Would you renew a lease on a disrespectful tenant?
Realtor · Charleston, SC · Member since 2017 · 116 posts · 88 votes
She has been there a year and a half and on multiple occasions has been demanding and rude to me. She’s also a former lawyer for the FBI. She is very demanding, and kind of high-maintenance.
But she always pays her rent on time.
Her lease is up at the end of January, but she asked for a six month extension option when we signed it. She wants to stay, and wants another year lease, and wants me to sign it now. I’ve told her we will keep the terms as-is for the next six months, then revisit. She’s again asking me to sign the lease for the end of the six months now. Her last landlord sold the house and she had to move when she didn’t want to, so she is probably afraid I might do the same.
Would you tell her you are waiting to see if she can be more respectful in her communications before you sign the lease? Because that’s the only reason I want to wait. I’m not sure turning over the place is worth it either, but I don’t like the intimidation and threats I get from her.
She has been there a year and a half and on multiple occasions has been demanding and rude to me. She’s also a former lawyer for the FBI. She is very demanding, and kind of high-maintenance.
But she always pays her rent on time.
Her lease is up at the end of January, but she asked for a six month extension option when we signed it. She wants to stay, and wants another year lease, and wants me to sign it now. I’ve told her we will keep the terms as-is for the next six months, then revisit. She’s again asking me to sign the lease for the end of the six months now. Her last landlord sold the house and she had to move when she didn’t want to, so she is probably afraid I might do the same.
Would you tell her you are waiting to see if she can be more respectful in her communications before you sign the lease? Because that’s the only reason I want to wait. I’m not sure turning over the place is worth it either, but I don’t like the intimidation and threats I get from her.
You need to cut out all of this additional & unnecessary communication. Tenants are not your friends nor do you need to engage with them when they reach out to you for things that are not absolutely necessary. Here is the deal, no matter what you do they will not like you. You've got to accept that fact moving forward.
I am gathering that she has your cell number & feels like she can call you whenever she feels like B*tching about something? She feels that way because you answer the phone & try to work through everything with her Cut that out. Give her one form of contact & one form only. I'd use email. From there ignore all other modes of communication & only respond when necessary. Your job is to respond to her when you are changing the terms of the lease, rent is late or you need to handle a repair. Other than that there is no reason you need to communicate with her. She doesn't know this because you've trained her to believe that she can communicate with you for other reasons. Train her to know that she cannot.
On top of eliminating unnecessary communication I wouldn't negotiate or argue when communicating about necessary things. I would tell her this.
"Your option is to sign a new lease for 12 months under these terms or move out. You've got until X date to figure out what you want to do. End of discussion."
Do not engage in any of the additional comments she has.
"but I want to do this because" or "but why" etc.
If she is unable to call you on the cell & you only respond with her options & avoid engaging in that nonsense she will learn it's a waste of her time & you'll have a more appropriate relationship with her.
Well, I try to be pleasant and professional with everyone, especially with my contractors :)
But when people get me, I'm very professionally trying to get rid of them.
I always can find another tenant or contractor but will never reinstate my health because of all that stress.
Off course, I wouldn't tell the Tenant something that straitforward but rather more like @Wesley W. said:"it seems like I can't make you happy and I prefer happy Tenants"......BTW, it was a real case and my Tenant stopped nagging every month about little things. To be fair, I've never had disrespectful Tenants, just annoying ;)
How is she being disrespectful? Is she using profanity when she speaks to you? If it's just that she's not friendly, I wouldn't concern myself with that too much as long as the rent is being paid on time and the property is being kept up. I'm not looking to make friendships with my tenants, it is strictly a business relationship.
Don`t make things personal. This is business and if she pays the rent and takes care of the place who cares what color her hair is, how she walks or how she talks. I would take a obnoxious tenant who pays every month over the a sweet old lady with a sob story who won`t pay her bills. Unless you are running a charity.
@Sarah Pursell. Personally, I would not renew her lease. I had a similar situation in the last property I purchased. Tenant paid on time and took great care of the place, but was high drama and had given the prior owner a lot of headaches. I decided to closed contingent on her moving out. Initially, I was concerned maybe I over-reacted and should have toughed it out as I did lose a few months rent getting the place turned over. But the new tenant pays on time with no drama. This is worth a month of rent to me.
