All Forum Posts by: Tim Baldwin

If you are willing to be the manager of your rental property, you should consider keeping it under your control and not hire a manager. Of course, you need the good landlord resources to manage the property properly. If you live outside of the area of the property, it will be more difficult, but still possible with a network of vendors. You need a good lease agreement, landlord forms library, educational material, and landlord attorney to guide you. 

Property management companies in Florida vary on their fees. In my experience as a landlord attorney and helping property management companies across Florida, the fees range from 8% - 15% (taking into account fees and commissions). 

You should have a lease agreement for the roommate prepared by a landlord attorney. Roommate situations have positives and negatives for you as a landlord. The good thing is, you get the advantage of knowing how the tenant is taking care of the property. The bad thing is, you are around your tenant a lot :) Get the terms and conditions in writing. That's a great start.

Under Florida law, a neighbor is not legally obligated to trim branches growing on your side of the yard, but you have the right to trim branches intruding into your yard, so you will be the one responsible in that regard. If the neighbor has a tree that is in dangerous condition, you can demand that the neighbor remedy the dangerous condition, and if that tree causes you damage, you can take action against the neighbor for the damage. 

When the tenant admits to struggling to pay rent, it's inevitable that you will have to deliver a notice to pay or vacate. Discuss terminating the lease with the tenant and enter into a termination agreement for her to leave by a date certain. Find a tenant who can pay the rent and be a good tenant during the tenancy. 

The tenant has to request a "reasonable accommodation" to have an ESA if the lease agreement prohibits pets and animals. What is "reasonable" is a question of fact. Losing insurance coverage could very well be deemed "unreasonable" by a Fair Housing hearing officer. The question becomes, in that situation, is there any accommodation that can be made so that you don't lose coverage. Under most circumstances like this, I advise my clients to deny the application when there is no way  NOT to lose insurance coverage, but I advise my clients to first contact their insurance provider to inquire about any provisions in their policy that would alleviate this problem. 

It is becoming more common in Florida. Property management companies work on a small margin, and the amount of time and overhead it takes to deal with maintenance pushes them to require a percentage of the maintenance. 

Having helped property management companies for nearly 20 years, I am seeing more of them require this fee for maintenance. Of course, the nicer the property, the less maintenance problems there are, but the where the home has a lot of maintenance problems, it will cost the landlord more to have the PM deal with those issues. 

If the company is professional, responsive, and competent, you may consider it worth the expense, especially if the home, in fact, has a lot of maintenance problems, as those types of rental properties are riskier to manage and own.