Not Renewing a Resident

I have a resident who has become a real pain. She complains about everything and is extremely demanding. She also complains to other residents in the building about me as a Manager, as well as my management company. I have a waiting list for the property and would like to rent to someone else when her lease is up. I am pretty sure that it is my legal right to not renew a resident, but want to make certain that this is the case since I have never done it before.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

In South Carolina, it could be considered "retaliation" depending on the complaint from the resident and if it is a documented complaint. For instance, if they filed a complaint with HUD that you were discriminating against them, then it would be a case of "retaliation" if you don't renew their lease.

I have done non-renewals and not given them a reason except "Your lease is expiring and we are exercising our option in your lease not to renew it." I don't HAVE TO have a reason, but if the resident decides to file a complaint, you had better have a good. Just document everything with dates, times, etc.

I'm in Ohio and had a resident act the same way you are referring to. We chose not to renew her lease which by law we are allowed to do. We chose to take the legal route and have our attorney handle the nonrenewal and to mediate the situation. She did eventually contact HUD and I was notified that a grievance was made but since we were choosing to not renew her lease and there was not an open case prior to us giving her the nonrenewal that it didn't even go into an investigation.

Nonrenewals work both ways and like someone else said you don't need to give them a reason as to why you are not renewing. You are chosing just not to renew.

If there is an open complaint with HUD you will need to get an attorney involved and make sure you are documenting everything correctly so you can win if it comes down to it. You have the right to protect your property which includes horrible word of mouth.

You don't have to renew a lease if you don't want to. The lease represents a finite agreement between two parties for a set period of time. As long as the document is satisfied, you would just have to give proper notice. You do not have to state a reason, as one isn't required.