Michael Rossi's Landlording Blog

You've probably never heard of a Cluster Headache. I've had them on and off since I was a kid and they are brutal. According to the doctors, they are the worst headache (pain wise) that you can have. They're called Cluster Headaches because they occur in clusters, often every day for months. Cluster headaches come on VERY fast. From the first feel of tightening in the head or neck to excruciating pain can take as little as 5 or 10 minutes. I never go anywhere without having medication close by (in my truck, backtop bag, snowboarding bag, bike bag, etc). At the first sign of a cluster headache, I take 4 Ibuprofen and 3 extra strength Excederin. Then, if the pain doesn't ease up within 30 minutes, I take a Flexeril . Flexeril is a nasty drug. It's supposed to be a muscle relaxor and they do a good job of stopping Cluster Headaches, but they make me drowsy and mean. The medicine in combination with the cluster headaches makes me very sensitive to light and especially sound. It's very hard to listen to anyone talk when you have one of these headaches.

I had a VERY bad headache yesterday that didn't want to go away, and I took almost the entire day off (except for a quick trip to sign some papers for "free" government weatherization of one of my apartment buildings). Today, I had one of the worst headaches I've had in years and the first round of drugs Ibuprofen, Excederin, and Flexeril didn't stop it. I had to wait til noon to take the second round. Finally, by 2pm, my headache started to improve and I was able to go into town to do a little work.

What does this story of my headache have to do with the rental property business? EVERYTHING! One of the best things about owning a rental property business is that I can set my own schedule. When I felt bad yesterday, I didn't have to go to work. When I felt bad again today, I didn't have to go to work. I could take off without calling a boss or asking for permission. As they say in those credit card commercials: The freedom to set your own schedule - PRICELESS!

When I did recover this afternoon, I went into town to work on a 1 bedroom apartment that I rented for August 1st. The previous tenant broke the commode and I needed to repair the floor and replace the toilet with a new one. In addition, I had to replace the smoke detector, which the tenant stole and replace the bathroom mirror. I did the smoke detector and mirror first, since they were minor jobs. Then, I removed the old commode and cut out the water damaged section of floor. I used the cardboard from the box for the new commode to make a pattern for the new subfloor, which I will make out of 3/4 inch treated plywood. Due to the late start, that is all I did for today!

They say that when it rains, it pours. If that's true, then today must have been a real storm. I started my work today with a trip to the bank and post office. When I picked up the mail, I had EIGHT letters via certified mail. As a rule, certified mail is generally not a good thing. That was especially true today as they were all lawsuits! UGH!

I posted the story of the first lawsuit about two weeks ago (7/16/09). As you may recall, the city has decided to attempt to collect past due water bills from the landlord, even though the tenant subscribed to the water service. They don't even try to collect from the tenant - they just go after the "RICH" landlord!!! Needless to say, that is COMPLETELY IMMORAL. Although we're headed straight into socialism and the government wants to 'share the wealth' through taxation, it is RIDICULOUS to think that I should pay the tenant's bill for them. What's next? Should I buy their clothes? Should I buy them a car? GIVE ME A BREAK!

If you've read much of my story, then you know that I'm a real jackass when I think I've been wronged. I will NOT give in and pay these bastards! Instead, I will do whatever it takes to fight these frivilous lawsuits. Along with a few other local investors and our REIA, I am trying to organize a lawsuit against the city. We have a big-time, out-of-town attorney coming to the next REIA meeting and we will be organizing as many landlords as possible to be party to the lawsuit. I will be writing a scathing Letter to the Editor and will meet with the news department of the newspaper to have a news article done on this story. As far as I'm concerned, it's going to be war against the morons running the city! They're up for election in November and our REIA already has two members running for city council!

Beyond that bit of cheery news to start my day, I did actually get some work done. I trashed out a vacant 2 bedroom apartment; collected 2 rents; and started working on rehabbing a deck in preparation for a Section 8 inspection next week. I also repaired a broken screen door lock.

After not working much last week, I did get a little work done today. To start, I had a tenant that reported that her kitchen light had gone out. I always suspect that the bulb(s) are burned out when a tenant reports that a light is out, but in this case the tenant swore that the switch didn't feel the same as it felt yesterday (she thought it felt much weaker than yesterday). I have seen switches break on occassion and that is often how they feel. This particular light fixture had four flourescent tubes and the tenant reported that they all were on yesterday. It seemed highly unlikely that all four bulbs burned out at once. So, I removed the switch cover and tested the switch with a meter. The switch was fine. I should have gone with my next inclination. So, I changed the bulbs and the light worked fine. I suspect that three of the bulbs had burned out over time and the last bulb finally burned out yesterday. Obviously, the tenant hadn't realized that only one bulb was working until yesterday and the tenant just imagined that the feel of the switch had changed. No big deal!

