Investor · Maui, HI · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 3k+ votes
13y
I have a tenant that continually complains of being cold, and I need to do a better job of sealing her doors (which they are sealed fine.) I go over there- and her heat is off. "Well, I don't wan to pay for all that electricity! I just run it once in a while."
Forney, TX · Member since 2013 · 119 posts · 101 votes
9y
I had a tenant earlier in the year tell me that rent wasn't late after I sent over a late notice
I said "well my account doesn't show a deposit"
Tenant said " I have a deposit receipt here and I can text it to you"
I said "perfect, send it over and I will check it out"
Tenant texted it to me
So I sent it to the bank where they confirmed that the deposit receipt was duplicated from the previous month and photo shopped, tenant change some numbers on the receipt.
Folks will try anything to get out of their responsibilities
Investor · New Orleans, LA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 944 votes
9y
I used to base my rent due date on the date tenants moved in. I've stopped that practice because it was too much of a PITA. But, back then, I had tenants moving in from out-of-state. They told me they'd be arriving on the 27th. I prepared the lease to start on the 27th and we all signed.
Two days before their move-in, I get a phone call that (insert family emergency, that was probably a lie) they will actually not be arriving until the 29th. Sure, fine.
Fast forward a couple months and they are already five days late with their rent. I don't post a notice (I should have), but I do post a "reminder" note. They give me their excuse on why the rent is late, but correct me that they are not five days late. Because their rent is due on the 29th. Ummm...excuse me? Why would you think that? It's in the lease, it's the 27th. Apparently, in their alternate reality, they thought the fact that they were running two days late to move-in meant that their rental due date changed to the 29th. Yet, of course, I'm the mean person for holding them to that.
Then they tell me how the wife gets paid on the 1st and it would really be a lot easier on them if I could make the due date the 1st. Awesome, no problem. Pay all the rent that is currently due, plus the pro-rated 4-day rent difference between the 27th and the 1st. I'll prepare an addendum we all sign, changing the rental due date. And their next rent won't be due until the 1st. They had to pick their mouths up off the ground and just looked at me wide-eyed. They didn't say anything else about that, but I can only assume from their behavior that they actually expected me to just "gift" them 4 days of rent to make the due date easier for them. Quite frankly, they always paid very late and were just deadbeats in the end. Nothing except growing some character would have helped them.
Another month goes by and then they want to break their lease and live the last month on their security deposit. And, again, I am the unreasonable one because "all their previous landlords" let them live off their security deposit.
Residential Real Estate Broker · Chicago Suburbs, IL · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 594 votes
9y
@Jennifer T. I recently had an outgoing tenant have a total fit when I reminded them that their lease ended May 6th so they still owed for those 6 days of May. I guess they had thought that was going to be a gift too. They threatened to take us to court and were demanding to know were in the lease it talked about prorating rent. Nevermind that the rent was prorated in their favor a few years ago when their lease started a few days into May...
Investor · Madison, IN · Member since 2016 · 110 posts · 89 votes
9y
I'm evicting a tenant for non-payment of rent. Here's a few of his reasons why he can't pay. Sick all week with influenza and the damaged nerve in his tooth causing headaches all week. He didn't know I saw him getting out of his car carrying groceries. Here's another one he used, my sister isn't doing good at all I had to go see her in the hospital last weekend. I looked at the sisters fb page, looks like she was fine.
I gave him a 10 day notice to pay or quit. I get a text message saying "is there anything we can do to keep from getting kicked out" yeah pay your rent
Then I get a text from saying" I know you want us to move out and we're looking for a new place to stay. Give us back our security deposit and we can make this happen faster " I just ignored him.
Then he emails and wants to schedule a walk through before moving out so they can get the deposit back, because they need it to put down on another place. I email back, Sure we can schedule a walk through when you are moved out, the house is clean and I have the keys back.
