Communicate

Once you verify that your tenant got arrested, the next thing would be to communicate with them by paying them a personal visit. During the visit, you can offer two options for them regarding their ongoing lease:

• Vacate the unit

Among the two options, this might be the better choice because you will not be left with an unoccupied unit you can’t rent out, and the tenant will have no more obligations with the rental. If they decide to vacate the property, you must have it properly documented.

Let the tenant sign an agreement that his unit will be emptied of his possessions and how it will be executed. You should have it notarized, as it will be a legal document.

There are also things that you can offer your tenant to make this option beneficial for them. You can propose to keep their belongings in storage until they get out or you can facilitate sending these items to his family. You can also offer to waive some of their overdue fees.

• Continue renting

Remember that even if your tenant is in jail, it will not terminate your lease agreement. It will still be valid as long as no one has done anything to violate it. If the tenant would only serve a short sentence, they might want to keep renting their unit, and that is acceptable.

You only need to continue doing your part, and your tenant will still have to pay their rent. Arrested tenants can still make things right once they get out of jail.

If there is another tenant included on the lease, the responsibility of taking care of the property and paying rent will become solely theirs.

Your tenant may also have a partner or family member currently living with them but is not on the lease. You can come up with a new agreement that will include them, but make sure that the secondary renter and the incarcerated tenant will sign the updated contract. 

3. Evict

Sadly, not all incarcerated tenants will be willing to work out a deal with you. They would just stop paying rent. If they would not agree to cooperate and would not pay their fees, you can start the eviction process.

Their situation will not void the contract, but not paying rent will. It is a violation of the lease agreement so the landlord can evict the tenant because of it.

No one can predict the future, so every time you fill in a vacancy, there is a risk. There is always a possibility that you may lose one of your tenants before the end of their lease. The good news is, finding new tenants will be easy if you use Padleads. They will let you create property listings and will even let you syndicate it to other rental websites to widen your reach.