You are going to face all personality types in this business. So don't let her get to you. Someone else with "issues" will come again eventually.
High maintenance means you have to spend more time. So this description I do not like. We all prefer tenants that call us minimally.
But a slightly negative attitude, you can overcome that. If her behavior is very disruptive, then this is the best time to cut ties with her.
Hire a property management company OR tell her your ground rules ! who cares what her credentials are, she should respect you as a human being PERIOD. She'll respect you more or she'll leave. If she leaves I'm sure you will be able to get a tenant in there since a lawyer resided there.
Just my 2 cents
@Sarah Pursell
I had dealt with a similar situation with my first rental. The lady had a two-year lease and the first year she was great. The second year she nit picked everything from electrical in which. Had the electrician come out multiple times and he had told her that she was the problem and not the house (Which she didn’t like), and many others from “health code violations for one of the two bathrooms having to get the plumbing redone and it was an inconvenience to her”.
We didn’t kick her out for her constant complaining since she paid on time but in the last two months she did not pay her rent on time the second to last of the month, and didn’t pay it at all the last month. We ended up kicking her out the last month with a 3-day demand followed by an eviction notice. The lawyer advised we send her an itemized letter stating what we did to the property and why she was getting back what she got back from her deposit which was nothing since it covered the last months rent.
She followed up shortly after from her lawyer with a list of “repairs” that needed to be done and that violated health code, in which I replied with a very detailed list of dates times and statements of all repairs done for each complaint she made. I never heard back from that lawyer or her again.
Looking back it was not worth the headache even if she did pay on time. Some of the people said it best on here, “If it stresses your day, it isn’t worth your time”.
Where does it say that being rude and demanding are grounds for eviction. Not renewing the lease is a round about way of evicting someone. If she is a lawyer and if you refuse to renew, she just might bring you to court and have a good chance in front of a judge. Dealing with rude and demanding tenants are part of being a property manager. Sounds to me like she is not happy with what you are supposed to be giving her in exchange for her money. Maybe try to see her side of things. My experience has been, two queen bees will never get along. So ask yourself how are you presenting yourself to others? I am not saying to be a push over but maybe try to be understanding of what your tenants' expectations are.
From experience it's only going to get worse. You can always get another renter. It may hurt in the short term; however you will be so much better off in the long run.
@James Wise She is not calling me about unnecessary communications. She is texting me about repairs, then demanding they happen on her timeline, rather than what is realistic. And just being rude.
We do not talk about anything other than lease terms, rent payments and repairs. It’s the repairs issue that gets her being rude.
I'd give her a new lease and be very clear about terms of repairs. Attorneys like/need clear rules to follow. I spent 30 years in the federal government working with them. They are demanding by nature and need to be to excel in their jobs. Unfortunately they come across as demanding in all of life.
Put in the lease and have her initial something like 'Emergency repairs will be completed within 24 hours if possible. Emergency repairs are defined as repairs that are needed to sustain human use of the premises such as a SOURCE of water (note, not every source, but one source that is functional). This emergency repair schedule does not include the function of air conditioning units or the function of appliances. Appliance repairs and other non-emergency repairs will be scheduled within a week whenever possible based on the availability of the service provider. The date the repairman will look at the situation will be provided by the landlord to the tenant as it is scheduled.' Let her know if she is not agreeable to this she needs to go.
@Sarah Pursell I don’t think that you should take it personally as a manager. Have other tenants complained? I would consider putting a rent increase of 10-20% if you truly thought she was detrimental to the property.
The exact reason I never rent to an attorney!
Hi @Sarah Young! I'm surprised to see so much advice here but so few questions... My first thought is how much do you "need" this tenant? Would it be easy to rent it out to someone else at the same or better rate?
What kind of repairs? Are they legit or is she truly nit picking?
Is this a local rental or one of your out of state rentals?
I don't like dealing with tenants that I don't like. My strategy is to self manage but to make it easy by keeping the places up nice and not trying to get the very top dollar in rent. Mind you, I don't rent cheap, but I just don't try to push the limits. I try to fix things fast if there's a problem. As a result, I can cherry pick my tenants and they usually stay for multiple years. That more than makes up for the slightly lower rent.