Investor · Ojochal, Costa Rica · Member since 2013 · 287 posts · 164 votes
9y
I was standing in the parking of of one of my apartment buildings chatting with my contractor and cleaning guy when the cleaning guy goes 'WTF' as he looks over my shoulder. He was looking at someone heaving garbage out of his car into the parking lot and starting to drive away.
I walked over to his window and in a very stern voice asked him what the hell he thought he was doing. His first question was "Is that how you talk to people?" My response "Yes, when someone is throwing their garbage all over my parking lot it is". Him: "I think you need to speak to me with more respect". Now I really lose it. "Respect? You want me to talk to the person who is disrespecting me and my property with respect?"
Anyways, he goes on about me not talking respectfully to him while I continue to berate him on his disrespect for other people's property. My cleaning guy quietly slipped in and picked up the garbage and disposed of it. I wanted to tell the guy to get out of his car and clean up his mess but by the time I hit that part of the conversation it was already cleaned up.
It's been an ongoing problem with pigs heaving their fast food garbage out their car windows instead of walking 50' over to the garbage can, and when I actually caught someone doing it I just lost it.
I've got some pretty hi-res cameras out there now and have levied fines against several tenants for not putting their trash in the dumpster. The issue is slowly resolving itself as word gets around that we are watching and we are fining people. It shouldn't have to be this way but some people are lazy pigs and you need incentives to make them behave.
Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
Tenant shows up 2 hours late to lease signing with obvious lie as excuse (terrible liar).
Within a week she demands I replace the 2 year old carpet. I decline. She demands her $600 deposit back to replace it herself. $600 wouldn't even pay for materials let alone labor...I explain the deposit is a deposit for damages not remodeling at her whim. If she wants to remodel, go buy a house?
Tries to change sink faucet despite being against the lease. Mucks it up and water leaking everywhere. Texts me in panic. I ask for pic. She declines citing nothing to take a pic of. After 30 minutes of pulling teeth with this genius she finally sends me a pic and it becomes instantly clear why she didn't want to send a pic. She lied, the leak was not an accident on it's own, etc. She had tried to remodel and couldn't do it. To top it off it was a white faucet on a stainless sink....
Found out she had unauthorized dog and tenant/room rental, smoking in the house, etc.
Doesn't pay rent and I serve 3 day notice to pay or vacate. Pays but gives notice next month. I go there to do the walk through about a week after she was supposed to have moved out. Surprise, she is still there.
Carpet is trashed, wax in it, glue, bleach. Holes are punched in walls and doors. All of this previously hidden by clever decorating. I ask her what happened to being out a week ago. She says she was going to but wanted to fix x, y and z. I asked her when she intended to do that since she has been there a week over her lease termination. No response, just starts crying citing how her boyfriend, some 5 foot tall loser twice her age, is supposed to come back. I told her I don't care, she needs to be out within an HOUR or I will evict her. She asks, wait for it.....
WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO MEAN TO ME????
No really, that's how dumb she was. I'm sure when she notices she can't rent a place because of the collection account I have on her, she will think of how mean I am...
Queen Creek, AZ · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
We did a final walk through with one of our tenants yesterday. He was renting a big house (4k Sq Ft.) from us with 3 AC units, because here in Arizona thats what it takes to cool a large house. This clown has been complaining about the electric bill since day 1. Having a large bill on a big house in the middle of the desert should not surprise anyone especially this guy since he works for the local electric utility.
Last year he complained so much about the AC units not being efficient that we sent a technician to check them. Turns out the filters had not been changed since he moved in. I stood there while the technician explained to him that dirty filters reduce are flow and causes the units to be less efficient. Duh- anyone other in Phoenix should know that but some people have to be told.
At the walk through yesterday he complained again about the utility cost and explained how he changed the filter every 30 days..... Here is what I found when I checked the filters:
We put a clause in the Lease that the tenant is to change the filters every 30 days. With reminders, we have pretty good luck on most properties. Always a few like yours!
