Tenants not informing of problem

[Michaela G.]

I have a problem with tenants not telling me of things that may be wrong and by the time I find out it's become a major issue.

Things like a roof leak that finally makes the sheetrock come down.

I had one tenant that never cut his grass and he was always out of town. Suddenly he called me and said that he just came from the hospital and that he's covered in flea bites and he has a rat infestation in the house. Turned out there was a hole that rats were able to come in and nest. I didn't know and he was in and out of the house, saw rat droppings some time, but never did or said anything. By the time he finally notified me they must have been breeding and breeding. I immediately had it treated and the holes closed.

Or a plumbing leak under the kitchen sink that goes so long that it destroys the floor and floor joist underneath and makes the whole kitchen cabinet moldy

How do you deal with that? I obviously won't go through their place every day or month to make sure that there's nothing wrong. And they may be things that only a person living in the unit can notice.

What is my liability when I don't know about this and suddenly the tenant makes noise about me being a terrible landlord because I don't fix things (that I didn't know about until that moment)

[Ann Bellamy]

Yes, they can, and no, it's not reasonable. Whether they can win in court is another issue. But you are stuck with the problem, reasonable or not.

Managing yourself from out of state - that's a tough one.

Writing something into the lease won't make people comply. I have lots of stuff written in that people can't do and they still do it. Moving other people in, adding pets, keeping trampolines, etc. So enforcement is the issue, and for that you need to depend on inspections, somehow. Do you have a handyman you pay occasionally? Hire him twice a year to inspect. He should do a good job, he'll be motivated to find something wrong.