[landlord CA] Advice appreciate. What would you do?
Any advice is welcome but, please be courteous. We have tenants who are on a month to month lease. They have fell behind paying rent every single month, they end up paying late and late fees affiliated and eventually do pay rent/water bill but, not on time and it's always inconveniencing. The lease states payment in full, also states late by the 5th.
This months issue- We sent a reminder with a running total amount owed bc April water bill, May new month and May water. They text a half -assed apology along the lines that sorry they'll pay ASAP. They sent 1/3 of what is owed (we know this is equivalent to one of the tenants income). They are technically behind last month water, and now late this month 11 days into May plus May water.
My question is, is it typical to start the eviction process at this point. Or, typical to return funds and send and deliver a 3 day pay or quit notice? And see where that goes from there? For reference we did issue a 3 day notice months previously, they then used a county assistance program to pay their rent. Yet still managed to be late the following month even with getting assistance and help to "get ahead." We're frustrated to say the least and would like for them to put their notice in, as it's obvious they are in over their heads and cannot keep up. It's safe to assume at this point they have probably had income changes occur and no longer even qualify. Finances are tight for everyone, we understand that fully, the economy is in scary shape and we understand that aspect and want to be fair and do everything legally legit and not have them completely trash our house or it to get out of hand. TIA