My next project was to mow the grass at 2 apartment buildings and then spray weeds. Both of these buildings have small yards and that only took about an hour.

Finally, I was scheduled to meet a woman who was interested in one of my apartments. She is significantly disabled and this is a downstairs apartment. Moreover, her son lived right across the street and he would be able to come over and help her with her daily activities. She liked the apartment and put down a non-refundable deposit so that I would hold the apartment for her. One more apartment rented!

We've all heard that some of the 911 masterminds were subjected to waterboarding in an effort to get critical information from them. By all accounts this water torture was quite successful, yielding critical intelligence. I too have experienced water torture and the bad thing is that I'm not even a terrorist!

Here's what happened. I had some tenants move into a 2-bedroom apartment on Saturday. The downstairs apartment just below this apartment has had an intermittent leak in the ceiling below the bathroom in that upstairs apartment. The downstairs tenant reported that the leak only occurred when the previous upstairs tenant took a shower. So, before the new tenant moved in, I wanted to ensure that the water leak was fixed. To that end, on Friday, I took at look at the bathroom in the upstairs apartment in search of possible sources of leaks.

This bathroom has an old claw foot tub that has a shower enclosure around it. Two curtains enclose the tub. On my inspection, I noticed that the shower curtains didn't quite close on the end of the tub opposite the shower head. If the tenant was taking a shower without the curtains completely closed, that could certainly explain the leak. So, to fix the problem, I added a third curtain to that end of the shower so that it was securely covered. I then ran the shower for a solid 20 minutes and checked the downstairs apartment for leaks. The result was that there was no leak and I believed that I had solved the problem. By running the shower for 20 minutes, I had not only eliminated the possibility that water was getting through the curtain, but I had also eliminated a leak in the drain line. Furthermore, a leak in the water lines was also eliminated because the water lines had been continuously pressurized, even while the apartment was vacant.

On Saturday, the tenant began moving in. Shortly after the tenant began moving, I received a call from the downstairs tenant that her ceiling was leaking. This was particularly puzzling because the tenants weren't even in the apartment yet and certainly hadn't taken a shower. I decided to go take a look at the situation even though it was a weekend, even though the leak was only slowly dripping and the repair could certainly have waited until Monday.

Sure enough, the ceiling in the ground floor apartment was leaking with a slow drip. I checked the bathroom in the upstairs apartment again and didn't find any evidence of a leak. Somewhat frustrated, I decided to cut open the ceiling in the downstairs apartment to see where the leak was coming from. To my absolute amazement, there was a pin-hole leak in one of the hot side waterlines. That certainly was illogical, but that was definitely causing the leak. Why it leaked only intermittently I can not explain. The water line was continuously pressurized and one would think that it would leak continuously!

At any rate, since it was Saturday, I decided to do a temporary repair by installing a stainless steel band clamp designed to repair just such a leak. The water line was very close to the bottom of the floor of the upstairs apartment. To get the clamp to seal correctly, I needed to rotate it slightly by tapping it with a hammer. I didn't tap it very hard, but at that point the water torture began anyway. As I tapped it with a hammer, there was a sudden gush of water. No, the clamp hadn't failed, the torrent of water was coming from several inches above and to the right of the clamp. I ran outside and shut off the water to the entire building. I then went back to the upstairs apartment and the tenant reported that he heard a sound coming from the wall. I touched the wall and it was HOT! The old galvanized water line had broken inside the kitchen wall.

As I began exploring the extent of the issue, it became apparent that all the old galvanized water lines in the apartment were in bad shape. I found several spots that were badly corroded. Worse yet, the pipes all ran under the floor and in the walls. This would be a major project!!! UGH!

So, I started ripping open the walls and floor. Water lines ran behind the built-in kitchen cabinets and I had to demolish them also. It was a huge project!

To make a long story short, I ended up replacing all the water lines, from the basement to and through the second floor apartment. By the time I quit on Saturday afternoon, I had all the water lines (PEX) installed and the water back on to the building.

On Monday, I installed new kitchen cabinets; a new countertop; and new sink. I also did a lot of patching of the walls (where I had ripped out the old water lines). What started out as a minor slow drip rapidly turned into full blown water torture! The good news is that I survived the incident and the new tenants are thrilled to have a brand new kitchen!

