Team- We've had a really smooth 5 years of renting until now. My head is still spinning a little over the text we received from our tenant that just moved out. They have been good renters over the year, so I'm really surprised by this. All of this for "up to $200". The simple back story. The renter moves out, we inspect the apartment, it seems fine, we have the apartment professionally cleaned and they tell us the glass on the inside of the vanity mirror is cracked. Our mistake was to not check inside that stupid cabinet when we did the walk thru... So we tell the renter we're going to deduct it from his deposit to replace the unit. It's maybe 200 bones tops. So here's how he responds. "I sincerely hope we don’t go down this road as I have done as I told you. If we can’t agree then I will also go after the two days of rent reimbursement for the days I turned over the residence to you as to help get you new tenant in the duplex and also seek additional damages for the change of plans with work (that's actually not true, he moved out and the apartment was vacant until the 1st). Shall I keep going. Trust me there are a few other things up my sleeve that you really don’t want me to pull out. Remember we are not the kind of people who fit with you tenants. I have every email and every text and I promise I will do everything possible to make things totally difficult for the future. I have deep contacts that I have developed over the last couple of years and I am done playing. No threats here just proof I have and I saved it all for this time. Please forward the deposit as agreed and I will go away. Please respond as I need to know how to proceed tomorrow." Is this extortion? It's definitely a threat. We've had no issues either, so him keeping the texts and e-mails make no sense. Great, you have the text I sent you that the dryer repair guy is coming by today... I don't know how to handle this one. 200 bucks here, on a $1500 rental. He claims he didn't break it, but the cleaners are emphatic it was broken when they cleaned. Thoughts?

Are you renting to Liam Neeson “ over the years I’ve acquired specialized skills , skills to track you down and find you ...”

maybe the answer is approach it from his level ? Dear tenant Unfortunately Your persistent threats over the 200$ has kindled my wrath which will not turn out well for you . I may appear as an unassuming flabby middle age white guy but I’m actually a golden glove boxer and a 1987 east coast kickboxing champion . Since I received your text I’ve watched 27 hours of Kung fu reruns ( tv land marathon ) and drank 4 pots of coffee and Pumped ready to rock and roll .so if your feelin froggish and want to leap then come on by and try to collect the 200 bucks. Let me know .I’ll go ahead and pencil you in for a 9:30 a$$ whippin . Signed “ the punisher”

If I had a dollar for every time a tenant threatened to sue and expose me to the world for the evil scum that I am. It's $200 which is about what it will cost him to take you to Small Claims. Here's what I would do: 1. Ignore, no matter what he does. Personal letters get filed. Emails archived. Texts and phone calls blocked. 2. If he contacts me via an attorney, I file and ignore. 3. If he takes me to Small Claims, choose whether to defend myself or contact him and offer to split the difference or just pay the amount. I only consider #3 because that shows a level of determination that won't stop so you have to decide whether to just pay them off or defend yourself in front of the judge. If I have the evidence, I'll defend myself every day.

too funny I would not respond.. just send a finial accounting. also TEXTING I just don't see how landlords allow tenants to text them. that's crazy.. I would never respond to a text.. they are training U.. me personally get those text I never answer them .. unless its a close associate or family.. never would I let a tenant text me NEVER.. they will abuse you threaten you drunk text you etc. I mean really all this over 200.00 bucks I mean seriously.. LOL

@Jim Morris you really should do a walk through through inspection when they are there and point out deductions on the spot. It is hard when you come back later and claim deductions. If I miss things during a walk through, that falls back on me. Personally, I would tell them that since you missed it on the walk through, that you will not deduct for the damage and I would return the full amount. He did threaten you and that is not right, but also remember who has more to lose here? You have a house worth probably a hundred thousand or more and this beef is over $200? I know everyone is telling you to fight the good fight, but what if it turns out badly? The guy seems like a hot head. Could he be full of hot air, probably, but what if he is the type that comes in the night and trashes your property? If you give him all his deposit back, you never deal with him again. You deduct $200 and this doesn't end. Easy decision for me. I always look for compromise when small amounts of money are involved. It is called cost accounting.

