Rental Property Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2017 · 104 posts · 64 votes
Hey everyone, I haven't posted about it but I closed on my first duplex in February & now I am so happy I can finally call myself a rental property investor.
But sure enough Into my first month I learned this one tenant loves to text and call to request a bunch of minor fixes that seem to be something that I'm not sure if I should be responsible to fix or if the tenant should fix it.
Like this photo I got a text about this falling down in the middle of the night but clearly I can see that its too much weight being put on the bar. I already texted her to clean the space out and I will have someone put it back up.
But I wanted to know what is some of the things in a unit the tenant should be responsible for?
That's a tenant fix.... unless there was some structural issue like the attachment ripped out of the wall and will need drywall patch or something more involved. If they broke the bar or attachment, that's on them...go buy a new one
What's your lease say about minor fixes? Many have statements about "any fix under $x is the responsibility of the tenant"
There is always a balance between " I don't want a tenant to try and fix something and totally screw it up and make things worse and cost me more $$ to fix their F up"...vs...." don't frickin call me for every little thing that takes a few minutes and a few $$ to fix"
most leases I have seen over the last 25 yrs have a clause that said "if it less than $75, it is the tenant's responsibility. To include plumbing. A friend who had a lot of SF rentals always had that in her leases long before it was the norm. She told me, almost every tenant stuffed paper towels down the toilets, or something similar until she put that in her leases. I like what Ned said, though. Unless it will F ^ up and cost more money in the long haul. Also, I would get an app for my tenants or a cell phone that is just for tenants. If I owned property, that is. I wouldn't have them texting me at 3 am. Borders on harassment IMHO.
@Alex S. this was a inherited tenant & I don't nothing about who is responsible for this. I only see what she must take care of ( I.E pest/rodent control, Heat, Bed bugs etc) in this lease
@Ned J. see that is exactly what I was thinking but this was a inherited tenant and I have read up and down this lease and cant seem to find anything about a certain dollar amount under they should be responsible for.
& the only reason I just texted her have the space cleaned out and I will have somebody put it back up is because I don't want my unit falling apart
@Karen Orr thank you, I know i made the mistake of not setting up a google voice number before I met with the tenant smh. but honestly I don't make it a priority to get back to them right away.
This tenant have been in the property for over 5 years and the lease addendum is no help with finding who is responsible for minor fixes
@Caleb Heimsoth Thank you for your reply, but do you think I should go and text my tenant no i will not fix the problem because its her responsibility? even tho I already told her I would have somebody fix it?
@Caleb Heimsoth Thank you for your reply, but do you think I should go and text my tenant no i will not fix the problem because its her responsibility? even tho I already told her I would have somebody fix it?
If you said you’d fix it, then I’d fix it. Next time though just say no. Unless it’s serious like plumbing or electrical, or water is leaking somewhere or something like that typically you’ll just say no.
If I buy a property with tenants I always request their lease when the offer is sent. One of my contingency is copy of the lease. Check usually something like this they need to take care themselves. You are as a landlord responsible for major repairs. Check your landlord laws in your state. If they are M2M have the have them sign a contract.
@Alex S. thank you, that is what I thought I'm responsible for the major repairs this is exactly why I uploaded it to this forum to get other people take on this. but I will take care of this one because I told her I will then going forward I know
Since they've been in the property for 5 years now, is the lease now month to month or did they sign a new 1 year lease each year? Many lease become M2M if they are not formally renewed as a full year lease.....so depending on what you inherited, you may be able to put a fully new lease in place very soon if you want to have different terms etc. If its a full year lease with the prior owner, you cant change anything until that expires.
It's time for you to set the boundaries with the tenant..... if you said you would fix this issue, then fix it but be very clear on what the expectations are for the future small issues like this. My tenants do have my cell but I've made it perfectly clear that they are not to contact me unless there is a serious issue.
It looks like they were using the clothes rod to hand clothes... something it should be doing. If they were doing chin-ups on it, that’s a different story.
