All Forum Posts by: Sam Leon

I have a scenerio that I have not experienced before, and doesn't even have any written rules against this in my lease agreement.

I have a single family residence 3/2 in Fort Lauderdale that I rented out to several roommates who travel a lot.  They are airline pilots and the house is close to the airport.

A month after moving in, I received a call from the tenant saying he is out of town at the moment, and a friend who is on town for one night needs a place to stay and he offered his place.  He wonders if his friend can come to me to get a copy of the key, let himself in, and tomorrow when he leaves he can return the key to me or hides it somewhere outside the house for him.  I explained that I do not have an extra key with me and that it while I have nothing against a guest of his staying at the house, it's highly irregular for that guest to stay there without the tenant's presence.

Another month gone by and I drove by the place on my way to another property and noticed six vehicles parked outside.  Three on the driveway and three drove onto the lawn.  There is a clause to prohibit parking on the lawn itself due to sprinkler heads etc...I let them know.  They moved the vehicles back to the side of the street except one, because it belongs to a friend who is now on a cruise and they don't have the key to the vehicle.

So they are letting friends stay overnight while they are out of town, they are letting friends park there since it's closer to the airport.  I don't think they are collecting "rent" for it, but there is no way I can be sure.

I do have clauses in my lease for:

(1) No subletting, assignment of the lease or short term rental without Landlord's written permission.

(2) Vehicle parking allocation shall not exceed one vehicle per bedroom.

(3) Occasional overnight guests are permitted. An occasional overnight guest is one who does not stay more than 7 nights in any calendar month.

Yet none of these really apply.  They are not renting it out to strangers, and are not collecting rent (as far as I know and no way to verify).  Those staying are not staying over 7 days, they are staying one or two nights, and may be fellow pilots.  Sometimes they are given access to the property with the tenants totally absent.  They are also letting friends park there because it's close to the airport.  Yes I have enforce the "one vehicle per bedroom" rule but that's intended for an extended guests parking there all the time, but not quite for being used as a parking lot for friends.  Technically no rules are broken or so it seems.

Thoughts on how best to approach?

When you purchase a property with existing tenants, the typical process involve the seller landlord handing over to you a copy of their leases, their security deposits, as well as estoppel letters SIGNED by the tenants stating they have a lease, rent is paid till when, how much deposit held by seller, and no other written or non-written agreement exist between the tenants and the seller.  If you have that, and that the tenant has signed that there isn't any agreement between tenant and landlord besides the lease, you can use that and ask the tenant to provide documentation now since any other arrangements outside of the lease made between the seller and tenant (if that even existed) is no longer valid since he has provided a signed letter saying otherwise.  This is precisely why estoppel letters are used in the purchasing process, so a tenant can't claim later that he/she prepaid the seller all rent, or that the seller had agreed to reduce his/rent by 99% and "you didn't know that?"  Not a lawyer so not legal advice here.

I don't require meeting with existing tenants, but usually end up meeting them anyways.

During the showing, sometimes tenants are there.  I usually take advantage and ask questions like "do you like renting here?", "anything you like to see improved?", "what's one thing you hate about living here?" etc...

Once the deal is made, then you need an estoppel from each tenant.  This is when it may be useful to talk to each tenant face to face.  You review their leases, make sure their security deposits are in order, That there is no verbal agreement between the seller and the tenants that would be a surprise to you later on, which is the main purpose of the estoppel.

Not sure why one has to dump a pet.  There are plenty of rental properties some are pet friendly some are smoker friendly and some are 55 and older only.  Pick the properties that are a good fit for you, no one is forcing a pet owner to dump his/her pet.  Yes if a pet owner chooses a property that doesn't allow a dog and decides to dump the dog then it's sad, but that's on the pet owner.

If she have already claimed that animal is ESA then you can't charge a pet fee until she can't come up with the proper documentation it's not a legit ESA.  Bear in mind many animals are not really ESA but are legally considered so if she can provide documentation saying she is.  You can refuse to accept it or require more documentation but different states have different laws on minimum documentation.  Florida this year tried to make ESA verification through primary physicians or doctors the patient has seen more than a few times, the bill died.  The ESA crowds are controlling the conversation.

 Exactly, don't accept separate payments from roommates.  It's one amount, from both of them period.  You don't care if they split it 50/50 or 100/0.  When you return the security deposit, you will have the same issue.  Have them give you ONE address to send it to, with the check made out to "Peter Smith and Mark Jacobs".  They can split it however, don't split two payments to two people with two forwarding addresses.  One lease, one rent payment, one security deposit.

If you deal with them as if they have different leases, then if there is a broken window, you have to figure out who to charge for damages?  No.  A hole in the wall inside Peter's room is charged to both, you don't care who punched the hole (could be a guest even), they are both liable.

How much weight do you put on a new applicant's quotes on social media?

I have one that says "When I am not an alcoholic, I am a chocoholic".

What do you think?  Red flag?

Do you have applicants that says something that raised your eyebrows?

I would suggest asking him to itemize the scope of his work.  How much for demolition, how much for the lath repair, and how much for the brown coat, and how much for the finish coat, and how much for painting.  That's assuming he will be doing real plaster repairs, which is not the same as throwing on some sheet rock mud...if he did that it will crack. Also what kind of lath?  Metal lath or rock lath?

Real plaster work is a dying art.  It's really difficult to find someone who can do it well.

You should also get an estimate to take down the lath and plaster and redo it with modern sheetrock.  Which might also give you a window to inspect/improve the electrical and framing of the property.

If it brings results I don't have a problem with it.  However it's buggy, it syndicates to less site then the used to be free Postlets, so I am looking at other sites.

It's important to have enough in reserve to deal with the worst case scenerio.

At the end of the day, the tasks have to be prioritized, DIY or hired out.  You may be able to defer some tasks.

In 2017 when hurricane Irma hit, I felt the same.  I had extensive damages in six properties.  All at the same time.  All had to be dealt with at the same time, all urgent.  Roofs, fences, trees, landscape, a huge mess everywhere.  I had to remove over twelve trees, some of those are 50' tall trees that were uprooted and slammed down across the driveways.  Just cutting down the trees cost $12000.  All my repairs and expenses came under the insurance deductable which was 5% of property value, and they don't cover the outside like sheds, fences, mail boxes that were tossed across the streets, landscape that were completely ruined by uprooted trees.  I had no choice, went part time on my day job for a full month and went to work, and had to hired out some of the jobs.  Very difficult to find people, tree companies would give you a quote, 50% higher than normal rates, because it's in high demand, and wanted payment in cash, you don't want to pay cash?  I have 50 other messages from people who are waiting for my call back.  What? "price gouging is illegal?" CLICK.