I have a slightly different take most of the others. I agree with Splitrock. You said that, at walk-through, you did not notice the damage in question. I assume you then told the tenant (or implied) that he would be receiving a full refund of his security deposit. At this point, stop and look at it from the tenant's point of view. If you inspected the unit and he was told he would receive full deposit, but he later was blindsided with a $200 deduction, that would have made him feel you were taking advantage of him. That feeling might have made him respond as many landlord here on BP say they respond: with force to demand what they want and think is fair. At this point, you look to him as just another "greedy landlord trying to harass the poor tenant." My opinion is if you did indeed tell the tenant he was to receive a full refund, you should refund the deposit in full. It is not his fault you missed the supposed damage. After all, it is entirely possible the damage occurred after you performed the walk-through. You really don't know. The mistake of missing the supposed damage was yours -- as such, you should bear the cost.

I would send them their remaining security deposit with the deducted $200 with the bill for those services. I also would stay away from texting tenants unless it was someone I knew personally. For example, I rented a place to a friend's girlfriend so I don't mind if he texts me that the hot water isn't working or whatever. I stick to email if you want something in writing. Tenants like to lie and puff their chest to bluff landlords into caving. Send him the remaining $1300 of the security and don't worry about it. The ball would be in his court if he wanted to pursue legal action and its just not worth the $200 for the aggravation.

I have a tenant threatening me now over something they said we "stole" from them. This after they moved out and left the place trashed with dog poop all over the place and not giving proper 30 days notice. Ignore them. Move on. Don't block them. Let them rant and save every communication. It will be good on your end to remain calm and professional. Let the judge see what kind of people they are.

Has anyone been extorted/threatened for the deposit back?

Nick Rutkowski

Rental Property Investor · Ithaca, NY · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

7y

@Jim Morris

Tell him to put his money where his mouth is and you won’t be having these problems.

0 Reply

Jim Morris

OP

Rental Property Investor · NC · Member since 2018 · 29 posts · 11 votes

7y

Fantastic points of view to the LADIES and gentlemen of the group. We've decided the bigger issue here are the threats, and specifically the threat of making things difficult for us in the future, so to me it needs to be known that he's forever on the hook if there are any issues with the property (fire, vandalism, breakins and so on..) or slanderous comments about me when I run an ad to rent the property in the future (fortunately that won't come up for over a year) or whatever. This is a business, and it's an income stream for us so I don't take this component of the text lightly at all.

So today I'm calling the authorities and have a discussion to see what can or should be done to protect our interests, and I'll discuss the threats as well.

1 Reply

Aaron Poling

Realtor · WV · Member since 2018 · 454 posts · 310 votes

7y

It is definitely a threat which is silly over 200 dollars. Not sure what he is referring to in your emails, etc... so assume you don't have anything to worry about there.

Personally if I had a great renter for 5 years, and upon move out there was a broken mirror I would just accept it as normal wear and tear and replace it myself, and refund the deposit.

As the investor you probably have a really busy schedule. If the renter has a lot of time on their hands they could make things a pain in the butt for you, and you only have to gain the 200. With a renter that was bad, I would consider doing it as a matter of principle, but with someone that was a good renter I would just give it back.

Good Luck, Aaron

1 Reply

Steve Vaughan

Rental Property Investor · East Wenatchee, WA · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @Brian Ellis:

If it were me, id just give back the deposit and be done with it. I have no time for that kind of drama in my life. If he was out two days prior to the end of the month, that's $100 he wasn't asking for.

Definitely childish on his part, but so is nickel and diming people over a broken mirror.

This. Thank you, Brian.

A good tenant for 5 years and it could be considered normal wear and tear anyway. You should at least depreciate the stupid mirror to half.

