All Forum Posts by: Sarah Damico

Hi,

We have an alleged encroachment that we suspect is over 20 years old on a property we are trying to sell/close on here very quickly in the Denver metro area. Does anyone have suggestions on an attorney to work with that has a cycle to take on a potential client very quickly? We've communicated with two and unfortunately haven't been able to get someone to move quickly.

Thanks!

Hi All!

I just wanted to circle back on this thread to give an update and thank you all for your advice and input. We gave our tenants the option of paying an early termination fee to relieve them from their lease obligations and they decided to take that route vs stay responsible for the lease. Also, thanks to @Thomas Cummings on this thread for hopping on the phone to talk me through all of this and letting me see what he uses in his leases. I have updated my lease to include the early termination clause. I listed the apartment last weekend and have spent the week showing it and running applications. Our new tenant signs and moves in this Tuesday, October 1st so it definitely ended up working out. I've also started outlining responses to different scenarios as suggested by @Nathan Gesner super helpful advice! 

Thanks for your help, everyone! 

@Nathan Gesner this is great advice! I love these types of projects so I will definitely start doing this. I am not familiar with any Joe D'Amicos but I married into the D'Amico family and it's not super common so who knows! 

@Jennifer T. Thanks for the insight I will look more into this for future reference. 

@Thomas Cummings I guess the part I get stuck in on finding a tenant right away is I don't just want to find the first person available to rent to. We live in the upstairs unit so I want to be able to live within close proximity of the person living there. I'd love to discuss this with you and see what your lease includes. I'd greatly appreciate that. Did you use a local attorney? thanks!

Thanks, @Lynn McGeein!  Such great advice. I once had to leave my lease a month early because our landlord allowed an aggressive dog to move into the unit we shared a yard with. He kept our deposit for breaking the lease a month early so I guess I naively thought that would be a good option. Lesson learned! As for the emotional animal support thing, I read up a little on here and looks like I should request an actual doctors note vs what you can get online. Curious- my husband is allergic to cats and we live in the upstairs unit. I wonder if there are any medical loopholes on our end about this? I can look into this. Thanks so much for sharing your experience.  

@Nathan Gesner Your advice is amazingly helpful and actionable. We absolutely should have thought all scenarios through beforehand, not making excuses, but the whole process has been a whirlwind. Now, we are having to learn from our mistakes in realtime. Any books or classes you recommend to become well versed in basic contract law? 

As of now, they have only expressed verbally about wanting to break their least. I asked them to individually submit their request for early termination through email and that I would follow-up with next steps and options. I will propose the options you have laid out. Thanks for your help. 

Thanks, Theresa! I have no problem letting them out of their lease, I'd rather have lease abiding folks living in our property at the expense of a little vacancy. We live in the Denver area, so finding new tenants is not an issue. We had more qualified tenants apply for our unit, however, I had a soft spot for this couple. I do not want to hurry and get new tenants, I'd rather take the time to find a better fit as we live in the unit above and have to share a driveway with the tenants. I will definitely work with an attorney to get an early termination clause added. Lesson learned! Thanks for your input. 

Erik- Thanks for your message. The deposit would be less than 6 weeks rent hence the reason I thought it may be a better alternative to both parties instead of having them be on the hook until we rerent the unit. I would, of course, negotiate this with them and get it drafted as an amendment and signed. Sounds like I need to add a more defined clause in my lease agreements. 

@JM Payne thank you!

I believe the tenant laws in CO are pretty land lord friendly as well. From everything I’ve researched it seems they are responsible for the length of the lease except for about 3 legal reasons none of which they have. We also do not have a clause in our lease for early termination. I have not committed to anything and don’t intend on doing so until I understand the full legalities around the situation. I’m not opposed to paying the money to speak to a lawyer, Im sure in hindsight there will be many learnings from this! It’s our first tenant- we just bought this property a month ago.

Thanks for your response!

Hi All,

Our tenants moved into our downstairs unit not even a month ago and just asked if they can bring in two cats. The lease clearly states no pets and we are pretty firm on this rule so we let them know that is not an option. I got a call today saying they want to move out and break the lease. What should my next steps be? Should I let them go and just keep their deposit? Is that an option? I was going to ask them to send me their termination notice and date they are leaving in writing or email and then was going to respond with "approved and will keep your security deposit."  Attaching the section of our least that covers termination notices. Would appreciate any advice at all! Thank you.

Thanks for putting this together! I will be there. :) 

Hi,

First time posting here. We live in a suburb called olde town Arvada just 10 minutes outside of downtown Denver. Our neighbor approached us about buying their house, we’d like to house-hack as our first purchase and this house would allow us to as there is an 800 square foot apartment downstairs with a kitchen and bedroom renting for $1300. The upstairs is 1200 sq feet, it’s semi updated but definitely needs some work. There’s a small yard and only 1 car garage. We did some research and thought at most it should list for about 430k or so. We got their price today and it came in super high at 500k. They were trying to find the buyer to save money on fees and then went above the highest price comp. Comps ranged from 360k-490k. I want to walk away solely based on principle but even at about 450k mortgage would be $2350 or so putting us at $1050 for mortgage which is great for Denver. After a year it so we could rent the top for about 2k so 3200 a month on a 2350 mortgage. I’m a complete newb at this, was hoping some of you could weigh in? Let me know what info I missed. Thanks!