The Property Management Shop

No Ifs, Ands or Butts—A Simple Form Does Wonders

by Marc Wilson

Q. One of my tenants keeps throwing cigarette butts out of his living room window. I have spoken with him numerous times about this practice, but he just ignores me. I�m concerned about a fire risk. I�m getting frustrated and angry about having to clean up after this tenant. What should I do?

A. I consider the Three-Day Notice to Perform Conditions and/or Covenants or Quit to be the most underutilized form in SFAA�s vast arsenal of forms. Most owners have not even heard of this form, let alone actually prepared and served one. I don�t think two weeks goes by without a need for me to prepare and serve one of these forms. I love this form. This form is so simple�even your average tenant can understand its contents. This is the form that a property manager uses whenever he/she is in the business of asking a tenant to terminate some form of obnoxious behavior. This form literally says: �If you don�t stop throwing cigarette butts out your window within three days, I will institute legal proceedings to take away your apartment.� Clear, concise and to the point�just the way I like to communicate.

What in the world are you hoping to accomplish by having verbal communication about recklessly discarded cigarette butts with your tenant? Believe me, your tenant already knows that his behavior is obnoxious�he knows you personally find this behavior is frustrating and he also knows this behavior is a violation of his rental agreement. What he does not know is what exactly are you prepared to do about it? There is absolutely no need for the offending tenant to learn and understand and appreciate your frustration relative to his behavior. You are not married to your tenant, and this is not a form of marriage counseling. The only important consideration is that your tenant must definitely understand that his behavior will get him evicted. No written letter, verbal communication and/or other action accomplishes this simple task with the level of efficiency as the standard Three-Day Notice to Perform Conditions and/or Covenants or Quit. Did you know that you could spend 10 consecutive years engaging in verbal interaction about cigarette butts with your tenant and, at the end of 10 years, you would be absolutely no closer to resolving the issue? Verbal interaction is a waste of time�it accomplishes nothing. Don�t waste your valuable time having dysfunctional discourse with your tenants. Treat your property manager/tenant relationships with the level of efficiency and professionalism that they deserve.

Always put property-manager/tenant communications in writing. Never give verbal warnings. Always use the written Three-Day Notice to Perform Conditions and/or Covenants or Quit form when appropriate. Call SFAA or go online at www.caanet.org (the California Apartment Association) and download the form and the instruction sheet. Learn how to prepare and serve this form.

This form needs to be properly crafted and properly served, so you might be wise to hire an attorney to prepare it. I guess this depends on your personal level of annoyance with the tenant. If you actually intend to evict the tenant for lack of compliance with the notice, then you should obtain legal advice relative to the preparation and service of the notice. I don�t serve this notice because I want possession of the apartment; I serve this notice because I want the offensive behavior to stop. I find that this notice nearly always grabs the tenant�s attention. I also find that I can effectively terminate 95% of all problem behaviors simply by preparing and serving this notice. My tenants understand and respect this form. I use this form as a standard form just as I use many other forms such as the Three-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit, Itemized Disposition of Security Deposit and the Satellite Dish Addendum. I�m simply informing my tenants that their behaviors are a breach of my rental agreements and that I will evict them if they do not stop. No big deal�nothing personal, for this is all business and no verbal interaction.
Sometimes the offending behavior does not stop after preparing and serving the notice. In this case, you need to increase your level of attention to the details. You need to hire an attorney. Your attorney will review your notice, and he or she will determine whether it was properly prepared, properly served and properly substantiated by the facts at hand. If not, your attorney will advise you in terms of gathering evidence, preparing a revised notice and much more.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Marc Wilson is the president of SFAA. He has been managing and selling San Francisco apartment buildings for 20 years. He can be reached at 415-229-1275. Copyright � 2005 by the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.