Real Estate Investor, Flipper, PM, vacation rental, Wholesaler · Athens, GA · Member since 2013 · 260 posts · 210 votes
Over the years of landlording and owning property in a college town, I have noticed that my Special Stipulations section in my leases have taken on some strange phrases and warnings to new tenants. It seems that each lesson (at times both painful and humorous) has been memorialized into subsequent contracts. From warnings about new pets... to being adults and getting along with roommates... to undrivable cars on blocks...
What are you favorite Special Stips? Feel free to paste them directly from your contracts, and our imaginations can fill in the blanks. This should be good!
Sort of, we require the "check" before the 2 months start. This prevents people thinking it will come out of the security deposit. Once the check is received the 2 months notice start :)
So far we have never bought the tenant out nor do we honestly plan too. This came about because we had tenants sign long term leases and than break it 75% and 35% through their lease. My least favorite words from a tenant when they are trying to break a lease are "lets come to a solution that works for both of us". So now it is covered in the lease. :)
Shari, I agree in many ways, especially stepping through whatever and then getting in the car or going in. I too am more worldly than just being from the hills in Missouri. However, going shoeless is not in the American culture and such will not be seen as you or I may understand it.
I saw later, the reason is to avoid detection of the flooring not being compliant, maybe rugs will work for you.
Maybe if you have a fine, as I mentioned above applied to neighbor complaints, then just inform them that walking with heavy shoes on the flooring may cause noise on the ceiling below, may be the tenants will get the idea to walk quietly, might remind tem too that floor speakers with the stereo (if people still use them as I do) will also be an issue with that flooring.
Just suggesting other ways to get the message across rather than imposing on them about shoes being worn. Tennis shoes wouldn't be a problem.
Reminds me too of a complaint I had about an upstairs tenant, I went in down stairs and his walking around was annoying. Funny thing when I went up there he was in socks, it was just that he was a big guy and his walk was just more like stomping hitting his heels harder than most, rather odd, but nothing you can really say.
But, gotta say, making a requirement of no shoes isn't a good idea, really, you could be more at risk with slip and falls if you made the requirement. You can also have medical reasons or issues and you'll never be able to enforce the matter. :)
1. First, we purposefully write our legal agreements as separate documents, based on what is generally needed in court or what needs to be saved for 7 years and what needs to be saved forever. We only had to file in court once and the core rental agreement is the only thing the attorney needed to take with him.
Certain legal rights can not be waived by a tenant signing a rental agreement.
Our property rules are presented in an addendum. If the tenant is a habitual rule breaker, we can terminate the tenancy fairly easy and move on. This is because in Washington State (except in King County - Seattle area) landlord-tenant law allows us to serve a 20-day no-cause notice to terminate, just as a tenant can give us a 20-day no-reason notice to vacate.
2. Secondly, we maintain a shoeless household in our own home, see the value of it and wish others did too. But it is not realistic to expect others to do so and could not be enforced. For good reasons as stated above, not everyone can go without shoes. For safety reasons many service providers (health care workers, trades people, etc) are trained not to take off their shoes.
That said, problems do occur with tenants who choose footwear that causes damage. One of our petite tenants loved stiletto shoes and did a lot of damage to our newly finished wood floors in short time, pock marks everywhere! One might consider furnishing area rugs for high traffic areas to protect wood floors. We wanted to keep the original flooring in that vintage home, but now understand the trade off in doing so.
Here is an excerpt from our property rules that you might find helpful...
FLOOR CARE: Tenant agrees to vacuum all carpets and clean all hard surface floors on a regular basis, or have such done by another party. Carpets and other flooring dirty quicker and wear out faster when outside footwear in worn indoors. Tenant agrees to provide extra cleaning if outdoor footwear is worn inside the residence.
It is a vintage home from the 1940s that we brought back to it's original charm. The original wood floors were in good shape and we had them professionally refinished. However, the floors are a soft wood, not a hard wood. The psi (pounds per square inch) from the tip of a stiletto high heel shoe was too great. Haven't had problems with this wood floor prior or since, just no more stilettos please!
All of my rentals have hardwood floors or tile , I require that the tenants cover 80% of each room with rugs . (except the kitchen)
Fall leaf clean up , I require that all leaves be cleaned up by Dec 10 of the current year . OR we will hire a landscaper to do the work and the tenant will be pay for it .(all the leaves are down by thanksgiving)
Honestly our "additions" all were a direct result of tenants actions. The latest lease was reviewed by real estate attorney familiar with the local laws. Personally I wish every had common sense and would follow the lease. Since that hasn't happen. Plan B is CYA.