All Forum Posts by: Kathy Johnson

Some states such as Wisconsin allow holdover damages or a charge of twice the rental rate. So for example if your monthly rent had been $800 and the tenant held over for 15 days, you would charge $800 for the 15 day holdover.  Not all states do this though so you need to check your own state laws regarding hold over tenants.

That looks like a self rimming sink which would not require a cover/trim edge.

Check with your state laws regarding abandoned animal in the rental. In California, the law specifically allows you to notify Animal Control and have them come pick up the abandoned pet.  They may choose to prosecute the former tenant.  In California, you have to give 15 days for the tenant to pickup other belongings, but you don't have to allow coming and going. You can ask that they arrange a specific time/date when they will come to remove all of their belongings at once.  If they just turn up  and try to enter, we can call the sheriff to have them removed as a trespasser. Check with your state laws for specifics in your situation.

Sorry, I misunderstood your post. Don't say there is another applicant if there isn't.  Simply reject the incomplete application.  
 

You could simply say that another applicant successfully completed the application process, was verified and has contracted for the rental.   Thank him for starting the process.  You could mention you will keep him in mind should the rental for some reason become vacant again.  (You will keep his shenanigans in mind and remember why you likely wouldn't rent to him won't you?)

The fire itself may have been contained to one room, but you will need to look at the ductwork and smoke damage in other areas of the house.  Sometimes the fire department will open holes in other areas to make sure there is no fire going into the walls or ceilings so besides the actual damage from the fire, there may be damage from the fire fighting activities.

Different states have different laws about if and how long you have to keep tenant property along with what kind of property you keep and what you can dispose of.  What your lease agreement says can affect it too since some states say you can dispose as long as you disclosed in your lease that you would dispose of things left behind after the tenancy is ended.

Some of the people who use this, use it to delay giving an on the spot answer about things.  In our case, we don't pretend not to own the property, but we do tell them that we have to discuss with our partner (since usually only one of us is at the property this give us time to discuss the issues and make decisions that aren't hasty.)

We have had problems with freezing pipes from time to time. If it is in a crawl space, heat tape or in a pinch a heating pad until you can get heat tape can help. With cabinets, usually keeping them open to allow the warm room air in helps.  Also, leaving a faucet furthest along in the pipe flow to drip can help keep things flowing. Of course once they have frozen it takes a little more to get them unfrozen.  Keep in mind heat rises when figuring out where to place any lamp or bulb.  If you have incandescent christmas bulb strings, those are sometimes used on trees to stop freezing so might work on the pipes as a temporary help until something more permanent can be done. Don't run hot water because for some reason, hot water freezes faster than cold.

 https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez....

A handyman we had in past used a hair blow dryer to thaw a pipe enough to get a drip flowing.  Good luck.

Is there an outlet in or near the cabinet area with the pipes?  Maybe a lamp with a low watt incandescent bulb would be enough to keep the pipes warm?  This would be a lot less expensive that a higher wattage heater.  There are also heat tapes available to wrap pipes with and these can be plugged into a temperature sensitive device that only turns them on when the temperature is low.