'AITA for evicting a family for not paying rent after their breadwinner died suddenly?' UPDATED

"WIBTA for evicting a family with children for not paying rent after their breadwinner died suddenly?"

I rent out 5 properties, including a 3-bedroom house, which I've been renting out for the past year and a half to a couple with three children (15, 12 and 8) for $1,700/mo. They're great tenants, good with communication, and have always paid the rent on time.

Because of that, I've been lenient with them, and have never raised the rent - which is noteworthy because as of now, the rent I'm charging them is a few hundred below market rate for this part of Texas (yay inflation).

In late February, I learned that the father, who is the family's breadwinner, died several days after being seriously injured in an accident. This was a terrible situation and I wanted to try to maintain our positive relationship, so I waived March's rent.

The wife said she had to consider moving in with family now, and I told her that I wouldn't charge her any lease termination fees in that case. However, I was (respectfully) clear that I'd be asking for rent as normal if she stayed past March. She was very grateful and made it clear she understood what I said.

In the 3 months since then she hasn't moved out or indicated that she plans to. April and May's rents are unpaid (and presumably June's will be as well). I've attempted to communicate with her to try to work something out; but all she's given me is runaround and a never-not-extending plea to give her more time (which I was initially patient with). She's stopped responding to me outright in the past few days.

WIBTA for beginning the process to evict her and her kids? I'm conflicted. On one hand I feel terrible since I know they've gone through an unimaginable tragedy, and this is hardly a well-off family.

But on the other hand, speaking bluntly, as a landlord I didn't sign up to run a charity. If I evicted her I (with this market) would have zero trouble finding a new tenant paying at least a couple hundred more in rent.

I also feel that I've been beyond generous for what can be reasonably expected in my position; I gave her a month rent-free when I had no obligation to do so, and I patiently waited a couple months. Additionally, her being uncommunicative has made me less willing to be so patient with her.

TL;DR - I'm a landlord renting a 3BR house out for $1,700/mo to a family with 3 children. In late February, the father who is the breadwinner died. I waived March's rent, and told them I wouldn't charge them lease termination fees if they needed to move out, but was clear rent would be expected for April if they stayed. The mother said she understood.

She hasn't moved out, and two months later, I haven't been paid anything for April/May and she has become uncommunicative. WIBTA for getting the eviction process underway?

What do you think? WIBTA for evicting this family? This is what top commenters had to say:

Decent_Bandicoot122 said:

NTA. She should be receiving social security for both her children and herself at this point. She has over-stayed her welcome. You have been more than generous. Start the eviction process as you have been more than patient and it will take time for the eviction process to be completed. Anyone who gives you a hard time is welcome to pay her rent.

MartinPJones said:

ESH You would be major TA for evicting this woman and her children if you can afford not to (which with 5 properties I’ll wager you can). 3 months is not a long time in this context to mourn the sudden death of a partner and try to find a job when you haven’t been working for x years with 3 children.

As far as landlords go, you’ve been very understanding between not raising rent and granting her this time. The bar, however, is low. She’s already minor TA for not communicating and not clearly asking you for more time. That being said, minor TA as she’s in an obviously difficult and likely stressful situation, and adding kids to this makes it worse.

You have the opportunity to help a family who just got some of the worst news of their lives and are in a bad situation, and instead you’re contemplating kicking them out because there’s money to be made.

MotherTeresaOnlyfans said:

"as a landlord I didn't sign up to run a charity" No, you signed up to hoard housing instead of having a real job that contributes something to society. YTA.

meifahs_musungs said:

NTA. The woman agreed to your conditions. And they have more money than they let on. Evict. There are such things as insurance and payments for injury on the job. You might be being played for a fool. The proof of bad intention is their refusal to communicate with you. Do not renew the lease.

And PolyByeUs said:

YTA. The world of this family is cracked open and you’re already profiting off something unethical. A home is a necessity and you’re using it as business.

He later shared this update:

We were able to get back in touch. Understandably, she's still in shock. In her own words she's "just kinda been shut down" ever since he died, and has heavily relied on relatives to handle day-to-day responsibilities like childcare.

The reason why she became increasingly unresponsive in the couple of weeks leading up to the original post, is because she had to deal with new hardships; namely, a death in her extended family (for you cynics, I found an obituary so I know that's not a sob story), and 1 of her kids has been struggling particularly hard with the grief and began "acting out" recently.

But things have began looking better the past week. While they didn't have life insurance, they did get an initial payout from car insurance a few days ago (though she says the process isn't fully over), and health insurance covered the husband's last days in the hospital.

She found other accommodations with another relative, and has actually been moving the past couple days. She said she was really grateful for my patience and understanding, and told me she'd be able to pay me the $1,700 for April's rent now and asked if I could use her security deposit to cover May's rent and let these first 3 days of June slide.

We met up at the house. Even among my past "amicably ended tenancy" tenants, it was really impressive to me how well she left it. Only inevitable wear and tear that's not hard/expensive at all to fix. I thanked her, and gave her a $500 discount out of respect for her being so upstanding.

She was very grateful, sent me the $1,200, I kept her deposit, and our landlord-tenant relationship is now over. I also mentioned that I'd be happy to be a reference in case she needed one, or if she wanted any free advice on renting from me.

So bit of a best-case scenario here. My rainy day fund did take a hit to cover the April and May mortgage but it's stabilized now. And with this market I shouldn't have trouble finding a new tenant anyway. I'm glad things ended so well and no legal action had to be taken. Besides being costly for me, it wouldn't be in her long-term interest to have an unpaid judgement or eviction on her record. We both won here.

I want to say that I do appreciate all the discussion the thread generated. While I obviously didn't agree with everything (Commenters do have strong opinions about landlording in general, and I knew that going in), I found the general discussion interesting, and also saw some great advice I'd definitely keep in mind for future tenants. Hope you all have a good day and a good summer.