Today, I only worked about 2 1/2 hours. I mowed grass at two apartment buildings; sprayed weeds at 3 buildings; and removed several small trees that were a nuisance.

I know it's hard to imagine that a landlord would be sued. Well...yes, I am being sued again. This time, I'm being sued by the city for a tenant's water bill. Yes, I said a TENANT'S WATER BILL! It seems that in this socialist world we live in, tenants are not responsible for their own debts. If the deadbeats don't pay their water bill, the city thinks that the landlord should pay it for them. This is happening all over Ohio and is an outrage. All I can say to that is HELL NO! I am not paying someone else's bills! To that end, I spent about an hour this morning putting together information for the attorney that my lawyer (our REIA's water bill lawyer) will need for my case and sending it off to him.

My other project for the day was to do some painting at the Pink Elephant. So, I got out the scaffolding and did some painting. I'm making progress!

Tomorrow, I have another move-in and am planning to do some work (although I don't know what). I'll think of something.

I planned on just doing a little work today. To that end, I didn't leave the house until about noon. My plan was to coat a small section of roof that was leaking; repair one window; and put a few weeds out of their misery. One of my tenants had different ideas. She called as I was on the way to town and reported that her commode and bathtub was plugged up. I asked her about the bathroom sink drain and the kitchen sink drain and she said that they were fine.

Upon arrival at the house, I did a little troubleshooting. The commode was indeed plugged as was the bathtub. The kitchen sink appeared to be open as did the bathroom sink. My initial diagnosis was that the sewer line was plugged somewhere just below the commode (and obviously below where the tub line "Y's" into the main sewer line. I tried plunging the toilet to no avail. I tried a toilet snake - again to no avail. At that point, I tried running the bathroom sink again and discovered that water was coming up into the tub as the sink was running. That signaled a more serious blockage and I called the plumber. The plumber arrived about 30 minutes later and had to cut out a BUNCH of tree roots from the main sewer line.

My next project was to coat the leaking roof, which only took about 20 minutes. I then fixed the window, which again only took a few minutes. Finally, I had to work on one of my security camera systems. Everything was working except the "remote view" feature, which allows me to view the security cameras from home. I thought I had it fixed, but it's still not working. I'll have to call tech support tomorrow and get a little help.

I had a very good day today - at least from the standpoint of getting a lot done. My objective for today was to finish making the 2 bedroom house, that was involved in my recent nasty eviction, ready for the new tenants. That involved doing several things: laying carpet; replacing a window pane; installing light bulbs and globes; some cleaning; mowing the overgrown yard; fixing the plugged toilet; etc. Things went VERY SMOOTHLY and I got it all done and the new tenants moved in.

I also received a letter today from the Nuisance Board regarding one of my properties. It seems the tenant put a couch out by the street and hasn't mowed her grass. I called the tenant and explained that she MUST take care of this stuff pronto. This is a long time tenant and I'm confident that she'll take care of it.

To end the afternoon, I got a call from one of my tenants who reported that her grand-daughter, who is a convicted felon, was harrassing her. I met her at the apartment building; called the police; and had her grand-daughter officially barred from the property.

To top off the day, I even got my lawn mowed at home and took a nice walk with my wife!

I finally got back my final two units today - the ones that were potential evictions. It's been a roller coaster ride as I started the month thinking I would have 3 evictions this month. Two said that they were voluntarily leaving and actually started moving. I wrote about the 3rd one in Wednesday's blog. The first of the 3 moved out immediately and left the apartment clean, although there were still a couple of pieces of furniture in the apartment. The second started moving out immediately, but were slow in getting everything out. I could have filed the eviction in court yesterday, but gave them until this morning to be completely out. When I arrived at the building this morning, they had indeed completely moved out and the apartment was relatively clean.

I had a water heater to fix this morning and as I was working on that, I got a call from the grandmother of the 3rd tenant's pregnant shack-up girlfriend. She said that they were completely out and wanted me to come pick-up the keys. I suggested that she leave the keys on the counter and lock the door. She wasn't having any part of that and wanted me to come inspect the apartment and pick up the keys. I told her that I was busy but that I would come over in a little while, when I was done with the job I was working on.

When I arrived, the deadbeat tenant and his deadbeat girlfriend were sitting on the front step. The grandmother was nowhere to be found. The tenant said his uncle had gone to the hardware store and had the keys to the apartment. He would be back shortly. The "uncle", who wasn't his uncle at all, had repaired about 20 holes that the tenant put in the walls during fits of rage. The grandmother of the girlfriend and the "uncle" had cleaned the apartment and done a pretty good job. The uncle also left a new bathroom mirror for me to install - the tenant destroyed the mirror.

