Don't Take My 'Niceness' for Weakness

Sometimes, I think the fact that I say please and thank you and treat people with courtesy is misconstrued as a sign of weakness. My former best tenant, VC who has had a near-perfect year of paying on time has decided not to pay her August rent. I sent her a notice on the 8th saying that she was late. Nothing happened. Then I sent her another notice via certified mail on the 21st saying I still hadn't received her rent (plus late charges of $20 per day). Still nothing. On the 25th, I called her and she didn't pick up her phone. I guessed it was because she knew it was me so I tried calling her with my work cell and she picked up. By this time, I was more than a little ticked off. Why did I have to track her down? Shouldn't the reverse be the case? She should be tracking me down not the other way round. A simple phone call stating that she was having money issues would have been okay. I told her my phone line's always open and she should feel free to call me to let me know about things like this. I don't think I've been landlordy mean to her in the past so I was kinda hurt she didn't feel she could call me. She starts talking about how she's been sick, and how she's had other responsibilities like her insurance, etc to pay. Okay, on a scale of one to ten, I would assume it's more important for you to have a roof over your head than to pay for your car insurance. I have a mortgage I have to pay whether or not she pays her rent. I didn't tell her that though. Instead, I asked her to drop a letter in the mail with her plans for that month's rent in writing. She asked if she could send the letter the following Monday. No. I said, please send me something in writing today so I know what you plan to do. Finish. O pari. Simple. She said she needed time to talk to some agency to help her out with her rent. Fine, just put it in writing.

Monday comes round and there's still no signs of a letter from VC. I call her and by this time, I feel like she's definitely taking me for granted. Evict, I must (like Yoda would say). Her attitude was so blatantly lackadaisical. She sounded like she totally didn't care. Now, this is a woman with four grown children and one 12 year old. The reason why I feel sorry for her is because her grown kids have her to babysit their kids for free all the time yet they don't help out. Some of them even live with her but still don't help her out financially. Just this time, you would think they would help her out with the rent. Besides, the twelve year old is such a sweet girl. She is in the honors program at her school so I feel bad about displacing the family. However, I have to be businessy about this. It's not my fault that VC decides to go a month without paying her rent and does not even bother to call to make some kind of arrangement with me. After talking to her on the 29th, I decide that she's gotta go. I've received so many phone calls about people wanting to rent this property. It won't be a problem finding someone else. I called the magistrate court and they said I have to serve her with a letter to pay up or move out. I ask if there's a period of time I have to give her and they say no. In our fine state, you can serve them the same day and ask them to move out ASAP. I decide to give VC three days because of her little girl. They need to move somewhere cheaper so this doesn't happen again. I just hope that the school district they move to doesn't negatively impact her brilliant daughter's education. They are due out tomorrow at 12:00 noon. Somehow, I think she thinks I'm joking.