Real Estate is still a very solid investment!!! Yet this renter not paying rent situation is some bullshyt I am all too familiar with. California, specifically the Bay Area, enacted those same kinds of rent control laws several years ago, and I went through the same thing this guy is going through. In the end, I wasn't able to retain the building amongst all the other fraudulent bank shyt going on at time, but I escaped the foreclosure hit through a short sale. Now I exclusively deal in the "South", Texas & Louisiana where the rules of engagement are a bit more reasonable and fair towards the lanlord. The Rent is due on the 1st. If no payment, the late notice is given on the 3rd. Still, no pay, the pay or quit notice is given between the 5th and 7th. Still no pay by then, that's when the doorknob device goes on all entrance doors to the unit, and the notice from the sheriff / constable gets posted on the front warning the tenant that all articles in the dwelling are now subject to lien sale and any entry into the dwelling is now considered burglary in the 1st degree. A court date is normally set between 10 and 20 days to adjudicate the matter. See, they'll be none of this "weaponizing" of the procedural aspects of the court system so as to escape having to answer to essentially what is a "contract dispute', to where both the factual and contractual circumstances are indisputable!!! At most you suffer a months lost rent, and any damage to the unit is settled along with any back rent there in court!!!