First situation: Apartment was advertised at $1400 for a 2 bed/1 bath house. Prospective tenants had 2 pets and we agreed to increase rent to $1430 (15/pet). Lease was written up with the 2 pets allowed and the rent set at $1430. Fast forward a few months. Tenants are a little sloppy but no problems and they pay on time. Tenants gave one of the pets away to a friend and want to reduce the rent by $15. I decline, saying changes to the lease can be discussed at renewal time. 2nd situation: Same tenants/house. One is out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday. The other locks herself out. I come by to open up and charge the lock out fee ($25, as set in the lease). Am I the mean landlord? My parents would probably be telling me to waive the $15/month and not to charge for opening up. They would advise this on the grounds that I'm more likely to keep the tenants long term. Many on BP who hold firm on the "run it like a business" mentality will tell me I'm doing it right. I'm looking for the overall consensus here. What do you think?

You charge a $25 lock out fee and are willing to go to the house yourself for that? I believe it specifies $100 in my lease. I am not sure because in 12 years of leasing 12 houses this has never happened to my tenants. I would not even consider going to the house to unlock it if the tenant locked themselves out. I would give them the phone number for my locksmith who has the codes for all my keys. The locksmith would charge about $100. If the tenant didn't pay him directly I would pay him bill the tenants for the service. If they locked themselves out after hours or on a holiday they can check into a motel until the locksmith can get there or their partner comes back with the key. I am a landlord not a babysitter.

great part of this business, max, is that you are the boss and get to have your policy...I favor tenant satisfaction for long term renewals, like your folks, but you have to set limits, like I would not yo yo the lease amount because they may well get a new pet and that rate was for the wear and tear of the one that lived there....I do one free lockout, mostly so they will not try to break in but then charge your same fee after that... you have to do what works for you more so than worrying about being mean or nice...you allow pets and actually show up to let them in, so you are ahead of the curve on accommodating people in my book......best of luck

First off you will NEVER get a consensus here! That being said I am a very very very jaded and MEAN landlord. So I will vote that you did everything right and I would have done it too :) I follow my 16 page lease exactly. For a few reasons. A) it prevents issues again favoritism and therefore violations of favoritism. B) it EVERY time I violate my lease to be nice it bites me in the TUSH, a centimeter becomes THREE miles. If I hold too it exactly it becomes no stress. C) Once you waive some stuff, it becomes harder to enforce other items. It also makes the expectation that you will work with them so when you don't, you area mean. D) If I have to follow the lease, so do you :) Lets just say I am VERY passionate about my lease being my key to tenant management. So I am very jaded on this subject. Here is 2 articles I have written for BP on this subject. https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/11/2... https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/10/1... Good luck!

@Max Tanenbaum I completely agree with @Elizabeth Colegrove 's points. If you deviate from the written word you'll potentially find yourself in sticky situations later. I always disagree with the mean landlord label. I didn't force anyone to sign the lease. He or she did so and therefore we are just going off the written word. Good luck!

I would be happy they got rid of a pet and reduce the rent by the $15, under the stipulation that they can't add another pet. While I understand those that enforce the signed lease to the letter and I think that is almost always the best policy, in this case you are legally taking advantage of a situation at the tenants expense, unless they get another pet. I don't see it as a gateway situation, like waiving late fees or absorbing damages caused by tenant actions. Hopefully over time making decisions considering fairness to the tenant will get you a higher percentage of renewals. Even if not, you won't have to worry if your tenants are thinking 'enjoy my $15 you greedy skinflint' when they pay the rent. If they had the remaining pet run over by a car tomorrow, you could still collect the pet rent but would you want to? Overall I would not turn off my moral compass in order to adhere to the lease 100% in this case.

@Elizabeth Colegrove is right: you will never get consensus here! I would not decrease the rent for the feline decrease because they chose to give the cat away. If it had gotten hit by a car, I might because I'm a softie (just kidding). I would not charge to unlock their door but then again: that's not in my lease. It's nice to be flexible at times (especially with a long-term good tenant) but you really can't go wrong by just following the lease.

Very simple: Keep the same rents, but be a little easy on the lock out. As they say, "it's just business nothing personal." Though, I'd keep your eyes open for tenant dissatisfaction.

Am I the mean landlord?

Glenn McCrorey

Investor · Cedar Rapids, IA · Member since 2013 · 494 posts · 407 votes

10y

In business there is seldom a clear right or wrong.... it's your business and you set the tone. Unlike school where there is a correct answer and all the rest are wrong, this is real life and we live and learn. I would have lowered the rent and waived the lock fee but only if I liked them and wanted to keep them. I have waived the late fee on the first late payment too then collected it if it happened again. Others take a different tack and that's fine too. Good luck!

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James Wise

Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes

10y

Max,

In a tenant's eyes anytime you say no or enforce a fee of some sort you will always be the bad guy. Stay strong and keep up the good work.

Try this tip out so you can just avoid the lockout issue all together.

We remove all lockable door handles. The only way to lock the door is with the key in the deadbolt from the outside of the house. We have about 300 or so units and I do not think we have had a lockout in 2015.

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Jill Patton

Investor · Wellington, FL · Member since 2009 · 37 posts · 19 votes

10y

I agree with everything you did. And, you are not mean. :-) Just follow the rules outlined in the lease.

By the way, if my tenants get locked out, they'll have to call a locksmith - and, that will probably cost them $75 or so.

Am I the mean landlord?

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