The current market rent for his apartment is about $1700. He was paying $1500, and I raised it to $1535. He told me he cannot afford it and mentioned there are roach issues. He also complained about how small the apartment is, but the $1700 market rent only reflects the size of his apartment. We already have a monthly exterminator service and provided a pest control kit, but the tenant still complains about the roach issue
he has been very good tenant past few year, however i am not very happy about his response this time.
Talk to the pest control company and let them know. Just because you hire someone to do a job (sadly) doesn't mean that they are doing it or doing it properly.
Also do an inspection of the unit for yourself. Sometimes tenants do something that attracts pests (eg food is improperly stored, trash and food are left out, etc.
Tell the tenant if they are having problems affording rent, they are welcome to give notice and find a less expensive place to live.
Talk to the pest control company and let them know. Just because you hire someone to do a job (sadly) doesn't mean that they are doing it or doing it properly.
Also do an inspection of the unit for yourself. Sometimes tenants do something that attracts pests (eg food is improperly stored, trash and food are left out, etc.
Tell the tenant if they are having problems affording rent, they are welcome to give notice and find a less expensive place to live.
You are losing over $160 a month or $1,920 a year by keeping a tenant who can barely afford the reduced rent, and he complains even though you provide pest service. Why are you losing money just to keep this guy?
End his lease, and find a tenant willing and able to pay market rate.
You are following the red herring of the (real or imagined) roach problem, but the tenant just told you they cannot afford a $35/mo. rent increase in an under market rent apartment!
Take the hint, and do not renew. While you are at it, put the next person on MTM to create some equity in the contract when you have problem in the future.
Since you already have monthly pest control and provided a pest kit, you’ve more than fulfilled your landlord duties (in most states). Here are some things you can do:
✔ Request photos/videos to confirm the issue. ✔ Schedule an extra extermination visit to document findings. ✔ Remind the tenant about sanitation steps to prevent infestations.
If the complaint is more about the rent increase, stay firm but professional: ✔ “I understand your concerns and value you as a tenant. We’ve taken proactive pest control steps, and I’ll schedule another inspection to ensure everything is in order.”
If the issue persists without real proof, stand by your decision or explore replacing the tenant at market rent ($1,700). Hope this helps!
If it’s an apartment. Are the exterminators doing all units? If they are just doing his there will still be cockroaches. Just the other tenants aren’t complaining. Is the area around the building cleaned up?
If you own all of the units. Recommend you give everyone two bug bombs. Recommend they all do on a work day at the same time. Also give them two bags of roach bait and have them scatter under the sinks and cabinets.
As far as keeping the tenant depends on your market. I would rather have a good Longterm tenant under by $35. Than have to find a new tenant and redo the apartment every 24 months.
As @Theresa Harris said, do an inspection to verify. I had a client once who complained about ants when I had never seen any. I went over to check and they were leaving their sweets like cakes on the counter. Of course ants all over. Some people ar enot so smart.
But as @Nathan Gesner and others said, get rid of him anyway. You have a golden opportunity to make a lot more money. Remove him and spruce the place up a little, and re-rent it. Better tenants will not bother you with these bogus issues either.....
I would be curious as to what your lease says, and if the parameters consider something like a pest problem, your responsibility or the tenants responsibility.
additionally, it is hard to find a quality tenant that is going to be a good steward of the home and will be long lasting with the longevity aspect, especially for that price for an apartment.
I would say it's not worth rocking the boat for less than $200 additional per month, when you look at what you're overall ROI. if it's really that big of a deal to you, maybe consider canceling the pest services that you know are being utilized and would facilitate not having a roach problem, so that you can save that extra money every month and have that money back instead of raising the rent price to the tenant.
I have seen this in many different places, Metropolitan, rural and otherwise, and it doesn't necessarily matter with the market rent is you're not always going to get that. And if you do, you are going to possibly sacrifice the value of the tenant that you get for the price that you're getting upfront, and if you're going to lose your tenant that you currently have then you risk the vacancy, having to do a rent turn, and that would come with more maintenance, and many additional costs that you would have To encumber that would most likely far exceed that $160 extra that you were trying to raise in the first place.
vacancy means no money coming in, and then your investment is dead in the water. Not only that, but it is unoccupied and subject to any number of things happening to it while it is unoccupied simply put, it just does not seem worth it to try to haggle over a raise like this.
however, if you are in a high demand area with your property, and you know that it has a lot of value, you could post an ad to try to get some feelers out for occupancy and if you find something better, as far as quality and price for the occupant, then you can consider the lengthy eviction process, but again you're doing all of this for about $200 extra and none of it seems worth it. You would spend far more on Marketing, background checks, tenant placement, repairs, and possibly legal fees with the eviction process.
That's my advice anyway, other people might feel differently about it, but I would caution pushing the issue any further.
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