Occasionally, a property owner will have a bad tenant that slips through the rental application cracks and makes their life a living nightmare. If one owns property and hasn't yet encountered this unique breed of individual; they will. In the following five situations, a brief explanation is listed on how to properly handle some of the toughest moments of one's rental property adventure.

Property owner and landlord are interchangeable terms throughout this article

1.) Domestic Disputes between tenants - When one has tenants that are renting a property together and continually getting into domestic disputes, the property owner must make sure that they stay neutral to the disputing. If the disputing gets bad enough, one of the tenants may request the locks be changed or the other tenant's name removed from the lease; don't do it. The most one can do in these situations is ask for proof of a restraining order from the requesting tenant. If proof is shown, the property owner must then get the written consent of the other tenant to have the locks changed or name removed from the lease.

2.) Departing Roommates - Sometimes when there are multiple roommates occupying a property, one of the tenants will move out in the middle of the lease. Often time, this tenant will instantly want their security deposit back, but don't give it to them. They are not due the deposit until 30 days after their current lease expires. If someone new is moving in, the old tenant can request (to the new tenant) that the new tenant pay them their deposit. If this happens, the landlord should make the departing tenant fill out a Deposit Assignment and Lease Agreement form.

3.) Tenant Breaks the Lease - This is sure to happen eventually to any owner who owns more than a few properties. When a tenant breaks their lease and leaves early, the landlord needs to immediately get the property ready to be re-rented and begin trying to re-rent it. When and if the property owner and former tenant go to court, the landlord must be able to prove that they made a reasonable effort to re-rent the property, or else they loose the right to recoup the rest of the funds owed to them under the lease. Also, specific to each state and local community, there are certain situations, such as, military transfer or loss of job that can deem a tenant "not responsible" for the remaining rent under the lease.

4.) Bankruptcy - This is the absolute worst-case scenario for a property owner. If one is in the process of evicting a tenant and the tenant files for bankruptcy, the landlord must immediately halt their eviction process. A "stay" is issued when the federal bankruptcy action is filed, meaning that the state cannot continue with the eviction process until the bankruptcy is settled. To proceed with the eviction, the landlord will have to file pleadings with the federal bankruptcy court requesting a "Relief from Stay."

5.) Illegal Holdovers - Holdover tenants are those tenants that do not move out by the end of their lease (without the permission or an extension of the lease from the landlord). In most areas, the landlord can begin the eviction process immediately, however one must be certain that at no time do they receive additional rent from the holdover tenants, or they are entering themselves into a month-to-month lease.

With the five situations above highlighting some of the worst tenant-scenarios that a property owner may face, it should be noted there are many more good tenants than bad. Unfortunately, it often takes only one bad tenant to completely ruin the experience for the small-time real estate investor, thus propelling them to leave the game and give up before they even got started.

The author is the founder and owner of both ManageYourRentals.com and LandLordDocuments