BiggerPockets

I'm to the point that I'm not sure what to do so I hope some of the more seasoned Landlords can help me with this. Not that it makes a big difference but this is a lower income rental house.

I have a tenant that has complained from day 1. In the very first week she complained that there was a "rotten egg smell" coming from the ductwork. I checked it out but could not smell anything out of the ordinary. The house had been vacant for a few weeks so I told her that after a few days of running the AC the smell would probably go away. A week or two later she calls again. This time she says it's the refrigerator that smells. I go check it out. This time I take my wife. We couldn't smell anything "fowl" or "rotten" as she described. As I was looking under the refrig to see if something was in the drip pan I got shocked when I touched the coil. Obviously there was a ground fault in the refrigerator so I replaced it. Everything was fine for a few weeks. Then she calls again. The smell is gone but the house had been broken in to. One of the windows was broken and they stole some jewelry and vandalized her furniture. I call the window guy and get it fixed. She tells us she doesn't feel safe living there. I tell her there's nothing I can do about that. Again were good for another week or so. Then she calls and the AC isn't working. I go check it out. All of the sudden the AC is low on freon (it's worked great for the year and a half I have owned the property). I call the my AC guy. He comes over and checks it out. The unit is old so we decide to replace it as it's part of my investment. Now, were good again, for a week or so. Today she calls, this time the toilet is plugged up, the smell is back and she had to take her daughter to the ER because of an asthma attack. She claims there is mold in the basement. Once again, I go check it out. There is no fowl smell. The basement is bone dry (it does get some water during heavy downpours but today it was dry as can be). There is no mold and no possible way there could be mold because the only wall that isn't concrete is built on top of a 4" concrete curb and can't get wet unless we get a major flood, which we didn't. We took pictures of everything (the tenant wasn't there). I go upstairs to fix the toilet. There is a plunger, the lid to the toilet tank and a snake sitting in the hallway. It almost seemed staged. Sure enough the toilet was plugged up. I used the plunger and had it cleared in 5 seconds. We flushed the toilet 3 or 4 times while we video taped it. It was working fine. We go home. We call her to tell her that we fixed the toilet and scheduled an appointment with a foundation contractor to take a look at the water seepage problem. She's home from work now. She says the toilet is still plugged and is still overflowing. I've had about enough if this crap. I think all of these "problems" are bogus. I think she is intentionally plugging the toilet, I think she intentionally let the freon out of my AC. I think the smell is something she is making up. I don't know what her problem is but I'm not sure what to do here. We are almost 3 months in to a 1 year lease. I think I'd be better off with this %^&$#! lady gone but right now is not a good time to find tenants as school has just started. What do you all think?

PS - One more thing. We got a notice from the city because some bushes in the backyard are "overgrown" and need to be trimmed. Hummm. I wonder who called?

Take Curt's recommendations with the realization that his business is selling you his houses. High maintenance people are at every economic level.

Your problem is not your buying. Your problem is your management. You're at the tenant's beck and call. My lease puts my tenants in charge of stupid things like plugging the toilet and trimming bushes. If I have to do it, per the lease it's billable time. Will I always collect? No, but it makes the point that I'm not the tenant's gofer boy. Get with an attorney that specializes in leases and find out how you can beef up your lease. As to this lady now, if you can get her out fine but make sure you beef up that lease or you'll only repeat the problem. If not you need to make it clear you're not taking any more b.s. or put it in the hands of professional management.

I'm in Tim's camp on this one, but I wouldn't throw out the baby with the bath water just yet. There is a silver lining here, and that is she is reporting some legit items like the AC and fridge, she's just gone too far and you both need an education in who's responsible for what. That's better than the tenant that doesn't report the roof leak until the ceiling falls in!

She needs to know you're not at her beck and call. Renting and old house comes at a price, and she's not paying for and should not expect to treat the landlord as a free "rent a husband," only for legit landlord needed repairs. I would take every one of her complaints to date, and review each one with her. Thank her for letting you know about the fridge and AC. The toilet should be charged for. The bushes should be charged for, and wasted trips to check out bogus claims should be charged for. Explain that the broken window and other damage from the break in is not your responsibility, and if she wants to get renters insurance, that is her choice. She needs to understand that wasting your time costs her money. At the same time, she does need to report problems that you should address.

Seems neither of you have a clear understanding of which is which.