And they returned a $1500/mo house to you a couple days early at $50 per day. But...no. 3 pages of drama so far and a bunch of indigestion. Congratulatios.

LLs will never reach even 1x Napper status geeking out and gouging over trivial deposit refunds. The tie always goes to the tenant.

Oh- and texting is awesome IMO. What sucked was answering the phone all the time with the 'oh btw, since I have you' add-ons and the misunderstandings of who said what later.

5 Reply

Anthony Wick

Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes

7y

@Eric L. So your idea to a tenant breaking something of yours is to not fix it and give them back their full deposit? Interesting strategy. What kind of properties do you own wherein duct tape is an acceptable fix to tenants breaking things? Look, the tenant broke something that is beyond normal wear and tear. There is no reason why the landlord should have to eat that cost. What exactly do you think a damage deposit is for, if not for fixing damages?! Oh, it's only $200. What if this happened to you 100 times. Oh, that's only $20,000.

1 Reply

Anthony Wick

Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes

7y

Ignore the amount of time and pages of this thread. It isn't about "wasted time" discussing this. If he simply followed his lease this thread wouldn't exist, and no more time would be spent on this situation than any other move out of a tenant. This is about running a business. Unless, of course, you do not own rental property for profit. Maybe some of you own it for funsies. But, if you own it for profit, of course you charge him for damage. I only do this part time, as I have a great W2 job. But I want profit. I don't want to just take from my tenant any way possible, but I sure as heck don't want to subsidize them or eat the cost of something they break. Those of you that state you wouldn't charge him, why do you even bother to collect a damage deposit? Does your lease state; "damage deposit will be used only if damage is over $200". That clearly must be what your leases state. If not, why do you even write a lease? You aren't following it. This also has nothing to do with how long the tenant has been there, or how much rent they have paid. They paid their rent to live in your property. They paid a price, you supplied the commodity. And if you proclaim; "it isn't worth the hassle", how often do you say that before you think it is? 10 times ($200 loss now)? 50 times ($1,000 loss now)? Now, it is your business if you charge a tenant or not, but don't pretend you're not eating a cost of what the tenant broke. I guess I'm just confused as to why some here don't believe in charging a tenant for damage they have done. Maybe I should threaten to sue you unless you send me $200 (I'm joking...ha ha...). Or maybe I just had too much coffee this morning...

0 Reply

Jennifer T.Pro Member

Investor · New Orleans, LA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 944 votes

7y

At least this former tenant will have 7 years of bad luck.

4 Reply

Brian Ellis

Rental Property Investor · South shore, MA · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @Anthony Wick:

Ignore the amount of time and pages of this thread. It isn't about "wasted time" discussing this. If he simply followed his lease this thread wouldn't exist, and no more time would be spent on this situation than any other move out of a tenant. This is about running a business. Unless, of course, you do not own rental property for profit. Maybe some of you own it for funsies. But, if you own it for profit, of course you charge him for damage. I only do this part time, as I have a great W2 job. But I want profit. I don't want to just take from my tenant any way possible, but I sure as heck don't want to subsidize them or eat the cost of something they break. Those of you that state you wouldn't charge him, why do you even bother to collect a damage deposit? Does your lease state; "damage deposit will be used only if damage is over $200". That clearly must be what your leases state. If not, why do you even write a lease? You aren't following it. This also has nothing to do with how long the tenant has been there, or how much rent they have paid. They paid their rent to live in your property. They paid a price, you supplied the commodity. And if you proclaim; "it isn't worth the hassle", how often do you say that before you think it is? 10 times ($200 loss now)? 50 times ($1,000 loss now)? Now, it is your business if you charge a tenant or not, but don't pretend you're not eating a cost of what the tenant broke. I guess I'm just confused as to why some here don't believe in charging a tenant for damage they have done. Maybe I should threaten to sue you unless you send me $200 (I'm joking...ha ha...). Or maybe I just had too much coffee this morning...

