All Forum Posts by: Richard F.

Aloha,

The urgency of the tile repairs depend more on the nature, location, and severity of the cracks. Random single, or very few, hairline cracks are not too concerning. If there is obvious impact damage, or large pieces broken completely out, this may be creating a potential hazard for bare feet which should be addressed promptly. If the "cracks" are in the grout lines, and in particular, in a "wet" area such as tub surround or shower floor, this is a bigger problem as it is likely allowing significant moisture to reach your subfloor and cause wood rot.

Tile jobs will typically take three working days to complete properly, so your Tenants will need options for use during that time. Check your local HD for tiling classes, even if you do not intend to do the work...it is good to get an understanding OF the work.

Aloha,

Congrats on taking those first steps! I just hope you did enough research first...Did you test your popcorn ceilings for asbestos containing material? 78 I believe is when it was outlawed, but there were a lot of materials still in stock that found their way into homes for several more years. Also, having permits will be important for the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC modifications/additions, even if you have Owner/Builder permits in your locale, usually the technical work still requires licensed oversight. It will be important if/when you sell also.

Quote from @Greg M.:

Generally (legally), you're responsible to replace anything that breaks as long as the item was there when they moved in. Microwave stops working, it's on you to replace. Bathroom fan stops working, on you again. Oven light, most likely on you as it's not a traditional consumable. FYI, I'd replace the oven light just out of fear that an idiot tenant might replace it with a regular bulb and it shatters/catches fire. Your rent encompasses not only the roof over their head, but also the use of fixtures and amenities. Therefore, you need to keep providing them. 

You should have something in your lease talking about consumables. I make it clear that the tenant is responsible to replace light bulbs, air filters, & water filters. I also make it clear that once the item is replaced, it becomes my property and must be left in the unit. I added that clause after I came to my unit and the vacating tenant had taken half the light bulbs with her. 

I had to laugh at the light bulbs comment...I had a building where we used yellow bug lites in the common areas, because the Tenants would steal the regular bulbs to replace their own. It took about six months before the entire building was yellow at night!

Greg is pretty spot on with this, I would add smoke detector (or other) batteries as Tenant responsibility.

It is assumed everything was working as designed at move in. Owner is responsible to keep everything functional, absent clear misuse/abuse/physical damage. Corrosion, rot, termite damage, age, are not Tenant responsibility. Drain stoppages need to be documented by the plumber as to how far out the blockage was, what did they pull back, if anything. If it is hair or toys or paper products, and within five feet of the fixture; or before any point where another unit or home joins a common line, as long as the condition of the line itself is not the cause of "catching" the debris; or if the line itself is bellied, broken, or has root intrusion.

It may be educational to sit in on a couple LL/Tenant Court sessions to see how the local Courts rule on "wear and tear" vs. damage. Some are tougher than others... Either way, you need to be able to document your side of the story, with photos and invoices with useful descriptions from professionals.

You also should check local LL/Tenant laws, as you often can not require Tenants to pay for repairs under your limit when they are NOT result of tenant misuse/damage.

Improve your Rental Prep process to resolve all those small issues before a new Tenant moves in. Preventing problems is always less costly than remediation.

Aloha,

To my knowledge, generally there are two processes...one for possession (only), the other a money judgment. Once you get the money judgment, an attorney or collection agency can attempt to enforce it by garnishing wages and other efforts. In reality, for most Tenants, you cannot get blood from a turnip. BUT, if they are just young and dumb, you should still get the money judgment, as they remain in effect for a number of years, and can be renewed repeatedly. At some point, if the deadbeats want to lower their interest rates, buy a nice car, or a home, they will need to pay off the collection items, and you could get a surprise in the mail (as long as you keep your contact info up to date with the Collection company or attorney that you used).

If, on the other hand, they are past their prime and don't appear to have any prospects, I would not spend the time or money for the money judgment or collection efforts. The eviction for possession will still be on their Public Records for quite a few years.

Aloha,

Have you checked with utility companies to see if she ever turned them on, or actually started service? Is it STILL active?

Aloha,

It is definitely a critical additional maintenance and repair issue. If the pump is currently not working, the "catch basin" as you call it, apparently has a large capacity. It will almost certainly need to be pumped out and inspected, and the pump will need to get replaced, possibly along with a control panel and float switch. You have to properly size the replacement pumps based on size of output pipe and height of total lift required to connect to the City main. 

The systems I have experience with all had two pumps for redundancy, with the controls alternating the pump operation every cycle. These pumps usually incorporate a "grinder", and you do need to educate Tenants to not flush ANYTHING other than toilet tissue. Those grinders are tough, but costly and no fun whatsoever to change out. You should have an audible alarm to alert you/the Tenants to any pump failure. This is critical if you are near any body of water...creek, stream, pond, lake, ocean, whatever. EPA does not take sewage spills into waterways lightly...and neither do lower level Tenants and remediation pros if it all ends up flooding your basement.