My tenants pay quite a bit of money each month to not have to fix things that break from wear and tear. I would pay my handyman $25-30 to put in a new piece of wood in the closet and better hang the rod so it’ll never fall down again.
I have no issue saying ‘no’ for things I’d consider additions to the house. Also I have no issue with telling them they’ll have to pay for clogging the toilet or whatever. But I try to meet them halfway too.
From that photo all you can really tell is they had clothes hanging on a clothes rod and it fell. As a landlord, I would fix that. Matter of fact, I have fixed that before.
Just to throw something else out there - since you’ll be going over to fix it anyway, do a full house inspection at the same time if you didn’t conduct one when you purchased. That way you’ll have a record of current condition. If anything else ends up broken beyond normal wear and tear throughout the lease or at move-out, you’ll have proof to be able to charge the tenant for the repair.
Several people are giving good answers here in my opinion. I would say @Ned J. nailed it though.
I've always worked directly w/my tenants.
I recommend renewing the lease with your lease, not the one you inherited, when you are able to do that and also doing what @Jen R. said and using this as an opportunity to look around the place. Doing what you said you'd do will be good for your standing w/the tenant.
If you'll allow me to leap to a conclusion that I admit may be unwarranted....you might have yourself what I would define as a "needy tenant." In my experience these come in 3 varieties: One, decent tenants who seem to need something around the 1st of the month when rent is due, so that they feel better about paying the rent; two, ultra-needy tenants who cost more to keep happy than they pay in rent, and three, lonely tenants who like little things fixed just to talk to someone.
I'd be out of business if I never met my tenants. I do not trust anyone else in this world to select quality tenants. Brokers want their fees and are not sufficiently selective. Larger apartment companies put significant training for their employees for tenant screening / selection.
As for cell numbers, if you don't give yours, fine. But they will need to have someone to take calls with their problems. I'd rather get a 3 AM call for an emergency then not be informed for a day. This has only happened once to me - after many years.
@James Nix it will take about 10 minutes to fix. I would do it ONE TIME out of good faith. Then tell them , do not bother me with these minor items that you create, Say it nicely they will get the point. If this is a low income prop/ tenant, They will do ANYTHING not to pay the rent. I have had tenants call me to tell me there light bulb went out. I simply laugh and hang up. When they call me back, they say , bob we got disconnected,, no I hung up on you. You are really bothering me about a light bulb, Go replace it yourself and do not bother me with this nonsense. Of course I say it politely.
Hey everyone, I haven't posted about it but I closed on my first duplex in February & now I am so happy I can finally call myself a rental property investor.
But sure enough Into my first month I learned this one tenant loves to text and call to request a bunch of minor fixes that seem to be something that I'm not sure if I should be responsible to fix or if the tenant should fix it.
Like this photo I got a text about this falling down in the middle of the night but clearly I can see that its too much weight being put on the bar. I already texted her to clean the space out and I will have someone put it back up.
But I wanted to know what is some of the things in a unit the tenant should be responsible for?
This is a property issue, not a tenant issue. Unless, the hanger was not provided by you and they installed it. And if that is the case, you have a right to damages yourself.
Clothes are heavy sometimes. The wise play is to build a system that accommodates the weight. Sort of like how someone might build a bridge - lol.
I actually install really nice closet systems whenever the issue comes up. Not the sort of thing that I get bonus for on the sale, but the sort of thing residents do enjoy. What I get out if it, is I build it once and it will never fall down.
The home stores sell these thick metal bars, but they are more expensive. Wood is fine too, also expensive for a thick bar. In either case, the systems need to be mounted and bracketed so the pole will never pull out of the wall or bend in the middle. Harder to find are the metal oval poles, which of course are stronger with less material. These too need bracketing. The general rule of thumb is a bracket every 2 feet for the best strength. Obviously the further out you space the brackets, the weaker the system.
