All Forum Posts by: Douglas Krofcheck

You can report him to the city's building department if you want for those other structures. Nothing else is really illegal. How did he know you had fans running? Did he enter the apartment or was he looking through the windows? If he changes the terms of the lease he has to give proper notice. He probably is illegally taking deductions for the areas he has his personal items in, but good luck getting a copy of his tax returns to prove it.

I seriously hope you were joking when you said you were going to steal their stuff and toss it in the trash. Unless your lease or the laws say they can't, they can. If you don't want the stuff there then you can amend the lease and if they don't follow those terms then you can have them evicted. Even after the eviction you still can't simply toss their stuff out. Read your laws else you're going to trivially lose an expensive lawsuit.

Forgot to mention, having tenants replace your appliances isn't normal. Not providing any is one thing, but doing things like claiming it was left by the previous tenants so that you don't have to maintain it is risky (not exactly what you did, but I've seen it elsewhere on BP). You wouldn't have any recourse if she kept your new fridge and replaced it with a failing mini-fridge on the basis that the old one broke and the 'new' one was all she needed or could afford. You could end up having to buy all new appliances in an effort to save a few theoretical service calls.

Why are you concerned about the locks now? The time to change and bill for them was when she lost the keys not months later.

Why are you trying to blame the bank for the size and type of loan you have? It's your responsibility to know what you're signing. Don't blame them if you change your mind later. If you think a loan is too high then don't get it. Don't expect other people to be looking out for your best interests. That cleaning service is part of your PM. Just because it's sort term doesn't mean everyone will take perfect care of the property. Things will break while someone is there and a poor response to their request can reduce the amount of people wanting to rent there.

I think the biggest red flag is not selling if the tenants leave. I think that landlord is going to turn right around after the new lease is signed and put the house back on the market. I know people who were forced to leave because new buyers wanted the unit empty or the people didn't want to deal with all the scheduled walk throughs.

I wouldn't call losing 1/3rd of your living space, having strangers making a lot of noise in your home at random hours, having to take off work to supervise those strangers to make sure they don't steal anything, and having an area unsafe for kids when you have kids an inconvenience. If you aren't providing a habitable unit the tenants are not required to pay rent regardless of if you say so in your lease. That is normally state/local law and it is the law in NH. However you're often not required to also pay for other housing, you just can't charge rent while they can't live there.

Since no one has suggested it yet, you could have put in a fence to help the tenants contain their dogs. Not that it matters since you couldn't get insurance. If they had claimed they were emotional support animals, you can still deny them if they place an unreasonable burden on you, for which I believe not having insurance counts as unreasonable.

"I mean, what else could be fairer for landlord and tenant alike?" Charging the rent you initially set rather than engaging in false advertising would be the fair option. It still cash flowed at that rent correct? Did you advertise the lease term? If not you could claim its an introductory rate for the first couple months and then raise it later. (Can you quote people using the mobile app?)

In many places if a lease ends early you're required to look for another tenant.  If you find one, you're not allowed to double-dip on rental income meaning if someone moves in in a week you can only charge her for a week's worth of rent.  

You don't want an angry tenant.  Parting ways may be the best option.  Next time be clear about what costs you're going to cover and don't change your mind afterwards.