The ones arguing holding the deposit, have made a point that:

a. the landlord didn't prorate the month he left, thus holding $100 from the tenant.

b. the mirror could have been broken prior, by somebody else, and it was missed during the walkthrough... whos fault is that?

c. the way it was handled in the first place, by the landlord, is what put him in this situation to begin with.

No one is saying what the tenant said is ok, its not. But, it all could have been avoided in the first place. And yes, $200 isn't worth the hassle to me. Am I a bad business owner because of that? Maybe in your eyes.. But ive been doing ok. My tenants respect me. When I address a problem, they listen instead of threatening me.

4 Reply

Joseph Walsh

Brookfield, WI · Member since 2016 · 191 posts · 108 votes

7y

There is a third perspective. The former tenant believes he's being wronged, and wont let it go, he believes he has bent over a bit as a tenant, and the landlord should let it slide in light of previous "passes" they gave the landlord, and he may be right. Even if he's not, he may truly believe his is right. I had a land lord in college try to screw me out of a $400 deposit, only $200 of it was mine. They had a bs reasoning. Anyway, long story short, they just had a habit of stealing peoples deposits to cover their turnover costs. because in hind sight, they were bad at this business. It pissed me off, it was the principal of the thing. I had graduated and taken a job out of state, and could of easily just wrote off the stress of the $200. I fought it for months. I detailed all the ******** they technically owed us for over the course of the year (A couple days without head mid winter, etc.) eventually we got a check for $500. My point, it might not be worth the $200 if you have someone with a "righteous" belief they have been wronged. And you may also be setting yourself to also take that righteous stance, all over $200. How much time will this take from you? I value my time pretty high.

1 Reply

Joe SplitrockPro Member

Moderator

Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @Jim Morris:

Fantastic points of view to the LADIES and gentlemen of the group. We've decided the bigger issue here are the threats, and specifically the threat of making things difficult for us in the future, so to me it needs to be known that he's forever on the hook if there are any issues with the property (fire, vandalism, breakins and so on..) or slanderous comments about me when I run an ad to rent the property in the future (fortunately that won't come up for over a year) or whatever. This is a business, and it's an income stream for us so I don't take this component of the text lightly at all.

So today I'm calling the authorities and have a discussion to see what can or should be done to protect our interests, and I'll discuss the threats as well.

Calling the authorities over that text? Nonsense. He never threatened any of those things. Now you are accusing him of future actions that never even occurred. There is nothing for the authorities to do.

He is clearly threatening you, but threats over mistakes YOU made. That is civil, not criminal threats. What does he mean when he says "he doesn't fit in with other tenants". Is the tenant a minority or some protected class? He seems to think you made legal mistakes. You may think he is wrong, but do you really want this to go to court? If you did violate the law, this could get financially ugly for you.

There is another option. Give the dude back his $200 and apologize. You will be done with this forever and he won't say a single bad thing about you. It seems you are chasing personal vendettas instead of running a business.

I am not saying to never take deductions on deposits, but you need to follow a process and have documented proof of before condition and cost (minus depreciation for age). At the end of the day, fighting over $200 when you have a weak case is bad business.

6 Reply

Jay HinrichsBusiness Member

Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @Joe Splitrock:

Originally posted by @Jim Morris:

Fantastic points of view to the LADIES and gentlemen of the group. We've decided the bigger issue here are the threats, and specifically the threat of making things difficult for us in the future, so to me it needs to be known that he's forever on the hook if there are any issues with the property (fire, vandalism, breakins and so on..) or slanderous comments about me when I run an ad to rent the property in the future (fortunately that won't come up for over a year) or whatever. This is a business, and it's an income stream for us so I don't take this component of the text lightly at all.

So today I'm calling the authorities and have a discussion to see what can or should be done to protect our interests, and I'll discuss the threats as well.