Hard to tell from the picture, but that system looks weak. Looks like you have a "door" closet that is deep. If you don't mind getting a bit fancy and build something that will last and will accommodate more clothes, you could do a combo pole system. Right now the clothes are running the length/depth of the closet. What you would do is run the new system along the width. Could do this two ways. The easier way would be to run a double pole across the width, so clothes can be stacked, essentially doubling the space. This however does not work for dresses and longer coats, but those are also fewer in number, so you could run hooks in the area the clothes are now. The other idea would be to run a modified double across the width, where lets say 2/3 of the width is for the double pole, and the other 1/3 is for the longer clothing - like a "California" closet design.
In any event, for all designs, the key is running wood runners attached to the stud system. The runners are attached to the studs, which provides the right amount of grab and also distributes the load. Then the closet systems are attached to the runners. Do that and you will build it once and never again, so long as you use SOLID wood and NEVER particle wood or any other nonsense product.
The above is not a great picture, but shows an example of how you would do a combo across the width of the closet, on a smaller scale of course. it features a double pole on the left, essentially doubling the amount of hanger space, and a standard height pole on the right, allowing for the longer articles of clothing. If your closet is deep, I would probably not do a combo, as you will likely want to access behind to clothes too, and obviously the supporting/diving member is going to get in the way of that.
The unpainted portion is where the old system was, one of those you buy in the store and is made of particle board. It totally sucked, pulled out of the wall and because it did not go all the way to the floor, all the weight was on the screws, which were in the drywall only, and it was super dangerous if you bent down to pick something off the floor and caught yourself on the damn thing coming up. It was one of those that looks clever in the store, but is going to get replaced soon enough.
I wish this pic turned out better. I went to the store and picked through the cheapest pine boards to find some straight ones - lol - that'll take a minute. But the premium stuff is much more expensive, you still have to dig to get straight pieces and you still have to sand and stain it (or not). So I had to run the sander a couple more runs, but then applied a stain and a couple coats of poly. I used finish cabinet screws to put it all together, and they recess so nice I did not even bother to fill them.
A couple of things to point out in the build. Every shelf is supported by a runner on all sides. You can load that thing up with bowling balls. The poles however, if you look close, have the mounts screwed into the runner, which is screwed into the middle support. I did not use longer screws to make it all the way into the vertical support, but probably should have (it will probably be fine). Just need to be careful to select exactly the right size screw, or it will come out the other side.
Well there you go, a long-winded Sunday morning post.
LOL happens all the time, breaking white wire shelves off the wall. The fix is to take stiff alluminum wire and wrap around the shelf / rack pole and put a drywall screw into the walls header 2x4 at the ceiling line, wrap the wire around that screw. Now the wire and screw carries the weight.
Read my paper, buying a Bullet Proof Rental portfolio off my profile first paragraph.
Your tenant is the capital asset, the house is the liability in this equation!!!!
Landlord fixes everything, in GA (as in alot of states I bet and regardless of lease verbage) landlord fixes everything. And in my view and business its smart to be responsive and fix things fast. Do you want your rental to degrade into a pig pen. Tenants are in-capable of even simple fixes in general. Its a good reason for you to be in the house building a relationship.
No body but you can fix that cloths rack. Use the wire tip. :) You want to be checking under sinks for leaking p-traps etc etc, changing the furnace filter etc. Spots on the ceiling indicating roof leaks. There's many good bigger picture reasons to fix small things.
@James Nix Fix it...for good. My mother has a 2005 townhome and the builder used metal rod holders and heavy metal rods...look like galvanized fence posts. I have wood in all my rentals and have on 1 occasion had a repair. Most have a center support that also supports a shelf. Renters hang a lot of stuff so they don’t have to buy a dresser. My 2018 apartment has a lot of built in shelves in the closet and the adjoining bathroom...I think they expect renters to buy ikea type storage boxes for jeans, towels etc. as the shelves are the perfect size for them.
@Brian Ploszay he’s been very successful with how he has run his business. I wouldn’t second guess him based on your experience which is likely much more limited