All Forum Posts by: Michael Julian

 My partner at work does exactly that on the side...

She may, "otherwise" be a good tenant, but the smoking is surely going to bother the other three tenants that are doing nothing wrong, and it's going to cost a small fortune to get the smell out. I am with Jared Korman on this one. It's also going to make it difficult to enforce other lease restrictions with your other tenants when they say, "Tenant x smokes and you don't do anything about that".

I would make the repairs and return the deposit minus the cost of the repairs. Let them figure out how the returned deposit is split up among them. Whenever I have a roommate situation, I remind them at the start that there is one rent payment, one deposit etc.. They are equally and collectively responsible for both.

I don't deal with, "I paid my half of the rent" situations. I want them to collect it among themselves and send me one check. At the end of the lease I return one check for deposit returns.

 No one may have access to the space right now as it may be deemed unsafe to enter or a crime scene. Meth labs are a mess, both literally and figuratively. I was on the Meth Task Force for 10 years and we didn't make entry without full SCBA and Tyvek suits, (over SWAT gear). They then were sealed up until a crime scene unit went through it, then they sat until a private cleanup company removed all the chemicals and it was again inspected by the health department. The renter can most likely forget about ever getting any clothing items out of there, (hey, he created the situation), but you are the one that gets stuck with the hard part.

This process can take a good deal of time and money to get the property ready to rent again. The sooner you get with a good attorney the better. Having this place sit will cost you, and, depending on the area, may be difficult to rent after, (small towns, people remember why it was sealed up).

As already mentioned, get with an attorney and local PD to find out what the process is going to be going forward with this place. the sooner you get started, the sooner you can make money there again!

EDIT: Forgot to mention. Get in touch with your insurance company too. You will most likely have to make a claim for cleanup costs and repairs. They can grease the wheels a little for you as well.

If they do allow him to make entry, I would make sure you and the local PD are there to supervise. I would contact the officer in charge of the Narcotics Investigation for advice as well. 

Wish I could make it. The beauty of being a paramedic is that i work 24 hour shifts one of three days giving me a 66.6% chance of making any event. The downside is that there is a 33.3% chance I can't make it. maybe I can work a shift swap.....

 Sound advice. I received a late payment from a tenant on the 14th with late payment and started telling me about how his wife's identity was stolen and their accounts were frozen. It was information I needed as the check came from his father in law, (went straight to the back on which it was written), but my only reply was asking if it would be straightened up by the first for March rent. It's not that I don't care, but I have bills to pay on the first, and the people getting that money don't care that I collected rent late. They still must be paid on time.

If they are on his plan, rent should be paid first. I don't see it as an excuse, nor a cause to be late. I would ask them to elaborate as to how his plan made them late.

 Wow! That is pretty messed up. No matter how well you screen your tenants, they can sublet without your approval? I think I would find another way to make money if we had that system in place here.

You don't have to be on a lease to establish residency, and depending on your state laws, the person not on the lease can be determined to be a resident after as little as 48 hours. If that is the case, they would require an eviction to get them out of the property.

Every State is different, however, and I am not familiar with Mayland State laws.