Nonpayment and Eviction in the Rental Housing Market

Used in 2 entries

For each citing entry, the verbatim excerpt and Likelier's calculation notes (how the source's number was converted to the lifetime-probability framing) are shown below. Click through to read the full claim ledger.

1. [1] Problem-tenant loss Risk

   Statistic

   Filing an eviction costs landlords the equivalent of 2–3 months of rent; nonpayment is common, frequently tolerated, and often followed by recovery; 15% of those evicted would have resumed paying rent

   “"Filing an eviction costs landlords the equivalent of 2-3 months of rent [...] Nonpayment is common, is frequently tolerated by landlords, and is often followed by recovery [...] the majority of evictions involve tenants who are unlikely to pay going forward [...] 15% of those evicted would have resumed paying rent."”

   Calculation notes

   Humphries, Nelson, Nguyen, van Dijk, and Waldinger (2024), using lease- level ledger data from landlords. Cited for the mechanism and cost of a bad-tenant event — an eviction costs a landlord 2–3 months' rent and most evictions terminate rather than recover — not for a population rate. The paper's underlying tenancy sample is drawn from high-eviction neighborhoods, so its raw nonpayment frequencies are not treated as a general landlord rate.
   

   Source date: 2024-11-01 · Accessed: 2026-07-09

2. [2] Rent out vs sell & invest Decision · inaction side

   Statistic

   Filing an eviction costs landlords the equivalent of 2–3 months of rent; nonpayment is common and frequently tolerated before eviction

   “"Filing an eviction costs landlords the equivalent of 2-3 months of rent [...] Nonpayment is common, is frequently tolerated by landlords, and is often followed by recovery."”

   Calculation notes

   Cited to explain why keep-and-rent regret runs high: landlording carries real, recurring costs (an eviction alone runs 2–3 months' rent), which the "passive income" framing understates. Corroboration for the regret driver, not a regret rate itself.
   

   Source date: 2024-11-01 · Accessed: 2026-07-09

Also cited in these entries

propertyDirect

Problem-tenant loss

If I rent out my flat, how likely am I to get a tenant who stops paying, refuses to leave, or trashes the place?

1 in 1.8 lifetime(56%)subgroup