Calling the authorities over that text? Nonsense. He never threatened any of those things. Now you are accusing him of future actions that never even occurred. There is nothing for the authorities to do.

He is clearly threatening you, but threats over mistakes YOU made. That is civil, not criminal threats. What does he mean when he says "he doesn't fit in with other tenants". Is the tenant a minority or some protected class? He seems to think you made legal mistakes. You may think he is wrong, but do you really want this to go to court? If you did violate the law, this could get financially ugly for you.

There is another option. Give the dude back his $200 and apologize. You will be done with this forever and he won't say a single bad thing about you. It seems you are chasing personal vendettas instead of running a business.

I am not saying to never take deductions on deposits, but you need to follow a process and have documented proof of before condition and cost (minus depreciation for age). At the end of the day, fighting over $200 when you have a weak case is bad business.

it is amazing the conversations we have on BP with landlords over tiny dollars that are not even worth talking about.. I mean shoot that's the price of a decent bottle of wine for gods sake if one has heart burn over this then landlording is probably a bad choice to begin with .. I mean really ??? weird.

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7 Reply

Joe SplitrockPro Member

Moderator

Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @Anthony Wick:

Ignore the amount of time and pages of this thread. It isn't about "wasted time" discussing this. If he simply followed his lease this thread wouldn't exist, and no more time would be spent on this situation than any other move out of a tenant. This is about running a business. Unless, of course, you do not own rental property for profit. Maybe some of you own it for funsies. But, if you own it for profit, of course you charge him for damage. I only do this part time, as I have a great W2 job. But I want profit. I don't want to just take from my tenant any way possible, but I sure as heck don't want to subsidize them or eat the cost of something they break. Those of you that state you wouldn't charge him, why do you even bother to collect a damage deposit? Does your lease state; "damage deposit will be used only if damage is over $200". That clearly must be what your leases state. If not, why do you even write a lease? You aren't following it. This also has nothing to do with how long the tenant has been there, or how much rent they have paid. They paid their rent to live in your property. They paid a price, you supplied the commodity. And if you proclaim; "it isn't worth the hassle", how often do you say that before you think it is? 10 times ($200 loss now)? 50 times ($1,000 loss now)? Now, it is your business if you charge a tenant or not, but don't pretend you're not eating a cost of what the tenant broke. I guess I'm just confused as to why some here don't believe in charging a tenant for damage they have done. Maybe I should threaten to sue you unless you send me $200 (I'm joking...ha ha...). Or maybe I just had too much coffee this morning...

Look at this another way. You have 10 times where tenants dispute a $200 charge and claims they have proof you broke the law. They threaten legal action. Three of the times, the tenant takes you to court and one time they win. Now you spent time and energy going to court three times and the one time they won, they got awarded extra damages. You also have ten angry tenants are all going around bad mouthing your business. So you saved $1000 on the front end, but after time, court loss and reputation damage, you have saved nothing.

I understand your perspective, but at the same time some battles are not worth fighting, because the cost to fight is more than what you are saving.

2 Reply

Anthony Wick

Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes

7y

@Joe Splitrock

I get your point as well. And I am going under the assumption the tenant actually caused the damage. And I don’t push the envelope on damage vs normal and tear. I’d love to never keep a penny of the damage deposit, but that’s not realistic either.

1 Reply

Anthony Wick

Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes

7y

@Jay Hinrichs

Well, sort of. A lot of people on BP are just starting out, or not at all. Some people drink $200 bottles of wine while I’m over here guzzling $12 bottles. I’m approaching it more as a philosophical way of doing business. Everybody has to decide for themselves where to draw the line. Kind of like the daily question on BP of; “do I raise rents to market rate right away or slowly?” Many view points.

1 Reply

Jill F.

Investor · Akron, OH · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 4k+ votes

7y

In Ohio, you have 30 days to return the deposit and deposit accounting, that guy would be waiting until the very last day.

