All Forum Posts by: Anna Sagatelova

You have three solid options to get reimbursed for water/sewer usage by your tenants:

1. 1. Have the bills sent to the property and ask them to pay directly and on time in your name. I would only choose this option if you have some way of checking the fact that they're paying, such as an online portal.

1. 2. Have the bills sent to you and bill them the exact amount monthly. This takes the most time for you, and needs to be done consistently, but you will immediately know if they've underpaid. If you use this system, I recommend applying all payments made by your tenants to the utility first, then any remaining funds to their rent last. That way, if they underpay, they've underpaid the rent, and you have some remedies - late fees, pay or quit notice, etc.

1. 3. Agree on an "average" water/sewer bill amount and have that automatically added on top of the rent charge every month. Since you can make this a recurring charge, it will be less work, but is also less exact. Some months their usage may be over or under the amount you're billing. I would still use the system of applying all payments to rent last.

At the end of the day, I believe the best option is the one you are best able to enforce.

Keep in mind that some municipalities, although they won't allow the account to be transferred to a tenant's name, will allow a tenant to make a "tenant account" for paying on behalf of the owner, and then the tenant can set their account to paperless billing, autopay, or whatever else is convenient. This will be essentially like option 1 above, but with possibly more convenience and ease for the tenant.

I advise against building the water/sewer into the monthly rent amount; always keep the two separate, even if you are using a flat fee as described in option 3, because otherwise when you market the property for leasing, you will artificially inflate the rent. For example, your rent might be $950 but you add $75 for water/sewer. If you market it as $1025 including owner pays water/sewer, you are eliminating all the people who set their search parameters for a property comparable to yours at below $1000/month.

I hope this helps, good luck!

@Autumn Whittington that's awesome, enjoy Hawaii! Thank you for your service.

@Autumn Whittington it sounds like you've done your homework! I would hold off on the major kitchen upgrade.

Which markets are you in?

Hi @Deborah R.,

As someone who had to sit for the bar myself, I feel sympathy for your applicant, but if they don't meet your basic qualification criteria, you should not make an exception. 

Income criteria ensures that the rent is affordable for your tenant based on average household expenses.

One way to get around income criteria (we use this with college students) is to get a co-signer who does meet the income criteria (and also passes a background/credit check).

I would say that if your applicant can't get a co-signer who qualifies under all your criteria, you should deny the application. Whether you do want to accept co-signers is a business decision that you need to make, keeping in mind that you should apply co-signer requirements equally across all applications in the future.

I hope this helps!

I would recommend that you look at other rental listings in that same area and see if your property is really looking the most outdated. If that's the case, consider a few upgrades. I don't think upgrading the sink is a must, but maybe repainting the cabinets for a fresher feel will be more worth your time, and so much cheaper.

I agree to wait to do a big overhaul when it's more necessary, like cabinets sagging/breaking, laminate counter scratched up, an appliance breaks. In 15 years of renting, you will certainly wear out these items at least once more, so you can't count on that 7% increase 15 years from now.

They can use their cash to purchase a money order and deliver that to you in whatever manner you ordinarily receive non-electronic rental payments, like a dropbox or by mail.

To piggyback off @Patricia Steiner's helpful response, please note that the specific PHA that the voucher is approved through evaluates what is "reasonable rent" based on the HUD values, but in our jurisdiction it uses them as a MAXIMUM, and reasonable rents are often below that HUD FMV.

For example, in Cleveland, CMHA lists that HUD's FMV on a 3 bedroom property is $1200, and their adjusted maximum for the zip code is $1320, but we routinely get 3 bedroom vouchers and the rent determination comes in around $850 based on the location of the unit.

Austin, I do understand your concerns, and perhaps you should discuss the possibility of your liability with a real estate attorney. I would advise you to disclose based on my knowledge as a real estate agent; lead based paint disclosures are required between landlord and tenant in all 50 states as far as I know.

If you learned of the lead based paint from the sellers of the property (as opposed to purchasing it and then ordering lead paint testing yourself), the sellers might have liability to the tenants? I'm not sure but an attorney may be able to advise.

Hi @Austin Jay Toniolo, hope you are staying safe and well!

I believe that your questions about how to better proceed with mitigation and the respective costs of the options you've put forth would be best posed to a lead mitigation specialist in your local area.

If you are aware of lead based paint at the property, you should indicate so on a lead based paint disclosure form and have your tenants sign it. You do not need to wait for it to be time to renew their leases. There is an EPA brochure you hand out to tenants about how to protect their household from the hazards of lead-based paint.

Good luck!

I don't think your first step should be raising the rent... you are definitely already thinking ahead to having her vacate the property, so you should simply serve her notice to vacate in accordance with your local jurisdictional laws and procedures. It might be a 30 days notice or something different. Then, if and when she doesn't, you proceed with your local eviction procedure. This might start with a 3 day notice before you can file. 

Trying to create a lease agreement at $2000 is not going to get you into a better position than just starting out by asking her to leave, and can just delay the eviction process by months if she ends up with a valid lease in hand.