All Forum Posts by: Anna Sagatelova

Antonio, contact landlords in your area and ask for their specific tenant screening criteria. If you are worried about your credit score and they say something vague like "we look at factors including your credit score, monthly income, etc..." ask them what the credit score cut off is. If they don't have one (they often won't) ask how they evaluate credit generally. Maybe they look to see that the last 2 years all your payments have been on time. Maybe they ignore medical debt. 

The point is to ask and then check your own data against their criteria. If you are failing all the various landlords' overall screening criteria, follow up with them and explain your situation to a person. Be advised, they likely won't be able to tell you one way or another whether they'd approve you or not until they actually take your application and application fee, review it and run a background check to verify everything you are saying. But the point is to narrow down your pool of prospective landlords and waste fewer application fees where you don't stand a chance based on your credit.

Good luck!

Would your PM business handle maintenance calls for the residents? If so, how do you plan to coordinate this from afar and keep quality controls in place? If not, will your business be profitable?

Amy, you are complaining about the tenant ruining the relationship with you, her landlord - but you are seeking for the fastest and most efficient legal option to remove her. This isn't about relationships to you, it's business! As it should be. Why should she be concerned with her relationship to you, then? She is a tenant, you are the landlord, THAT'S the relationship, in which by law you do have to provide adequate heat, and arguably your situation is not legally adequate. I don't know the laws in your state, but your attorney should - sounds like your tenant does, and good for her for educating herself.

Just because she was more willing to put up with certain conditions that don't quite meet the legal habitability standard for the past 5 years, until there was a child living with her, doesn't mean that she isn't within her rights (or is unreasonable) for asserting the habitability standard be met now. She didn't go straight to DHS, she came to you... year, after year, after year... with increasing urgency (in your eyes, increasing rudeness). She saw the writing on the wall, you are "aware" but think that because you have an old victorian you are somehow exempt from heating standards... you say you are looking into upgrades/repairs but no action has been taken in FIVE YEARS and she absolutely does not have to take your advice to "wait longer" and essentially deal with it until you maybe someday decide to do something about it... and why would you? You're paying for the heat and you seem perfectly comfortable with whatever the temps are in your unit, as long as your tenant DOESN'T go to DHS you really have no reason to make a change.

If this was really about wanting to AirBNB the unit or putting your in-laws in - you'd know which option it is, and you wouldn't have started this thread giving a long background about how this issue with your tenant escalated asking how to get her out. Nobody will buy that it's really for your ailing family member after seeing this thread, where you are equally interested in a very-much for profit AirBNB venture as you are in providing housing for the family members, but the most important thing is getting this "terrorizing" tenant out... whatever you think your intention is, legally this is retaliation.

I'm sure your house is lovely but if you want to rent it, you can't offer to pay for heat (which you didn't take steps to meter separately) and then say you've gone so above and beyond that a valid legal complaint is "rude and unreasonable" and now you need the tenant out asap.

You've received great advice so far. Yes, screen thoroughly and definitely contact the new employer for verification. If you are qualifying them on income, how do you verify it with new employment that will begin only after they relocate? Paystubs from their old job won't do you much good, so do get an employment verification letter from their new employer that includes information about their salary or wages, and if they are an hourly employee please ask about their expected number of hours.

People do relocate more frequently nowadays and not everyone gets the opportunity to visit their new prospective neighborhood and house-hunt in person. When I was relocating for grad school, I was in that position, and in fact although I did spend 3 days going to apartment showings, I ended up renting a totally different place sight-unseen that became available after my visit to town. Being on top of the application process doesn't always mean it's a red flag, so just as long as you screen and check off all the criteria you'd normally verify for an applicant who has seen the property you should be in good shape.

It is true that when people relocate from out of state, they rarely end up being long-term renters, but rather usually stay for one or two years. This will be their first property in town and as they get to know the area they will likely look for a better fit once they've had a chance to settle in and explore. There are exceptions to every "average" and "rule of thumb" so I encourage you to communicate with these applicants and learn more about them as people. At the end of the day, unless you are requiring a multi-year lease of every applicant, I would not use that as criteria to disqualify them because they are in a demographic that's less likely to renew for further terms...

If they are properly documented assisted animals (this term covers both trained service animals and emotional support animals), you cannot limit the number. Your "pet" policy does not apply because they are not pets. You can still require basic things like picking up their waste, keeping them on a leash outside, etc.

I highly recommend using a third party verification service to check for the legitimacy of the request to have assistance animals.

Welcome Jeremy, and congrats to you and your wife!

Sam, kindly respond that the deadline for returning it, which was clearly stated on the form itself, has passed, and in accordance with the stated policy, you will record that the unit was in fully satisfactory condition. Upon move-out, any and all damage beyond normal wear and tear will be assessed against their deposit.

Whatever you do, 100% do not come by to pick something up that they were supposed to have already delivered to you. That will absolutely set the wrong tone.

Good luck!

4-7k in maintenance/repairs per month is pretty crazy. What documentation of repairs are they providing? That would be the first thing I'd ask for.

Alec, that link didn't work for me. If you'd like you can just PM me the address and I'll search for it. 

Cynthia, you have multiple threads you've initiated where you're basically saying you want to illegally lock your tenants out, you are getting everyone's advice saying not to do that and great information as to why you shouldn't, and you are arguing against it.

You openly admitted you didn't fully screen your tenants by calling past landlords because you assumed they'd lie - what did you think you were getting yourself into?

Sounds like you have been running your rental operation completely upside down - you are on this website that is full of amazing resources and people giving you great advice for free - I hope you take the advice you've been receiving, but truthfully it sounds like you have your mind made up.