All Forum Posts by: Kyle Meyers

Probably not. If you turn off utilities it is usually considered a self help eviction and you don't want to be involved in that. If your tenant was supposed to have had the utilities in their name, but did not get them changed over, you may be able to turn them off, but I would be very careful and check your state and local laws and contact an attorney first. I am not familiar with Texas laws on this, but I believe in Indiana if the tenant is supposed to have utilities in their name, but you continue to pay the bill, you cannot turn the utilities off then.

It was recommended on another site, and I have added to my lease and move in practices, to have the lease state the utilities have been canceled already prior to the move in date and the tenant must get them moved into their name. I call the utility companies a day or two before the move in and confirm the tenant has had the utilities switched over to their name, if they have not, I will give the date to the utility company to have them shut off from my name and then I remind the tenants to get it transferred to their name.

I would recommend you check with an attorney familiar with your local laws to see your rights in this case, but you probably cannot turn the utilities off. So, bill your tenants for the utility charges. Hopefully your lease states payments received will be applied to all other charges before current rent, so if they do not pay, you can evict for non-payment of rent. If not, you will have a more difficult case on your hands and have to evict for breach of lease contract because they did not get the utilities in their name.

Not legal advice.

As Carlos said, the form is called a roommate agreement and will spell out who is liable for which expenses such as rent, utilities, and security deposit. It can also contain "house rules" like who will clean, what areas are shared vs. private, whether or not guests are acceptable, etc. This will not change the joint and several clause in your lease, but will provide legal liability between the roommates so if roommate 1 stops paying and roommate 2 picks up their portion of the payments as required by the lease, roommate 2 will have legal grounds to go after roommate 1 for their share of the expenses.

There is a court case that addresses depreciation of cabinets:

METRO NATIONAL CORPORATION v. COMMISSIONER
52 T.C.M. 1440 (1987)
T.C. Memo. 1987-38

The case deals with a property which is leased as medical office space and the cabinets are determined to be personal property because they can be moved without much damage to the building structure. Part of the ruling was based on the cabinets having been previously moved when tenants changed, which showed they had not been installed with the intention of remaining in place indefinitely.

In my opinion, this does not clarify whether or not cabinets could be depreciated as personal property in a residential rental. But, I think you could at least make a good argument that the cabinets could be removed from a rental without much damage, and, if for whatever reason, a tenant did not want the cabinets where they were, you could potentially change the layout for them.

Not tax advice.

If they need a variance they are at the mercy of the zoning board and residents will have a say in what happens. It sounds like you won't be able to fully block the development if they only need minor zoning changes, so maybe try to get a compromise of some sort. Maybe more buffer between your neighborhood and the complex, or some other way to make it seem like it is not right in your backyard. Organize a meeting with the neighborhood and the developer to express your concerns and have as many elected officials who have an impact on the zoning present as possible to show the influence you have.

Is it rented right now? If it is rented, available for rent, or you are fixing it up between tenants, I would deduct the mileage. If the property is vacant and you are just going to sell and not rent the property again, I would add mileage to basis.

I have tenants who move to my unit because their previous landlord would not fix a flooding issue that resulted in several inches of water in the basement and their bedroom was in the basement. Check their current residence to see what the problems are.

I typically capitalize my miles while rehabbing a property and then, once the property is in service, I deduct the mileage from that point on. You count the miles from your place of business. If you have a home office, even if you don't take the home office deduction, you can count mileage from your home. If not, you can count from your rehab property, which would be your first work location for the day. The trip from your home to the property would be considered commuting if you don't have a home office and therefore not deductible.

This is not tax advice.

Steven Hamilton II,

The main thing they want corrected, and what I suspect caused them to flag the property, is that someone stole the siding off part of the house. They want siding replaced, a couple windows fixed, a roof repair and other work to " maintain the property in a secure and weather-tight fashion".

The problem is that I don't believe I legally can go on the property to make any repairs. My attorney advised that I could be charged with trespassing if I do any construction or enter the premises.

I figure I am not directly being charged the penalties/fines. I would be paying off the resulting bills from these fines though in order to get the tax deed for the property later this year. So since I am not the one being billed the penalties, though I will be paying them, I can add them to my acquisition costs and depreciate with the property?

I invest in tax liens and recently received a notice that one of the properties I have a lien on is in violation of the housing code and fines and penalties may begin being assessed next month if the corrections are not made.

Because I am not the owner, I cannot make the corrections the city has demanded. I do not believe the current owner will be making these corrections either as it appears they have abandoned the property sometime in the last few months. I have reached out to the inspector to see if I can get the deadlines extended because of the situation, but have not heard anything back yet.

My question is about the income tax aspects of the potential fines and penalties that may be assessed. The tax law disallows deductions for any fines and penalties, however I was wondering if that applies in this situation because the fines are not directly being assessed to me. The penalties would be a lien on the property and I would likely be paying them with the subsequent property tax payments throughout this year before filing for a tax deed. Would I add the amounts I pay to the basis and depreciate over the life of the property?

There are privately owned student rentals that also do individual leases with each tenant. They assign a room to each student and the kitchen and living space are common area.