I actually love text with my 40 something tenants. With texting, I get a written record of everything that is said. The usual alternative is a phone call which is much harder to document. If I do make an agreement with a tenant on a phone call, I usually text them the agreement and have them agree in writing. With text, everybody knows the plan, and knows who is responsible for what and when. Plus texting keeps me up to date with contact phone numbers for my tenants.

However, when I start a legal process, I email and mail everything. I also quit texting once any type of threat is made and if a month to month tenant makes a threat, we immediately non-renew. For tenants on a term lease, once a threat is made we require all communications to be made formally per the terms of our lease via our maintenance work list and then non-renew at the earliest possible date. I really hate to be threatened.

0 Reply

Jim Morris

OP

Rental Property Investor · NC · Member since 2018 · 29 posts · 11 votes

7y

it is amazing the conversations we have on BP with landlords over tiny dollars that are not even worth talking about.. I mean shoot that's the price of a decent bottle of wine for gods sake if one has heart burn over this then landlording is probably a bad choice to begin with .. I mean really ??? weird.

Jay- I could not agree more. There is a temperament one needs to have with this line of business no doubt. I'm not saying I have it necessarily. I think I'm going to need to give myself a temperament adjustment.

This "ordeal" has been some cheap education for us.

0 Reply

Anthony Wick

Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes

7y

@Brian Ellis

Just asking if profit is important to people. You’ll have to decide what’s “bad” or not. Not sure we have all the info, maybe I missed it.

I’m absolutely assuming the tenant actually broke the mirror. Also, did the lease state notice given and to the end of month? No proration due, doesn’t matter when they moved out. Charge the money. Don’t charge it. Nobody here is my partner so I don’t care what people do. But my philosophy on maximizing profits at minimum risk is still the business goal I start with. And yes, being honest as a landlord is there too. If tenant broke mirror, I take it from damage deposit. Simple as that.

1 Reply

Jay HinrichsBusiness Member

Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @Anthony Wick:

@Jay Hinrichs

Well, sort of. A lot of people on BP are just starting out, or not at all. Some people drink $200 bottles of wine while I’m over here guzzling $12 bottles. I’m approaching it more as a philosophical way of doing business. Everybody has to decide for themselves where to draw the line. Kind of like the daily question on BP of; “do I raise rents to market rate right away or slowly?” Many view points.

ya I should have said dinner.. I don't drink 200 dollar bottle of wine except when I am entertaining out with clients or investors or one of my vendors who I funded a flip for and they knocked it out of the park. I like to treat them to a first class dinner wine included...

and my go too is like you a 15 dollar bottle of Kendal Jackson LOL..

It just seems weird to me you have a million dollars or much more in real estate and then get hung up on 100 to 200 dollar issue.

and or take threats like that literally.. I go back to my first statement.. Never let a tenant text you.. do your walk through if you think your correct deduct the money send the statement and move on..

text and e mail and such has created this whole environment for this aggressive behavior I doubt your tenant would say that to your face.. ???? its just too easy to hide behind a key board or phone. its the age we live in I guess.

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2 Reply

Anthony Wick

Rental Property Investor · Ankeny, IA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes

7y

@Jim Morris

I think this is a great discussion, as a matter of philosophy. Let me ask this question from a different angle/situation to everybody;

You have a property manager. Tenant moves out and property manager returns 100% of their damage deposit to them. The next month the property manager sends you a bill for $200 and says; “we had to replace a broken mirror that the last tenant damaged”.

Does that change anybody’s mind that said don’t charge the last tenant for damage? If not, why? And how often does that happen before you are not ok with it? There’s no wrong answer, as it’s your business. Jay says $200 is a bottle of wine. I say it’s 15 bottles. Just different perspectives is all.

0 Reply

Jay HinrichsBusiness Member

Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @Jim Morris:

it is amazing the conversations we have on BP with landlords over tiny dollars that are not even worth talking about.. I mean shoot that's the price of a decent bottle of wine for gods sake if one has heart burn over this then landlording is probably a bad choice to begin with .. I mean really ??? weird.