Queen Creek, AZ · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
I cant believe this guy tried to tell me that he changed the filter 30 days ago. I hate when people tell obvious lies. I will talk to my wife about adding the 30 changeout to the lease.
Lol, the two double aa's are right, but the positive and negative is wrong. Guess that's why we test these things.
I learned the power of that with my worst set of tenants. They STOLE the used AA batteries out of all the smoke detectors. They also stole the curtain rods and part of the bathtub faucet. I mean, you just can't make this stuff up, lol. Unfortunately, that was the least of their damages.
But even though they had zero value, I was the most angry about the stolen batteries. What if I wasn't the kind of LL who checks that? I know it's highly unlikely, but still. Somebody could have died because they just had to have those worthless, used batteries.
Residential Real Estate Broker · Chicago Suburbs, IL · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 594 votes
9y
The city this house is in is fanatical about making sure there are no holes in the wall between the house and garage so fire doesn't have an easy path to get through, or carbon monoxide if someone leaves the car running...now I get it... these are college educated...millennials.
Augusta, GA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
On my houses where the smoke alarms aren't wired in I've switched to using alarms with 10 year batteries. Tenants can't steal these out of the alarms. And yes; I've had departing tenants steal the curtain rods although they forget to take the attachments so I'm guessing they're just grabbing the curtains instead.
Residential Real Estate Broker · Chicago Suburbs, IL · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 594 votes
9y
On the phone with someone who has seen the house and wanted to talk to me before applying,"What's going to happen with the basement?" I'm like,"Nothing. it's an unfinished basement, it can be used for storage and laundry and not as living space since no egress sized window". That city does enforce that during yearly rental license inspections. I happen to ask how many occupants, and I never asked for ages,"There is me, I am 18, and my boyfriend who is 19, then another couple, and their baby". I ask if anyone is married and she says no. I'm like, well I'm sorry, that's 4 unrelated people, the max is three...then she is like, "Well, I don't know if the other two will be living there", and I tell her,"Look, if you try to sneak in other people the landlord will know and will then evict you and no one wants to deal with that." Then she's like,"Oh, well, we were married in court, not a church, I thought you asking if we were married in a church...we are married, they are married..." and then I'm like,"That's two families. This is only zoned for a single family".
Rental Property Investor · Lawton, OK · Member since 2014 · 5 posts · 9 votes
9y
I had a tenant call me the other day and asked if I could write up a memorandum to kick his girlfriend out because he doesn't want her living there anymore; they are both on the lease. He just wanted me to make something up like her application was incomplete or she didn't pay on time. When I told him that would be fraud on my part and I would not be a party to that he stated he would have to find another place.
So I had to remind him that their lease is up in five months and they both could move out and find separate places.
Residential Real Estate Broker · Chicago Suburbs, IL · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 594 votes
9y
@David Willett Did you ask him what it was worth to him? Could be a new revenue stream, sending letters to do the break-ups for tenants [of course I am kidding].
Investor · Madison, IN · Member since 2016 · 110 posts · 89 votes
9y
Today as I was staining some trim boards in the back of one of my rentals, I see a man in a uniform standing in the yard looking at the house. I asked him what he was doing, he said "I'm installing internet " for these people. I'm taking "these people" to eviction court in 6 days! Why aren't they spending their money on another place to rent?
Today as I was staining some trim boards in the back of one of my rentals, I see a man in a uniform standing in the yard looking at the house. I asked him what he was doing, he said "I'm installing internet " for these people. I'm taking "these people" to eviction court in 6 days! Why aren't they spending their money on another place to rent?
Sounds like they are planning on giving you a difficult time with that upcoming eviction ...
Rental Property Investor · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 4k+ votes
9y
This isn't a current tenant, but a prior tenant of someone I help. She didn't pay her last month's rent so she was evicted. She did leave before the sheriff had to come and luckily the place was left clean. Today I get a text saying "I am willing to rent from you again if the place is still vacant! Let me know how much and I will see you on July 1."