All Forum Posts by: Marcia Maynard

• Begin with carefully considered rental criteria, compliant with non-discrimination laws.
• Interview with questions that dove-tail with your rental criteria.
• If something comes up during the interview that reveals the person doesn't meet your minimum criteria to rent, let them know, so they don't waste any more of their time and yours.
• Ask meaningful questions that will identify those who will be a good match for you and your property.
• Tenant selection is all about screening well.  We do discriminate, but in a fair manner.
• We avoid saying "no", but we do say things like.... "That would be difficult for us." and "It appears you don't meet our requirements as per our rental criteria."
• If a person is "obviously not a good fit", but meet your minimum criteria to rent, you need to lawfully support your decision not to rent to them. 
• We all have our limits... I don't rent to people who have more tatoos than teeth. Not a protected class. :-)

Definitely varies according the the jurisdiction of the property.  

In Washington State we're required to provide the name and street address of the owner or the owner's representative, for the purpose of process serving, should a tenant want to pursue a legal process.  :-)

You're not obligated to tell the bank of your future plans. 

However, you need to be aware of the potential consequences should the bank discover you have changed title of the property from your name to that of an LLC. Read the fine print in the documents you sign.

Lenders are aware many people quit claim title and most will not call the loan because of it. If the lender is concerned, they are more likely to give you a grace period in which you can change the name back from the LLC into your name, instead of calling the loan. If they do call the loan, you will need to come up with the money quickly and may not be able to get such favorable rates.

Each time you change the name on the property title, the title company will benefit by charging you a fee to do so. Consider also how changing the title on the property will impact your insurance, property tax, and business taxes. If you want to later refinance the property and want a conventional loan, you will need to change it back into your name and then wait for six months (seasoning) before you can get another loan on the property. May not be worth it.

Consider the risk-benefit of putting the property into the name of the LLC. We have an LLC for our business. It functions mostly to give us the business structure we need. We've put properties into the LLC and have taken them out again as we needed to when working with lenders. As for the liability protection you may get with an LLC, it will fizzle in a serious situation if someone sues you and has a good attorney. Best to cover your risk with great insurance products.

Sorry to hear about this. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worse.

A few thoughts...

1. Since you have a property manager, they should be on top of this to mitigate your losses.
2. The four units are not separately metered, yet you say the tenants are behind on their water bill.... hmmm. Does this mean you are dividing up the bill that you are paying to the water company, and separately billing each tenant a portion?  That is your folly. It would have been better to either separately meter each apartment with the water department, which can be quite costly to do. Or you could have included water in the rent and charge more rent per unit than you currently do. We own an 8-plex that's not separately metered, so we include water at no extra cost to the tenants. But we do factor our expenses into the rent we charge.
3. You CAN NOT turn off the water the unit. That would be illegal to do. It would be construed as a "self-help eviction" and land you in court. You would lose.
4. If the tenants intend to vacate before the end of their lease, you can't stop them. People can move when they want to move. However, they will be breaking their lease one month shy of it's expiration date.  There will be consequences that you can impose according to the terms of your rental agreement. Does your rental agreement have a lease break clause? Follow it.  
5. Did you obtain a sufficient security deposit? Hopefully you did. At the end of tenancy your property manager will be doing a move-out inspection and an accounting of the monies owed by the tenant. In accordance with the landlord-tenant laws for the state where the rental property is located, a final report on return of deposit should be made. Typical deductions from the security deposit include:

• Unpaid Rent (past due)
• Unpaid Utilities (previously assessed and not yet paid)
• Unpaid Fees (previously assessed and not yet paid)
• Missing items
• Damages
• Extra Cleaning
• Lease Break Penalty

6. If after all the deductions the tenant still owes you money, the final report will show an amount still owing and a statement date of when those monies are due to you.  For example Due Upon Receipt or a specific due date within the next 30 days. You choose.

7. Then there is the matter of collecting on past due amounts. If the tenant fails to pay what is due to you in a timely manner, then the next step will be to send a "demand letter". This is the first step toward collection. A well written demand letter will motivate the tenant to pay what they owe, but not anger them. Open and honest communication, kind and professional, may work toward achieving your goal.

8.  Since the tenants are still in residence, the property manager (or you) should be working on getting them to follow the terms of the lease agreement and to pay the utility bill now. Everything's negotiable. Some leverage may exist. They may not want this to tarnish their rental history or credit history. So be clear about what you need them to do and the consequences of non-action. The goal at this juncture will be to facilitate a smooth move-out with the least amount of monetary loss and the least amount of damage to your property.

Good Luck!

In general:

• It's not uncommon for the make-up of a household to change. Prepare for this in advance by having a clear policy and procedure in place to add or subtract a tenant from a rental agreement.
• Month-to-month rental agreements make it much easier to accommodate changing living situations and to address problems more effectively as they arise.
• All long-term leases and M2M rental agreements should be drawn up with all adults who occupy the property named as a party to the agreement, "jointly and severally liable."
• The security deposit stays in place until the last person moves out and possession of the property is returned to you.