Jay- I could not agree more. There is a temperament one needs to have with this line of business no doubt. I'm not saying I have it necessarily. I think I'm going to need to give myself a temperament adjustment.

This "ordeal" has been some cheap education for us.

There is a well document syndrome in the medical journals called " Burnt out landlord Syndrome" :) and believe me its real.

there is no doubt a personality type that does best at being a landlord.. and it really depends also to some extent on the asset class.

but on the high end stuff when I had rentals I had 14 SFRs that were new construction that I held all 200 to 250k homes.. and those tenants while fully qualified and never missed rent and did not destroy the house's.. they were on the other end.

IE I want to up grade my appliances to stainless.. or can you please replace the tile counter tops which were standard in the day with slab granite.. I want to be able to entertain etc etc.. so different set of complaints..

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1 Reply

Michael J.

Rental Property Investor · Louisville, KY · Member since 2008 · 342 posts · 123 votes

7y

One thing to add. If you don’t have good proof in the form of a walkthrough and pictures to prove it was not broken you may face problems if you go to court.

Don’t let a tenant bully you but make sure you can back up your claim, if you don’t have evidence I would not pursue it for $200.

I would also only communicate any further using official methods like sending certified letters.

1 Reply

Jim Morris

OP

Rental Property Investor · NC · Member since 2018 · 29 posts · 11 votes

7y

Decaf anyone?

0 Reply

David Moon

Rental Property Investor · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 12 posts · 9 votes

7y

@Ann North I agree, if he was never a problem tenant, maybe this is his emphatic reaction to something he didn’t do...without knowing who is telling the truth- I’d eat the $200 this time and do a better job inspecting on my next walk through..

3 Reply

Jay HinrichsBusiness Member

Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @James Canoy:

@Dennis M.

Ahhhhh yes. This reminds me of one of my favorite memes

Warning-has doodie words

“What the **** did you just ****ing say about me, you little *****? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the **** out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my ****ing words. You think you can get away with saying that **** to me over the Internet? Think again, ****er. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re ****ing dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable *** off the face of the continent, you little ****. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your ****ing tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will **** fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re ****ing dead, kiddo.

sounds like the guy on American greed episode the one were they blew through 50 million of trust money in less than a year .. he got off the other guy got 8 years or something like that.. but the guy who influenced him was a wanna be spy and was a nothing in reality.

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JLH Capital Partners51 Review

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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member

Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes

7y

Originally posted by @Jill F.:

In Ohio, you have 30 days to return the deposit and deposit accounting, that guy would be waiting until the very last day.

I actually love text with my 40 something tenants. With texting, I get a written record of everything that is said. The usual alternative is a phone call which is much harder to document. If I do make an agreement with a tenant on a phone call, I usually text them the agreement and have them agree in writing. With text, everybody knows the plan, and knows who is responsible for what and when. Plus texting keeps me up to date with contact phone numbers for my tenants.

However, when I start a legal process, I email and mail everything. I also quit texting once any type of threat is made and if a month to month tenant makes a threat, we immediately non-renew. For tenants on a term lease, once a threat is made we require all communications to be made formally per the terms of our lease via our maintenance work list and then non-renew at the earliest possible date. I really hate to be threatened.

having 40 tenats with my phone number and texting me is a pain worse than death LOL.. your sitting there staring at your phone all day long and texting is hard to do for me.. but I see other wize around their little phones.. its amazing as I travel the country I do a lot of airport time.. and in the private lounges or out in the concourse I would say 75% of the folks are staring at their phone doing something.. I even find myself reading the news or sports on my phone it becomes a nasty habit.. when I really should be reading a book LOL

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JLH Capital Partners51 Review

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Has anyone been extorted/threatened for the deposit back?

Has anyone been extorted/threatened for the deposit back?

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