She might demand to freely enter during the next 18 days once I call her to ask for rent money again (to check whether I have a new paying roommate. i do have a guest with me until the lease begins next month with my new roommate but that person is not paying yet). Let me know if I can change locks since she voluntarily left, how to notify her without any address and/or ways to pressure her (without the legal system if possible) so that I can recover the money.
Thank you much, this will be a big help.
What are a tenant's rights once they voluntarily leave?
You have already served her with a 30-day to pay rent or quit and she opted to quit by voluntarily leaving the property. Instead of foreceable removal (eviction) she decided to leave of her own accord.
The next step for you is to file a money judgement agst her for the back rent. The court whill serve her with notice to appear and if your case has merit, judgment will be awarded in your favor whether or not she bothers to appear so long as service notice was good. You still need to try and locate her forwarding address or other address she can be raeched as the process server will need it for service to be completed.
What are a tenant's rights once they voluntarily leave?
WELL since she left on her own she still has to pay the rent for that month. Well if u know her framily members see if they can contact her and if that does not work you will have to try to take her to civil court...
As far as i can see, you are free to change your locks since she has left the apartment.
You however can't expect her to pay you for a month's rent when she left after only twelve days of the month. Unless you had some contract drawn up with specific details such as this included re: last payment of rent must be made in full if tenant is evicted or voluntarily leaves before the full month has ended.
Did you not make it mandatory to collect first and last months rent. This would have covered you, because you would have already collected the funds for her last month even if she left early.
If you don't have a contract with this person that could hold up in a court of law, then you don't have any legal ground to stand on, because she can say that you gave her notice of eviction and since she left before the thirty-days were up, she is not obligated to pay you any rent.
My advice is to count your losses and move on. Try to safeguard yourself in the future from this happening.
Always ask for first and last month's rent before taking in a roommate.
