Experience:
As a landlord for my two unit investment property in Irvington, New Jersey
From my very first article, anyone who interacts with my profile knows I'm an anonymous landlord. I don't ever present myself to my tenants as the landlord but as the property manager or super working for Ismael Property Management LLC. I renovated a 2 family house which was a REO. This is when the bank takes back a house when home owners haven't paid their mortgage and sells it next to nothing, ofcourse depending on it's condition. It was sold to me for $29,000 and I was able to renovate it as I also specialize in construction. The rehab cost was $40,000 and it is now estimated at an appraised value upwards of $200,000.
There were a good amount of people interested, especially these two families who stood out because they came every weekend. I checked their backgrounds, they were clean. Even used a reliable online source for the tenant from one of the potential families for one of the units. No real red flags except their credit scores were under what I’d usually accept but I found a way to compensate for that by requesting a two months deposit in addition to first month’s rent. Their records had no evictions or any noted problems with previous landlords. Though they were not the ideal tenants, they were consistent with staying in touch over the period of me renovating the property. I then decided to pursue their intent of renting the newly renovated property because they were persistent, they were from the same neighborhood and I was eager to fill the units so that I could move on to the next rehab project. They paid their two months security deposit and one month’s rent upon moving in and I was comfortable knowing these tenants weren’t delinquents despite having credit scores I wouldn’t usually accept. Second month came without any payment or notice for the lack thereof. This was when the red flags presented themselves and my intuition began to reprimand me for betraying it. Just two months in, they were slacking off with rent payment and quite nonchalant with my warnings. The first three months, they were late. With three months, I was more than within my right to take action so I filed for eviction for the family that gave the most problems first. Bare in mind these tenants were nothing short of disrespectful when I’d request payment so I knew I had to take action as soon as possible because I knew it would have only gotten to a point where I’d end up having a miserable experience with these two families. I had to analyze the situation efficiently and deal with the matter accordingly in the most professional way to avoid adding fire to the flame. So I took legal action. I filed the matter at the court and followed the instructed protocol. The court process was also very tedious as I was held back due to a law that I wasn’t aware of and it insists landlords were to have a certificate called the C of H in Irvington, NJ which is the Certification of Habitability. It’s a document you need when renting out an apartment, if you don’t have it when doing an eviction the results will not be in your favor. But in all honesty, not having the certificate is on me because the onus is on me to do my research to know all the laws in any city I’m doing business in.
So fast forward to my court appearance, I was told I needed the C of H to go further so I made a deal with the tenant I was trying to evict to have them pay half the money due which was two months rent and then in the next two to three weeks the balance would have been rectified and we would continue thereafter. The mediator told me if they didn’t abide by the deal I should just go straight to the sheriff department and make the payment for them to conduct the eviction. Ofcourse the tenant decided they did not need to do this because they’ve read up enough on the C of H that they heard about in court to know that I’m not able to evict them without it despite not paying. When the sheriff finally came, the tenant was quite prepared. The tenant presented the sheriff with a document basically asking to show a “just cause” because I didn’t have the C of H. I was in the process of receiving the C of H however those same tenants were the reason for the delay because in order for me to be granted the certificate, city inspectors have to do an inspection and the tenants constantly refuse to allow them to do their jobs. They believed they were so entitled to the property that they convinced themselves they owned it and there was nothing I could do to get them out. I had to go back to court and the judge said they will not order the eviction without the C of H. Now, imagine having a problem and a solution but not being able to rectify the issue. At this point I am exhausted. To make matters worse, to be vindictive and spiteful, the tenants start calling the city for every minor issue which in fact they’ve caused for example, the woman insists on flushing her sanitary napkins in the toilet which causes plumbing issues that I constantly have to hire people and rent equipment to fix. Not to mention the fact that I have problems getting on the property for maintenance because they want to tell me to come when they’re not sleeping. Which was impossible considering they’re mostly unemployed.
But Incase you thought that was the end of it, the other family noticed what was taking place and decided that this is their chance to manipulate the situation and live freely as well. So here it is, both families are refusing to pay rent with the excuse of me “renting them illegally”. Yes, I can’t make this up. According to them I’m conducting illegal business, but instead of leaving, they’ve decided to get comfortable and leach off the property. Anyway, I was committed to playing the long game because I knew soon the joy ride for them will be over and the desperation they have been disguising with spitefulness would be coming back full circle. So I took this family to court as well and the judge assured them that with or without the C of H, they will have to pay, they just cannot be evicted as yet. So here we have it now, both families on the two family property are refusing me entry to the property but I am expected to do maintenance and property upkeep and face fines if not done. So basically they’ve been calling the city for every little thing for them to not reward me the C of H and at the same time refusing the inspectors access to the property and worse not allowing me to enter to fix any of these issues. Simple issues like repainting the ceiling where the paint is peeling due to them overflowing the bathtub and leaving it long enough to have the water seep through the floor of the bathroom and leak through the kitchen ceiling. The predicament was out of my control at this point and best believe it kept getting worse.
I eventually received the C of H and I was able to evict both families a week apart. I will give that experience in another post titled “Nightmares of a landlord”
