All Forum Posts by: Russ B.

Personally, I'd not want to close until they were out. MA is a famously tenant friendly state. 

Drug activity is treated separately as a cause for eviction in a lot of states - that may be faster than no fault. Maybe the seller should ask a lawyer whether they should go that route, and how. 

That might also help motivate them to leave - getting evicted for cause could cost them their section 8 voucher, while leaving on their own wouldn't. 

Not to be a downer, but I'm certain the property owner already knows exactly how much they're spending on heat, and how much it would cost to install separate heat for every unit. 

The chance that anyone would pay for such a suggestion (or a "connection") seems extremely small.

For housing, this stuff is covered under the FHA (fair housing act), rather than the ADA.

Places like stores and restaurants have to follow ADA, which is as you say. With housing, you have to follow the FHA, which does have provisions for ESAs.

Not really a scam, but totally useless. I have no idea why people pay for these. 

I had one on my current home when I bought it.. Not even sure why, but the seller offered to throw it in and I was like, sure why not. It was from one of the big well known places. 

When a small issue did come up, it was impossible to even claim it. Their automated system told me my account number was not found, and I couldn't find a way to talk to a human (at least not in the 10 minutes I tried). 

I kinda wondered (but really did not care) whether the seller actually followed through and bought it... Until the home warranty place called me a year in, to sell me a renewal 😂

If they're gonna go bad on you, they'll do it whether or not you spend a few hundred bucks on spraying a couple centipedes. 

This is a common problem. You need to deny these requests, or they'll never end. Also, the longer you keep bending over backwards, the angrier some people will get when you finally stop..

Personally, I'd probably text her a link to an Amazon search for bug spray, followed by a laugh emoji 😄

I'm not sure where you are (laws differ from place to place) or what's in your lease... but ripping up three year old destroyed carpet and cleaning pet urine out of the ductwork sounds like textbook usage of a security deposit to me. If you can't use it for something like this, why even require one? 

The only thing I'm not sure on is the time you can't rent due to repairs.. I'm not sure whether they are liable for this or not. 

You should probably get good pictures of all damage before repairing, and be sure to follow your local / state laws on the handling of the deposit. In a lot of places, you need to either return it or provide an accounting of where it went within X days after move out - or else a judge will return it to them no matter what. 

Also, hopefully you got "before" pictures or video from lease signing day. If not, I'd start doing so going forward - you never know when that stuff will come in handy. 

The short version is, the neighbors are almost certainly responsible, and the tenant can / should go after them. 

At a minimum, they should pay the vet bill. Pit bulls may be a restricted breed in the neighborhood - and even if they're not, it should be on record that they've already broken loose and attacked someone's dog. Next time they get out, they might go after a kid. 

But, asking a lawyer is definitely the right thing to do on your end. 

Splitting a steam system into two boilers sounds expensive.. Lots of giant metal pipes to move around. It may also be possible to convert to two hot water systems (depends on the age and design of your system), but either option is gonna be harder with people living there. 

How do your windows and doors look? If they're old wooden ones, replacing them could offer way more bang for your buck than a new boiler. Insulation is another easy thing to do.

This is a common scenario - people that you spend a long time bending over backwards for and then stop, will hate you a lot more than someone who was mean to them from the start. 

The incentive idea may help. You might also point out that some of the screening tools in use these days can pick up eviction before the hearing even happens... Once it's filed, it can suddenly become way harder to get in anywhere else.