Real Estate Agent · Oakland, CA · Member since 2018 · 54 posts · 42 votes
Hi BP community,
I am pretty new to running a rental property. I recently took over managing a property for family in the San Francisco. I was discussing rent and property situation with my tenants, and they got pretty heated and threaten me with legal jargons. I am pretty ignorant of the laws and wondering how should I approach this issue going forward.
Sounds like it might be best to NOT sign a new lease with them. Give them their 30 day notice (or whatever is necessary in your area) and find better tenants. When tenants start "threatening" to withhold rent or start throwing around legal terms, it usually doesn't end well. 99% of the time they have zero idea what they're even talking about.
Is this your property or are you just managing it? From the little info we have, it sounds as if the tenants are mad that their rent is going to go up and they are looking for reasons for it not to.
Thanks for the continued advice and support, everyone!
Currently, I had to return management back to my family. They said to keep thing as it like before with the tenants because they think the tenants will just move out eventually on their own.
Of course, I let my family know everyone's advice to hire proper PM and lawyers, but they want to avoid these conflict due to other complication with my family dispute over ownership of the house. Another whole can of worms that I won't get into. (Another lesson: Write a dam clear legal Will with a lawyer. Verbal is useless. Greedy People will fight over your stuff when you passed.)
I will pass this headache back to them and focus on my own properties. I will apply everyone's teaching to better manage my own properties. Thank you, everybody.
It's probably best for you to stay out of it anyway. It was nice of you to try to help out, though. I've seen good family relationships go sour over a couple grand. There's always that person who gets upset if someone else gets a few extra dollars left to them.
Very professional, no more information than needed, refer to the lease to resolve every issue. If it keeps up get rid of them the next time to violate the lease.