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Collecting rent6 min read

What to do when a tenant doesn't pay: the steps before thinking about eviction

From the first day late to the courtroom: what Honduras' Tenancy Law says about arrears, what you can do, what is forbidden, and how to avoid getting to eviction at all.

Armando RoqueFounder of Bevorah ·

Also available in Spanish: Qué hacer cuando el inquilino no paga: los pasos antes de pensar en desalojo

A simple living room with a wall calendar marked in pencil and a side table holding a phone face down, an envelope and a mint-green mug.
In short
  1. Under the law, a tenant is in arrears when they haven't paid within eight days after two monthly payments fell due.
  2. Cutting water or power, removing doors or changing locks is forbidden and carries criminal liability; the path is the DAI or the court.
  3. Most late payments are solved earlier: a message the next day, a written agreement, and a record of every payment.

It is the 3rd of the month and the rent hasn't come in. What you do in the next 48 hours decides almost everything that follows: whether this ends with a message, with an agreement, or in a courtroom months later.

This guide goes in order: first what works almost every time and needs no lawyer, then what the Ley de Inquilinato (Tenancy Law) says when that is not enough. And a short list of what you cannot do, because that is where most landlords go wrong.

This is not legal advice. If the arrears pass two months, talk to a lawyer before filing anything.

First: what "arrears" means under the law

Many landlords think a tenant is in default on the 2nd. The law is more patient. Article 51, item 1, says the lease expires "for arrears in the payment of rent, it being understood that a tenant is in arrears who does not pay the rent, or deposit it where due, within eight days following the due date of two monthly payments".

In other words: the legal ground for eviction over non-payment appears when there are two months due and eight more days have passed. Before that you have a late payment, not a cause of action. That doesn't mean you can do nothing; it means what you do in that time is negotiation and record-keeping, not litigation.

One detail that matters: if the tenant wants to pay and you don't accept, the law protects them. The reformed article 27 lets them deposit the rent in your name at the DAI, and presumes you are the one in default if you refuse payment within three business days before or after the due date. Never close the door on a payment.

The first days: a message, not a complaint

The day after the due date, a short message with no edge to it: "Hi Rita, I don't see October's payment. Was there a problem?" Nine times out of ten it is an oversight, a transfer that got delayed, or a problem of a couple of days.

What is worth doing from that first message on:

  • Everything in writing, always on the same channel (WhatsApp is fine). That conversation is your record.
  • If you agree on a partial payment or a new date, write it down: how much and when. A verbal agreement doesn't exist a week later.
  • Apply what the lease says, no more and no less. If a late charge was agreed, charge it; if it wasn't, don't invent one that month.
  • Keep issuing a receipt for every payment, even a partial one. Article 26 obliges you to hand over a signed receipt for every month of rent, under a fine of one month's rent.

If weeks go by: the written agreement

When the arrears approach the second month, the conversation changes from "was there a problem?" to "how do we fix this?". Sit down with the tenant and sign something simple: how much is owed, in how many payments it gets caught up, and what happens if they don't keep to it. Two signatures and a copy each.

That paper does two things. It gives the tenant an orderly way out, which is what most of them want. And if in the end they don't comply, it is the proof that you did everything reasonable before going further.

What is forbidden, even when you are right

This is where landlords get into the most trouble. The law is explicit:

  • Article 33 declares illegal any coercive measure to force a tenant out that was not ordered by the court, and refers it to the Penal Code. It expressly forbids "suspending temporarily or permanently the water or electricity service, uncovering roofs, removing floors, blocking drains, preventing the normal use of the kitchen and the bathrooms, and removing doors, windows or bars".
  • The reformed article 28 says only the competent authority may restrict a tenant's use of the property, and that any act by the landlord affecting "the safety, wellbeing, health, peace or comfort of the tenant" brings sanctions and "the corresponding criminal liability".

Changing the lock, putting belongings on the street, cutting the power: those are not shortcuts, they are crimes. And they put you on the wrong side of the very case you wanted to win.

When there is no agreement: DAI or court

Once there are two months due plus eight days, you have the article 51 ground. The path depends on whether the lease is registered, as the UNAH legal clinic explains:

  1. Lease registered at the DAI: you can file for eviction directly at the Tenancy Court (in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula) or at the corresponding civil court.
  2. Unregistered or verbal lease: you first go to the DAI to summon the tenant and seek a conciliation on the time they have to leave. If there is no agreement, or it is broken, then you file.

For the claim, the court asks for the original lease stamped by the DAI, a copy of the deed, the receipts showing which months were not paid and, if applicable, utility statements in arrears (requirements, UNAH). This is where the payment record you kept from day one stops being a habit and becomes your evidence.

What happens in court, in the law's own timelines

The reformed article 59 describes the eviction trial: the tenant is summoned to answer within three business days, evidence is taken, and judgment is issued within five business days after that. The judgment rules on vacating, on "payment of the rent owed up to the day the property is vacated", and on costs.

Then article 62 sets fifteen days to vacate a dwelling (thirty for commercial premises), which cannot be extended; after that comes removal with police assistance (article 63). And one valve the tenant can use once per lease: article 68 lets them stop everything, right up to the removal, by paying the full amount owed plus costs.

The law's timelines are short on paper. In practice a trial takes months. That is why everything above matters more than this section.

How not to end up here again

The landlords who almost never reach a courtroom do three boring things: they remind before the due date, they confirm every payment, and they have one place to see who owes what. Bevorah does that by itself: the tenant gets the reminder a few days early, pays by whichever method you accept, the receipt goes out automatically, and you see on one screen who is current and who isn't. If one day you have to go to the DAI, the payment history is already in order, with dates and receipts.

What an owner takes from this

A message the next day, a written agreement before the second month, not a single forbidden shortcut, and a record of every payment. The law gives you a path once two months are due; everything you do before that decides whether you need it.

Sources

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