I am a commercial landlord. I have a tenant in holdover. He refuses to pay the penalty. Are they acting in "bad faith"?
I have an industrial building in Indiana. It was a three year lease that expired in April 2012. I let the tenant stay in hopes of signing another lease (would be the third). I did however bill for the holdover penalty of 20% which was never paid. 

They had told me at the end of May that they would be leaving at the end of June. Yet, they are still there (today is July 2). The holdover with interest has now accumulated to in excess of $38k. 

I am about to forward everything to my attorney, but do you think in the suit I can claim "bad faith" and get triple damages? 

[{"id": "cautn55", "text": "I used to work with distressed assets and receiverships and had to evict a good amount of tenants. It will most likely depend on the tenant. From what you said, it sounds like they are a pretty small, unorganized user.\n\nDid they pay the rent and just not the holdover penalty? If this is the case, they will most likely just owe the holdover + interest. You should, however, proceed with an eviction notice so it can be on file. They are currently occupying the space in an \"open and hostile\" manner, so the court will require proof that constructive notice to leave was given. Until you provide that, they remain a month to month tenant.\n\nThis process can take a loooong time (I had a tenant in a commercial property that owed over 1.5 million in rent) depending on the company's lawyer. It could even take years. I wouldnt try to push Bad Faith, because it will only hold up the process.\n\nTry to recover all of the holdover plus interest. If you get it all back, that should be considered a major win. ", "replies": [{"id": "cauudrd", "text": "I have already written the debt off. So if I attempted \"bad faith\", but lose the \"bad faith\" would the judge at least grant me principal and interest? Meaning, time is not a big deal. I'd rather take it as far as I can, get a judgment, and seize assets. The company isn't small, and deals in steel. And THANKS!", "replies": [{"id": "cavdvqg", "text": "If they have money, you should lawyer up. Lease terms and state law will dictate. I did commercial liquidations for 2 years, unfortunately no evictions in IN so i cant ballpark it for you.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "cav72cs", "text": "Even as a month to month tenant, it specifies in the lease they have to pay a 20% holdover penalty on month to month, 50% for days under a month. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cauxafg", "text": "I don't know anything about the legal side of things, but, seriously? That is a BAD tenant.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cauxg8x", "text": "Can you not just lock them out and hold all of their possessions against the outstanding debt? ", "replies": [{"id": "cav08hk", "text": "That's illegal.  You need to give them a written notice and alert the county clerk of your intentions.  ", "replies": [{"id": "cav5a00", "text": "Let me rephrase that: you CAN just lock them out and hold all of the possessions in the premises against unpaid rent money. This is the primary recourse that landlords have in commercial tenancies. Then they can either pay the outstanding rent, or as a landlord your next move would be to liquidate the possessions. They would be entitled to any surplus once the rent has been repaid. ", "replies": [{"id": "cavdrob", "text": "Its not legal in NC. Don't know about IN", "replies": [], "depth": 4}, {"id": "cavemvn", "text": "That's a great way to get your door / window broken.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "cav9m77", "text": "What does your lease say? It should have language in their for this occasion.", "replies": [{"id": "cavannm", "text": "It's pretty clear. They had done this to me before (not this bad), but in exchange for waiving holdover, they signed a new lease. This time around they led me on.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]