All Forum Posts by: Bob Jones

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. You are very helpful.

MUD stands for Metropolitan Utilities District. It controls the water and gas in our city. We don't have any choice.

If the tenant wants to rent our home, he needs to call MUD to transfer the ownership of water and gas from us to them. However, the problem is that the tenant can "stop" the service anytime by just giving the MUD a call. Here the "stop" is not actually terminate the gas and water. The "stop" means the MUD transfers the ownership of water and gas from the name of tenant the landlord if the tenant called. MUD won't even let us know. We didn't know until the bill came.

So evil guys can take advantage of MUD. This is what happened to us. On one hand, the tenant called the MUD to stop the service. On the other hand, they still live in the house. MUD didn't shut the water and gas off. MUD actually transfers the bill to our name. Now the tenant live with free gas and water. What is more, we didn't know until we received the bill. We called MUD. MUD told us we need to have the tenant to call MUD again to transfer back to their name. Of course the tenant won't do that. They told us they have never called MUD to stop the service. How funny!

I tried to discuss with MUD about this. They told me this is part of the risk of being a landlord. They also told me that I am not alone and many landlord in the city are facing the same issue. I just can't believe this.

MUD finally made some enhancement. They are now charging us $2 /month to provide a service. I.e. When the tenant calls to stop the service, they will send us a letter and let us know.

How do you guys do under this situation?

We just experienced our "pacific height" and completed the eviction process. I want to share my experience with you to see what we can learn from this.

1) A Brother and sister came and rented our house. They paid the rent. They were always late but they paid late fee so we got used to the late payment.

2) The sister told my wife his brother found another job. His brother would move out. She would stay and she found a couple to share the expense.

First Lesson Learned: My wife told them it is OK as long as they pay the rent on time. Note this turned out to be a big mistake. My wife also asked them to send a formal application form but they never did.

First Question: What would you do under this situation? if the existing tenant want to move out and find a people to sublease?

Second Question: Can we say no for this kind of request? If we say Yes, then I am afraid we will have a nightmare like this again.

3) The "couple" moved in who are actually two woman with 2 kids. One woman is the husband and another woman is the wife. Two kids are three and four years old. Our nightmare began. The didn't pay rent.

Second lesson learned: Don't get used to late fees. We were get used to the late fees so we though the Sister and the couple would pay. So we didn't evict them until the end of the month.

Third question: What can we do here? Note they didn't fill any application as my wife asked. Is this legal for them to move in?

4) The "couple" started to cause troubles. They had different people come and go. They constantly fight with different people. Police were called to the house all the time. The neighbor called us everyday. The dig a big hole in the backyard to burn file. They told us to file eviction so they can have another 30 days to leave.

At the same time, the brother stopped the gas and water. MUD automatically transferred the bill to us and start to charge us. We tried to talk to the couple and they told us to terminate the water and gas.

Fourth Question: Can we stop the gas and water? I heard as landlord, we can't terminate the water and gas under any circumstance. What can we do next time? This is a loophole in the system. The tenant can call MUD to cancel the the service anytime they want and the landlord need to pay the bill. We can't terminate the service. What can we do legally?

5) We finally evicted them out of our house. They took the window out so we had to install new windows. They left dog and cat **** around the house. The house is full of garbage. They made a huge mass just like what you would see in pacific height. We end up paying a lot of money to fix it. We didn't make any money. If we are lucky, the rent we will collect next year can even our expense for this accident.

Final Lessons Learned: Be careful there are evil guys in the world.

Final question, what would you do if you were us to deal with the sublease? what can we to do deal with the MUD loophole?

I want to get cash out for two small rentals for about 100K. One option is to get two home equity loan for $50K each and another option is to get one home equity line of credit for $100 K. Which one should I choose?

I read a lot but I know very little on the difference? I want to compare the Fee, rate and tax for the two options.

Thanks a lot.

@George Paiva

does the price $1 to $1.5 sgft include the sanding? or just the coating?

The reason for not choosing the refinish is the price. We were quote the price for refinish hardwood floor is $3.5 sq. We might need to ask more around. Thanks for sharing the ideas.

Yes. I mean Allure Vinyl plank. Can we install bamboo floor on hard wood floor?

Hi, I bought an old house to use for rental. I found I have hard wood floors under the carpet. The carpet is very old and I will remove it. My question is what can I put on top of the wood floor again?

I don't want to put the carpet again and I don't want to leave the hard wood floor open. I am thinking about having vinyl plank on top of the hard wood floor. What do you guys think? Do I have any better options?

Thanks a lot.