The reason that they did all this - repaired all the holes; cleaned the apartment; and removed their junk - is that they expected to get their deposit back. WRONG! I've lost rent for this month; I'll still have to paint the patched walls; and they broke the commode (actually broke it during one of their violent rages). So, they won't get a penny. When I told the tenant that, he wanted to fight. Obviously, I can't be in a fist fight while I'm carrying a handgun, so I simply didn't participate in his childish nonsense. Fortunately, within a few minutes, the "uncle" returned; gave me the keys; and hauled the deadbeats away. Before he left, I briefly talked with the uncle and discovered that the deadbeats had been living with the grandmother and had destroyed her house. He wasn't very happy with them! I don't recall the grandmother mentioning that when she brought the little angels to rent my apartment!

The good news is that I got all my property back without an eviction this month and without any significant damage.

In addition to this nonsense, I replaced four glass panes in an apartment and did a little work on my security camera systems.

The setout for my latest (June) eviction went bad almost immediately this morning. The setout was scheduled at 10 am and when I arrived at 10 am, I immediately suspected that things were not going to be good. There was a lot of trash and debris on the front porch; sidewalk; and front lawn. F_ _ _ YOU was spray painted on the porch facade. The door was open as was one of the front windows. As I pushed the door open, I could see that there was trash all over the place. The carpet that was exactly one year old was ruined. The tenant had shut the refrigerator off and left ice cream in the door, so there was a big pool of melted ice cream on the floor and ice cream drip out from the slightly open door. One window was broken out. Seven mini-blinds had been destroyed. The commode was plugged (probably intentionally). It was a mess. As if this weren't bad enough, the real shock occurred when I opened one of the bedroom doors. There was a very thin cat in the room with absolutely no food and no water with her newly born 8 kittens!!!

That was it - I was now officially REALLY PISSED! I called the police and met an officer at the house to report the animal cruelty. The tenant had a BEAUTIFUL Dodge Charger with custom wheels that was still parked in MY PARKING LOT. I asked the court officer what I could do to get rid of the car. He went to talk to the judge and in a little while returned and informed me that it could be towed to a private impound lot. I immediately called a tow truck and they towed her car away. In Ohio, if the car isn't claimed in 14 days, the impound company can get the title to the car!!!

The really STUPID thing about this tenant is that she is the MANAGER at Dollar General. She has a good job and I filed for a "second cause of action" (i.e. money damages) with the original eviction suit. I will sue her for the damage and I will collect by garnishing her wages. She'll lose 25% of her take-home pay until I get paid off.

This was all unnecessary. She could have paid the rent and avoided this entire situation. She could have voluntarily moved out and cleaned up the house. She could have at least not spray painted grafitti on the stone facade to the porch. She could have done the right thing. Instead, she made me evict her and then set her out; she abandoned a cat with her new kittens without so much as a saucer of water; she left her beautiful car in the parking lot. All of that was enough to piss me off and caused me to press charges for cruelty to animals; have her car towed to the impound lot; and sue her for damages! Yep, SHE'S A MORON!

Note:  this is actually yesterday's blog post.  I was unable to upload it to BP because the site was temporarily down,

It was a great run while it lasted. I had 9 months without a single eviction. It was quite a streak! That all ended in June when I evicted a tenant, who told the magistrate that the eviction was just a misunderstanding. The setout for this tenant is tomorrow at 10 am!

I was hoping to start a new eviction free streak beginning with July, but that dream appeared to be shot down before it even started when it looked like I might have THREE evictions this month. I got lucky and two of the tenants decided to move out voluntarily instead of being evicted. That left me with one set of idiot tenants that looked like a certain eviction. One of my first projects this morning was to take the paperwork for this eviction to my new lawyer. I decided to drive by the apartment involved in this eviction on the way to the lawyer's office and to my total surprise, the tenants were loading their stuff into a pickup truck. I stopped and told the tenant that I was on my way to the attorney's office to file the eviction. They said that they would be out today and have everything cleaned up by tomorrow. As a result, I decided to wait one more day before taking the paperwork to the lawyer. I don't want to spend money on the lawyer and the court filing fee if I don't have to.

It was a beautiful, sunny day here in Ohio and I was looking forward to finally getting back to painting the Pink Elephant. I got out my scaffolding and got to work. Everything went well and I was happy with the work I got done.

I quit about 3pm because I wanted to take the paperwork to Community Action, which is the agency in charge of the weatherization program.

After dinner, I went for a nice bike ride and then my wife and I went for a walk. All in all, a very good day!