All Forum Posts by: Mike Franco

$2500 could suggest a slumlord trying to pass the buck, but painting could possibly be part of smoke remediation as well, to cover up the smell.

I had a tenant 6 years ago who smoked outside as well, but the smell stuck to his clothes and the inside of the house smelled of some smoke. The new tenant that just moved in said she could still smell a little bit of smoke. She has a sensitive sense of smell. 

I would ask them what their end goal is here. Are they trying to find something to sue over? renegotiate rent? get out of the lease? 

"Look Mr. Tenant, you're clearly not happy living here, so save yourself the time and money and unnecessary tests, and just find another place to live. I'll cancel the lease."

I imagine they would need to get extensive air samples. professional mold test may cost a few hundred bucks. 

If they want to go forward, tell them if the test results are clean, they are responsible for the testing cost. 

If test comes back positive for mold, offer remediation, or offer to cancel the lease.

I just went through something similar recently, but with asbestos. Tenants cried asbestos, they spent $650 for some stupid asbestos tests. They also called the local authorities, forcing me to spend $600 to get my own asbestos test, which came back negative for asbestos.

I told tenants I would not remediate existing asbestos because it was too costly, and wasn't required by law. Offered to cancel the lease, and got these pain in my butt tenants out, fortunately. 

Re-rented at market rates.

you guys wait till tenants move out before showing the house?

How are you not minimizing your vacancy already... you should have a max 1 week vacancy.

Raise the rent, if they can't afford it, they can put in their 30 day notice.

As part of the contract, you can enter the dwelling to show it to prospective tenants.

Unless they have assets that can be confiscated, like a car they've partially paid off, good luck collecting anything.

You'll first need to sue and win.

Collection agencies harassing on the phone is the weakest play in the book. They can't get anyone to pay up.

Bounty hunter like duane chapman, maybe, if that's even legal.

in this case, you should do your damned best to get an eviction on record for this snake. for the greater good.

Put that eviction and judgment on his record, for karma.

I'll hold the place for you, as long as you pay the rent. Dumb dumbs

i charge nothing for initial screening.

It gets people in the door, and gets people to apply. If they're getting charged $30-40 everywhere, that cost adds up, and applicants are reluctant to apply to more than a few places.

Final candidate gets charged final screening fee through CoreLogic's myrental.com

Now that Naborly doesn't charge anything for screening, why is everyone still using pay services?

I'm switching over to free services next time.

what's included?

"you're looking at it."  wysiwyg

Sounds like they have a pretty solid rebuttal.

Do you have a bathroom exhaust fan? 

A fan was the first thing I installed after I had a tenant so stupid that he shut the bathroom door and window after taking a hot shower, leading to mold overgrowth.

As for the other things, as long as you have the invoice, you can deduct. 

Next time try to shop around for cleaning services.

There is no duty to mitigate for security deposits, but I try to anyway.

$150 for trash disposal? How much does it cost to just throw those things in the regular trash bin?

I dunno about your state, but in CA, tenants have a right to pre-moveout inspection to give them a chance to remediate any damages. Make sure you're following your local laws.

tenant can argue it's a habitability issue.

construction debris, dust, etc.

if you reach an agreement in writing, then he accepts the living conditions. Otherwise, it becomes a constructive eviction in which he can leave right away, and not even give you a 30 day notice.