All Forum Posts by: Sameerah Baker

Hello fellow Landlords and Property Managers...I have a SFR w/a Section 8 tenant. She's been in the house since Sept. I went to the property the other day to collect her portion of the rent and change out the furnace filter and found that she has added a washer and dryer. I mean the whole kit and kaboodle - plumbing/hoses, water line as well as electrical connections. Ironically enough, my husband and I had been considering adding hook-ups after the New Year as an added benefit to her since she is disabled and has mobility issues. The property had the hook-ups previously but someone broke in, in between tenants, and stole all the copper, so we just never added the hooks up back when the repairs were done. So continuing...as I was discussing with her that I was going to add the hook-ups, my husband proceeded to head to the basement and noticed the hook ups in the utility room off the kitchen (this is where the prior hook-ups were so not an issue w/the location of where they are although I would have put them on a different wall in the room). We go to look around in the basement and could see where the work had been done. The tenant does not speak English well so she called her DIL who explained that her husband (tenant's son) is an electrician and put the connections in.

We provide the stove and fridge and my lease is VERY specific in that no extra appliances shall be added and no alterations to the property shall be made w/o our written consent. Clearly, there is a violation of the lease here!!! I know that I can demand that she remove all of this or face eviction, BUT I was thinking of a different approach - give her notice of a lease violation and then as for curing it, give her options - A) connections to be removed at her expense or face eviction; B) LL will allow connections to stay, however, LL will have connections inspected by a licensed professional (plumber and electrician) at tenant's expense and tenant will be responsible to make any corrections to ensure that installation is proper (safe) and in compliance with local building codes. Also included will be a blurb about any connections that remain will become a part of the property and shall not to be removed when she vacates and also mentioning that she is responsible for any and all damages to person or property caused by her installation and use of these appliances. 

Any thought that seasoned LLs or PM could provide would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance...

Does it matter that this is a Section 8 tenant? Will I run the risk of Section 8 stopping their payments if the tenant complains to her case worker?

Newbie landlord here...My tenant has been in our SFR for about 6 weeks. Prior to that the property was vacant for 3 months for rehab/renovation. She has now texted me saying that she has seen mouse poop and wants me to send out pest control. My lease has a pest addendum which states unit is free of pest upon move-in; that we will not provide any pest control after 14 days of move-in; and tenant is responsible for pest control either as paying direct to exterminator or if we pay, we will it back to them. This addendum is signed by both me and her. I am not opposed to making a one time exception to handle and pay for pest control but not sure if I should do this? If I did this, I was thinking that I should have her sign off acknowledging this as a one time exception and any further pest control needs will remain her responsibility as per the lease. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!