All Forum Posts by: Eric Gerakos

Thanks for responding Gary.  I do have an eviction lawyer, Brian Heckman if you have ever heard of him.

I’m doing extensive remodeling, it’s on knob and tube, over 100 years old building and plumbing, so about 2-3 months renovations. It is obscene and my lawyers says it’s still better than you going to court by jury.

All the replies above are based on ASSUMPTIONS about the condition of the plumbing.

Is the plumbing able to handle the “standard” amount of toilet paper being flushed and the tenants are just “loading it up” before flushing thereby causing the problem?  Or is the plumbing not able to handle a normal amount of TP and rather than the tenants being the problem the fact that the plumbing is inadequate is the problem?  So first, you need to determine whether or not the plumbing CAPACITY is up to today’s standards.  If so, you’ll need to stand firm with your tenants.  If it is not up to today’s standards, and the tenant was not informed of such before he signed the lease, then ethically, if not legally, it’s “on you”.  If this is the case Step 1 is to determine a fix and the associated cost. If the cost is reasonable, I would go ahead and make the improvement.  If the cost is out of line, I would try to reach an “accommodation” with the tenant.  Something like he agrees to flush more often and for every month with no back up I credit his rent $25.  
Good luck.  What you’re experiencing is the problems, responsibilities, and negotiations, frustrations, expenses, etc. of being a landlord.  Most of us doing it a long time have developed systems so that we handle these things efficiently.  My particular program is to only invest in class A in residential (I do b, c and even d in commercial), charge the tenant the high end of the scale, and fix immediately anything he wants that’s even semi reasonable.  That works for me but probably won’t for a majority of landlords. 

Thanks Samuel, I'm guessing that would be because of the upkeep, right?

Thank you all for the more complete picture! This is giving me an increased sense of caution and I appreciate the heads up on the impact of these other factors on what I'm seeing in these listings.

It seems so daunting to get at the truth and the details, especially for a first go round. How much can you lean on a good investor-friendly agent for any of this, especially for a first timer?