If such language is not in the lease, check with the local housing authority. You may find some good landlord-tenant guidelines, or even something on how the courts interpret landlord - tenant responsibilities. Share these with her, and explain that just because they aren't spelled out in the lease, they still apply.

My take is that you may have a diamond in the rough. So many low income tenants are afraid they'll get charged, or that the LL will require discover something they did do, that they don't report problems and additional damage results. I think you have an opportunity, through education, to save this one. Considering the cost of a vacancy, it's worth a try. She could also be just a little whacko, however, and you'll have to make that call.

I'm with the majority on this one. My lease was written by my attorney, their standard boilerplate, which covers all the bases legally. I have my tenants sign each page at the bottom so they can't say they didn't see that particular page/item.

I also have a tenant that complains. She is on Section 8 and her sense of entitlement and belligerence grew with each repair I made. I finally spoke to her caseworker, and we told the tenant she was free to leave within 30 days and she can take her Section 8 voucher with her. That shut her up for months. Yes, she eventually found something else to complain about, but she got the same response from me - you don't like it, you're free to leave. Thankfully she's not destructive.

Freaks and deadbeats are at all levels of rentals. A friend of mine rented her house to a doctor and his family for $2500 a month, and they destroyed the place and stopped paying rent.

She had to rent it out the last year she owned it, not quite by choice. But jerk tenants come in all income levels.

Everyone of these posts are fantastic.

I would add that more stringent screening at the begining of the tenant selection procress might have shown some light on who this tenant really is.

Also, I would recommend that the tenant be asked to do a formal walk-through to inspect the unit and have them record the results in their own writing as a record of the condition of the property when they moved in. This would have helped to address the oder, AC and basement issues... and it provides great baseline when it comes time for them to move... as it is hard for a tenant to claim the unit had a pre-existing condition when they didn't find and note it upon move in.

Pete

While the tenant could still cause more damage "to stick it to the man," they're still on the hook for their $50.00. While it wouldn't end maintenance calls, it'd definitely cut down on them.

Mike

A valid fear! Why not modify that to state that the tenant is responsible for the first $50.00 of each repair? In other words, set it up like an insurance deductible.

While the tenant could still cause more damage "to stick it to the man," they're still on the hook for their $50.00. While it wouldn't end maintenance calls, it'd definitely cut down on them.

You're going to personally "insure" your tenant damages, limiting their liability to $50, and put that in your lease?

Please say I'm not reading that right.

I tell tenants they cannot make repairs without my approval, and anything other than normal wear and tear is on their dime, regardless of the cost or who makes the repair. There are occasions where the owner is responsible (roof leak, furnace failure, etc), but tenant caused damage is tenant paid damage.

I know that when I reminded my tenant that pest control/extermination was at her own expense per the lease, she stopped complaining about it. Section 8 backed me up.

Ralph, how do you enforce getting your approval before they make repairs? One they've done it, and you find out later, then what? Do you bill them? Make them undo the repair? Evict when they won't pay? My tenants cry poverty while sitting in front of their 58" widescreen TVs. I'm evicting a tenant right now for non-payment of rent, and he has done (and not done) quite a few things.

Thanks Ralph, I loved your post! As a landlord of only 1 year, 2 properties, and 1 eviction, I'm learning a lot.

Your stories ring true and painful. Today I discovered why my evicted tenant had a $620 water bill (that of course he's not paying). The downstairs toilet has apparently been running for the 5 months he was in there. He never called me about it. After he had been in the house 2 weeks, I called him to ask how things were. He said fine, that he was a handy guy and that he would try never to bother me. I thought I'd hit the tenant jackpot. I didn't hear from him for 5 months until Social Services stopped paying his rent and I began the eviction process.

Well, he was true to his word. He didn't bother me about the running toilet, and he didn't bother me when he installed his window air conditioner off balance, causing the water to leak into the window frame, which went unnoticed by me when I checked the house because he had a big piece of furniture under the window.

The tenant weighed 400 pounds, and cracked the floor tiles in the upstairs bathroom, which he didn't bother me about either. When he apparently broke the track on the shower door and couldn't close it, he didn't bother me. He also didn't bother to wipe the water off the bathroom floor when he showered, which leaked through the broken tiles into the downstairs bathroom.

I had pretty much the same discussions with him when he moved in - who was responsible for what, damage, call me with problems, etc.

Your tenant's toolkit is hilarious by the way :D and your stories are painful, but entertaining to read.