All Forum Posts by: Andrew S.

Seems similar to having to provide electricity and water - doesn't seem to imply who pays.  Those two are usually handled in the lease.

I'm confused now - you said you got a great deal at 155k because the seller needed the cash and has to move abroad.  How does that line up with closing on the property by the end of December?

Or are you saying you are closing NOW for cash with the seller and want to close by the end of December with a potential buyer?

If it is really 130 year old flooring, then many of the comments above probably don't apply.  I would guess back then, they milled and installed floor boards very differently and used much different types of planks, etc.  As @Steven Bommarito suggests, it might be worth getting someone out there who knows about antique restoration to get an opinion.

I have had a very ragged looking hardwood floor restored into decent (though not perfect) shape, so you might be surprised what someone who knows what they are doing can do to the current floor.  

 I couldn't disagree more!  There is ALWAYS a risk that a dog (ANY dog, doesn't have to be a pitbull) can get spooked and take a bite.  That is why we carry landlord liability insurance.  The problem is not that there are no "friendly" pitbulls - there are many, many of those.  The problem is that @Brandon Turner 's insurance company is specifically excluding pitbulls, thus leaving him stuck with taking on the liability risk himself.  

I'm going to take a guess that your hospital's liability insurance does NOT have such exemptions and that is why the administrator can "accept" the risk.  If not, he is a fool for exposing the hospital to such risk, in my opinion.

 Agree that it takes work to find a tenant but it seem that they already got compensated for that (presumably a lease-up fee when the tenant moved in, as well as the past year's cut for PM).  

Better to wait for someone more legally versed, but my take would be: let them "kick out" the tenant (whatever that means...) and offer the tenant a new lease (your own) moving forward.  

What we don't know, of course, is whether the tenant even WANTS to stay, but assuming he does, he'll likely be happy to sign a new lease with you.  If the PM presents him/her with a better deal in a different property, then he/she can move.

Is the PM really claiming that they should get a 10% cut on this tenant for as long as the tenant stays?  So, potentially for 50 years in the future, they plan on collecting their cut from you?  That sounds ridiculous to me.

For clarification: I assume you are on a year to year lease? if you stayed with the PM company, would they get a full month's rent simply for renewing the lease?  That is very unusual!

 Right, but you'll still have to cajole, or evict if the tenant pushes the envelope and that can be very tedious.  This may well be the best possible solution under the circumstances, but it is not perfect, unfortunately.

 Agree, but how do you enforce?  What if the tenant agrees to get the insurance but then doesn't?  Or he gets it and then quits paying the premiums.  If the tenant is savvy enough to play the service animal game, they are probably savvy enough to play you on the insurance request too.  Enforcing can get very messy and costly.

 I think for the most part you are right - you will probably be stuck with it unless your tenant admits that he brought them in (unlikely...).  I don't necessarily think you will be stuck paying for your neighbor's bill, although in the interest of being a good neighbor, you should certainly consider doing so, if the pest clearly originated in your place.

I also think you should try to coordinate the treatments with your neighbor.  Otherwise all the two of you will do is drive the bugs back and forth between the two places.  Be prepared that this process also requires major collaboration of your tenants.  The exterminator will give them instructions to treat their belongings, etc.  This will much enhance your chances of success - bedbugs are hard to exterminate.

Once you think you have completed the treatments successfully, there are bedbug sniffing dogs that you can hire (relatively inexpensive) to get a certificate that the bugs have been completely cleared (or not - whichever may be the case...).  

I would not think that you have to disclose a past infestation on sale of the property (though local laws could vary).  If you do need/want to disclose, the certificate from the bug-sniffer will be very valuable.