For longest life, you should plan on annual preventative maintenance, which means pulling the pumps to clean the intakes and clean/remove debris from the pit; and you should get in the habit of checking the motor brushes. Have a set on hand any time you pull the pumps.

OK, so who said it needed to be replaced, and for what reason? What were their qualifications?

A lot of plumbers work on a "flat rate" basis, and the easy, and more profitable thing for them to do, especially if the Owner, or someone knowledgeable is NOT watching/questioning them in the moment, is to replace it, and take the old one with them. A lot of handy persons are very poor at troubleshooting and just take the easy way out too. If you have a long standing relationship with the plumber/handy person, and know them to be looking out for what is best for you, and know them to truly be knowledgeable about their work, then no problem. But managing an average of well over 100 units for the past nearly 30 years, I have not seen a disposer "broken" by a Tenant. I have seen many fail due to age, either due to severe corrosion of the housing, or, ultimately, the windings of the armature became unwound, due to internal wear. I have seen many jammed pretty severely, and with metal screws or other bits in the rotating portion. All were unjammed and made operational, generally with only a few minutes effort. Sometimes, it takes a specialty tool to be able to reach in to retrieve something, especially metal, that has jammed the cutter, but even so it is a simple process. There have been a couple cases where I asked them to leave the old disposer at the unit (or drop it by my office) to see first hand, and to show our Client when THEY asked the question!

If I had what I knew to be (and we note brand/color on move in condition forms) a typical disposer less than three years old, and a plumber wanted to replace it because it was broken, I would ask him to tell me (I always have service call vendors call me from site for approvals once they determine the problem) what is broken, and I would ask him to text me a photo to see for myself what he is looking at. Then I have a good response for MY Client!

You might also revisit your instructions to incoming Tenants to include more complete instructions on what they should/should not put down it, and more importantly the proper procedure(s) for doing so to avoid many blockages. (Turn on water full blast and start the disposer BEFORE putting anything significant into the drain) It is not really meant to dump LOTS of food waste down, most should be scraped directly off of dishes into the trash. Bones of any kind, stringy vegetables, rice and similar products that can expand when soaked, are primary to avoid. I am often surprised that this far into the 21st Century, there are a lot of people that have never used a disposer before, especially younger Tenants and new Families, as well as people from many other countries. I always ask if they know how to reset and clear a jam, if not, I show them and tell them they can save an easy $150 doing it themselves. They are always appreciative. A six dollar disposer wrench should always be kept under the sink.

They are also one of the Big Boys. Like I said, look for smaller, local company. They still must have proper licensing, insurance etc. but MUCH smaller advertising budget,they often rely more on word of mouth. Find a local REI group, and see who their recommendations are.

Aloha,

NO Credit is far better than Bad Credit...depending on the reason. Younger applicants, or people new, or relatively new, to the country are pretty common. You can generally get an idea if they are new to the country by when their SS# was issued. Not all reports provide that info, but Equifax does include it on certain reports.

Credit Scores are somewhat over-rated. I have seen perfect Tenants with very low scores, and terrible slow payers with high scores. What matters is what are the underlying data that generates that score? You look at their trade accounts...how old, what is payment history, owed vs available amounts, "pays as agreed", how many? I don't care about outstanding medical bills, old foreclosures, and even older car repos. I DO care about multiple cell phone companies and other consumer utils and revolving store cards that show Bad Habits...individually AND collectively as a bigger picture. I look to see if they are playing a shell game with their bill paying situation...maxing out a couple cards, then paying them down with others that then get maxed. Habits are what you need to look for, both Good and Bad.

Lots of Jobs over a short time period? Similarly frequent residence addresses? What about Court Records...lots of traffic violations (no insurance, no license, expired tags)...misdemeanor or criminal? Accidents? Criminal convictions, TRO's? These are not people you want to rent to typically. Let the hobbyists and sympathetic types take on the "project" (as in needing their life fixed by someone) applicants.

Regarding Credit scores, here is a little insight as to what they actually mean for you:

Aloha,

Assuming you have some type of alarm system in the property, you should fairly easily be able to come up with a temperature alarm that could reside IN the refrigerator, and communicate with the alarm panel via battery wireless. Depending on the capabilities of the alarm system, should be able to be triggered either by "normally open" or "normally closed" contacts being connected. Of course, the alarm system would need it's own battery backup, in case the household power went out completely. You could also have water sensors, either to detect excessive water usage (such as leaking supply line), or water on the floor (next to a water heater, or on a lower level, etc.). Check for some "Smarthome" technologies, there is bound to be something that could watch over the refer for you. Heck, now there are refers that will notify you on their own, if you spend the money!