Also, I always get first month, last month and security deposit up front. (3x the rent) This weeds out a lot of potential tenants but the ones that qualify can usually afford the rent AND they're on good behavior when the end of their lease comes about. Since I've started that policy I never hear, "Oh by the way, my security deposit IS my last month's rent".
I agree with the advice that the tenant/landlord relationship is business, but I still don't want it to be unpleasant. I like the tact you took of just taking a firm stance and letting her know you really aren't willing to put up with a bad attitude. It does sound like you might need to get clear with her about what you're going to fix/maintain and not. That said, I also fix anything that I feel is legitimate asap. That's just good business and I do want to keep my tenants happy!
@Sarah Pursell
Hey Sarah,I think that’s a great post because your specific question actually represent much more for business owners point of view.
to your ,question in general ,it’s pretty simple.
overall,
if you think firing her will do more good than bad let her go.
otherwise,let her stay.
Sarah,my advice for you is approach anything related to your business like a business.
try to let your emotions stay out and take it from “she insulted me” which is personal ,
to “shes a difficult customer”.
Also I’m a believer that there is a way to communicate with anyone and navigate them to our ways of thinking.
by what she did for a living and the way shes talking to you sounds like she’s really seeking for power and fill important,she wants to fill in charge .
Than let her fill like she’s being in charge .
that might will fill her up with good vibes overtime .
don’t forget that your the owner of the business and she’s a customer in your business.
you choose what happen.
Dear..........
Thank you for wanting to extend your lease agreement with us when it expires. However, due to there being a breakdown in our Landlord/Tenant relationship during your tenancy with us, (you haven't been very happy here) we find that it is best that we decline your request.
However, we do wish you the best.
Sincerely,
@Jose Torres to answer your question: some examples of her disrespect: telling me “that is unacceptable” when I told her I would be figuring out *why* the basement flooded before installing new carpet (only to have it happen again). The old carpet has been removed, and the basement is dry, and I just need to wait for a plumber to get out there and figure out why this happened (or if she flooded it and isn’t telling me).
Another example: after she spent 2 months trying to find someone to help fix an odor in the basement (she offered to find someone and I’m out of state, so I said that’d be fine) to no avail, she passed the task back to me, and I spent 2 weeks trying to find someone, to no avail (this home is in an oil boomtown, and most men work in oil, so finding service professionals is very difficult.). I got a nasty text from her demanding that it get fixed immediately. I responded with an explanation that after two months of her trying to get a call back, I’ve only been working on it for two weeks, but I was hopeful I’d have someone there soon. Her response was, “I’m not interested in excuses, I just want results”.
Her “high maintenance” is not in regards to how often she calls me. I meant that more than she likes things high end and perfect. For example: She was really distraught when she realized there was no garbage disposal. She requested to instal one on her dime, which I originally ok’d, but after she went to install a light fixture I’d ok’d, and discovered “old, unsafe wiring that is a fire hazard”, I ended up footing the bill for the electrician to come out and update the wiring (that we hadn’t no issues with until she discovered it was unsafe). Something that was supposed to be on her dime ended up being on mine. Lesson learned. I halted all things I’d told her she could do on her dime, and told her no more imporovments could be made. My bad for allowing it in the first place, and I took that as one of those “school of hard knocks” things i learned.
The hard part for me is when she starts telling me “this is a safety hazard, a health hazard, etc”. I hear “lawsuit coming”, so I feel intimidated into doing things that I later realize weren’t necessary. Part of this is on me, but part of it is her aggressive lawyerness.
I am out of state, and I have a friend locally who I pay to help me on occasion (mainlynfor turnovers), but finding a good PM was very difficult when I researched. It’s a small town, and I could not find one PM I hadn’t heard bad reviews about, so I decided to do it myself, with my friend’s assistance.
@John Semanchuk I think I answered most of your questions above, but I’m not sure how much I need her. A lot of it depends on the price of oil when I have turnovers. Right now, oil is down, and it may be more difficult to replace her. She pays very high rent for a medium-high end home in an oil boomtown. There weren’t a lot of applicants when I rented to her originally (2 or 3).
The different views on the topic are interesting. None of the opinions are wrong.
Would be nice if they had a survey option here.