One a day, plus iron

Yep. You can evict a tenant and, if you're reasonably prompt about the whole thing, your eviction limits the amount that the tenant can get into you for... at least on the rent front. There is no effective way to limit the damages that a tenant can inflict on a property.

We do landlord-tenant evictions (nonpayment of rent, the vast bulk of the time) pretty regularly. We're not too bad at it. We know the routine and the schedule and the appropriate paperwork. Had BadPayer been a tenant, he'd have been evicted along about January.

However, since I'm clueless and since BadPayer has been dangling the prospect of payments before me, I've been letting this drag out. I actually got payments, albeit late ones, for every month up until June. I didn't get shit for June (due June 15) except an email dated 6-20 saying "I put the check in the mail today." The check never arrived. I didn't get shit for July (due July 15), not even a lying-ass email. Further, BadPayer is not responding to the certified letter that I sent dunning him on July 2 and which he received (and signed for) on July 5. I am, honestly, tired of his crap.

The reason that he's called BadPayer, btw, is that it's illegal to publicly state that some fuck owes you money and isn't paying you back. You aren't allowed to call his employer and tell them he ain't paying his debts. You aren't allowed to call him at home except at appropriate hours and you may not call so frequently as to be deemed "harassing". You're not allowed to swear at him, threaten him, or disclose his debt to friends/family. If you have lost contact with your debtor, you may pump his friends/family for his current address / phone number. Your debtor is allowed to not-talk-to-you and/or to request to be contacted solely by mail. You aren't allowed to picket his house or his business, to put up websites about his lame non-paying self, post his payment history on his MySpace profile, or threaten any legal action that you are not actually going to do. Saying, "I've contacted my attorney and will be seeing you in court" is a no-no unless you have actually done that. Finally, your debtor CANNOT GO TO JAIL for borrowing from you and not paying you back. It is NOT A CRIME to borrow money from someone and fail to pay it back. (It is also NOT A CRIME to rent an apartment and not-pay-the-rent. BadTenants do not go to jail. They just get evicted. This is weird because it IS a crime to, y'know, pump gas into your car and drive off without paying... but staying in an apartment and not-paying, that's A-OK.)

Borrowing and failing to make good is a civil matter. You address it in civil court. You get a judgment. You can use the judgment to get your money back, maybe, if the debtor has any money and he or she doesn't declare bankruptcy while you're pissing around with the court system. Declaring bankruptcy wipes out civil claims.