Specific to your situation:

• Agree to terminate the lease early, without penalty. 
• A permanent change in military orders does indeed allow them to break the lease without penalty.
• Anyone who chooses to remain, needs to re-qualify on their own.
• They need to sort this out.
• If they both move, the security deposit would be returned jointly in their names. However, this is negotiable. If you want to cut two checks 50/50 or whatever way they want, you could, just put the agreement in writing and have all parties sign and date it. We've done that with feuding roommates who wanted to call it quits.
• Determine a fair rental value for your property. No need to reduce rent to accommodate the wife. The wife can either afford to continue to live there or not.
• If the wife wants to continue to live there, draw up a completely new rental agreement. I agree M2M would be best.
• Is there a specific reason you want the wife out by summer?  Would you rent to her again if she qualified? If not, why not?

Search BP forums for "mold" and you'll see many discussion threads on this topic. @Mike McCarthy is spot on. Mold spores are everywhere.  Download (or order) the EPA booklet "A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture, and Your Home". Read it and give a copy to your tenant. Tenant's need to do their part to prevent mold spores from taking hold. Work as a team. If there's an issue, take care of it. Testing and sampling for mold is rarely necessary or effective.... see page 13 of the booklet. Whether a danger is real or perceived, you need to address the tenant's concern in some way. Sharing knowledge is the best approach, not mold testing.

I can just comment on what not to do... don't let the rental property business overwhelm you and take over your life and home!

We are 20+ years into this residential rental property business. With 17 units... too big to do everything ourselves and too small to hire it all out. We have a home garage that can no longer house our cars, a maintenance storage room at our 8-plex, and two storage sheds off the alley near a duplex & houses that we own. We also have an off-site 10 x 15 storage unit in a secure and gated storage facility. 

My husband always knows where the hammer is as well as other tools and supplies.... on the shelves of our local hardware store!  Path of least resistance is to buy more than to unearth what we already have. We have so many duplicate supplies and tools it's mind boggling. We don't even do all the maintenance and repair ourselves... so why hold onto so many electrical and plumbing supplies and tools, etc?  Workers we hire often stash stuff away in the wrong place or pile it onto other stuff in storage. Opening the doors of these storage caves is becoming dangerous! Avalanche!

On occasion we load up the station wagon with stuff we no longer need and donate it to the Habitat for Humanity Restore. But we're not disciplined enough to do this often. Storage units mostly contain "deferred decisions".

Waiting for the winter to thaw and the promise of spring warmth to open up those storage areas and sort through the trash and treasure. Ground hog day! Been here before. :-)

I'm with you... time to rethink this!

Our tenants prefer units with a washer/dryer in their own unit. This can be machines we provide and maintain, or hook-ups that allow tenants to use their own machines. Most people don't like sharing laundry equipment with other households. That said, our 8-plex was designed with a shared laundry on premises and it wouldn't be feasible to add washer/dryer hook-ups to individual units, so we have learned to take this on. Safe, clean, sanitary, affordable, available... that's what tenants want.  Quarters still work for us and our tenants. We own and maintain the machines. It's an amenity for the tenants, not a income stream for us. Luckily we break even. We're in the landlording business, not the coin-op laundry business. 

You don't know if the money for the ski trip came out of his pocket recently. It may have been paid for by another party or in advance long before he ran into a financial tight spot. But it's moot. What's done is done. 

Take the higher road and don't go back on your word. At this point your focus should be the imminent move when the lease expires and making sure that goes smoothly. He knows you're not renewing the lease and/or you know he's not renewing the lease, yes?  If that isn't entirely clear and in writing, tend to it.  Give him clear move-out instructions.  Make it a win-win..... you gave him a discount for the last two month of his tenancy, and he can return the favor by leaving your place cooperatively... on time, clean, and without damages.

About the repairs he's asking for you to reimburse.... does your rental agreement allow for that?  You need to be clear, verbally and in writing, about your policy on that. Most landlords would not want tenants to decide on their own to do something that would typically be the landlords responsibility and then charge the landlord for it.  Be clear in your rental agreement that you will not pay for services or repairs initiated by the tenant and completed by the tenant or a service provider they engaged to do the work, unless you have given written permission in advance for this to occur.

About the law suit threat... weak and pathetic. Neither of you should even consider involving the legal system and courts. The only winners would be the lawyers. Get back to negotiating a smooth move-out.  Get out of each other's way and move forward.

Good luck!

Sorry you are experiencing this. 

You need a different type of move-in checklist. We provide a move-in checklist with our notations as to the condition of the unit and ask the tenant to let us know within 48 hours if anything is not satisfactory or if they want to add anything to the checklist. The documentation essentially defaults in our favor unless a tenant states otherwise. We make sure everything is marked C & F (clean and functional). We note if something is new. If something is slightly worn, we note the condition with more specifics. If badly worn, we replace or repair. If the tenant brings up an issue, we photograph and document it in writing at that time. We also decide if something will be replaced, fixed, or offered "as is".

I would sit down with this couple and have an open and honest conversation with them. It seems like your place may not be a good match for them. The move-in condition checklist needs to reflect not just their opinion, but yours as well. You need to be in agreement on this.  I would not accept false representation. The rating system of 1 - 5 is too subjective. Toss it and start over with a different method for documentation.  Be precise. If there's a blemish in the floor, measure it and note it's location. Everything should be noted as excellent/good, unless the specifics are noted.

Good luck!