Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with landlord

How to wash my hands of this lease?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:45:25 -0800

Breaking my lease: landlord barely making an effort and raising the rent. What are my chances in court? YANML, I want to know where I stand before I start pouring lawyer money after rent money. Pennsylvania, since that's probably applicable.

I gave my landlord ~2 months notice I'd be breaking my lease. He's decided to raise the rent $100/month ($1100->$1200) which we feel is not at all competitive given other listings in the area. The not-as-newly-rennovated place directly next door is renting for $1050/month.

He has put minimal effort into advertising -- he's posted a total of 2 posts on craigslist over the past two months.

We're posting on a daily basis, showing the apartment a few times a week -- and time and time again, every person that we follow up with mentions that the rent is the sticking point. There have been at least two people that have said they would have taken the place at our rent, but not at the new rate. We have this in writing (email).

For what it's worth, we've tried to communicate with him regularly -- stopping paying rent is not our first choice, but we've gotten nowhere talking to him. The landlord is the owner of the house and previous resident. He is/was a great and friendly guy, but turned positively *icy* when we told him we were moving. Sorry dude, getting a new job is not personal.

Right now he has our 'last months' rent + a security deposit. I'm *very* tempted to stop paying him rent when I move out, because I don't feel he's making a good faith effort to rent the place out. Is this an awful idea? If it comes to court, do I stand a chance? I just can't afford to pay rent on an empty apartment he's making minimal effort to rent out.

Water shut off due to non-payment by landlord. What are my rights?

slavlin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:18:28 -0800

My landlord pays the water bill for my apartment complex. Today the water was shut off in the middle of the day. When I called the water company, they said that the complex was shut off due to non-payment. Are there any legal requirements about notice or use of rental fees by the property management? I live in Tennessee. I have been living in this complex for about 9 years. Though it has had it's problems, it is spacious and fairly cheap, plus I hate moving. I do pay an additional fee for water (along with rent).

Also, I checked the Better Business Bureau and there is only one complaint on file and there was no response.

Finally, the property management is Starwood Property Management (Lease says Starwood Management LLC.) There is no address on the lease other than our complex. The management company is based out of New York, but the managers here have been told they are not allowed to give me the phone number for the main property office. Would they be required to do that, since they technically do have an office here that I can go to?

Paging Dr. Landlord...

mrsshotglass — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:47:49 -0800

Am I toeing a weird ethical line by considering using my internist landlord as my primary care physician? I have a friendly relationship with my landlord. He and his wife run a medical and dental practice out of the first floor of the building. They are kind enough to rent the apartment upstairs to my family, on a month to month basis. It's a fairly casual rental agreement, I signed a piece of paper, they signed a piece of paper; I pay rent on time and they fix stuff when I ask them to. We've had no issues save for an overly whiny puppy scaring the patients and that was a one time occurrence. I plan to continue to rent from them for the foreseeable future until the real estate fairy bestows riches upon me.

I'd like to take advantage of the location and utilize their services as medical professionals on a non-emergency basis. I figure this is as close to a house call as I'm going to get in this day and age. On top of the convenient locale, I'd also like to sign on with their office because they are kind folks and I feel like I can talk openly with them about my health and well being.

Mr. Shotglass on the other hand is vehemently opposed to the idea and prefers to keep the landlord/lessee and doctor/patient relationships separate. He has past experience with not mixing medicine/the rest of his life as his dad is also Dr. Shotglass MD.

So MeFites, YANML and YA(probably)NMD. Am I making a mistake by letting my landlord have knowledge of my medical goings on? FWIW, I currently do not have a PCP and I have no preexisting major health issues.

Thanks for the input.

What law says my lease is gone?

fireoyster — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:02:55 -0800

In Texas, is there a specific law or section of law that says a tenant's lease goes poof when a landlord's property is foreclosed on by the bank, or is it one of those situations where a whole body of law and court decisions are added together to make this situation? I have (had?) a lease in Texas with a company that owns a small less-than-20-unit townhouse building. The lender has foreclosed on this building and posted notices on all the units that reads: "Dec 1, 2009. As of this date, $bank is now the owner of this property. Please mail all rents payable to $bank to $address." I checked the county records and the building had been posted for a foreclosure sale on December 1st, plus I called the person whose name was on the letter (identified as an "Executive VP in Charge of Lending and Finance" or some amazing title) and specifically asked: "What happened, did your bank foreclose?" The answer was yes.

From what I have been told, this now means my lease has gone the way of the dodo. I fully intend to take advantage of this fact, but since the bank is now the owner, and they have nothing but money, lawyers and time, I would like to read the relevant sections of law that make this so. I have been reading Texas Property Code sec 91 and 92, but the only mention of foreclosure is to exempt a section relating to security deposits from banks that foreclose.

Considering I plan on delivering notice first thing Monday morning, I called a few local lawyers today, but they were out of the office or otherwise unavailable. I also tried calling the Austin Tenants Council, since it's their web page where I found this information (but not legal cites) initially, but they didn't answer the phone. To be specific, I'm not looking for legal advice, just pointers to an area by people who are better at reading law than me. Thanks in advance.

knock knock, who's there?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:50:16 -0800

The caretaker for our landlords' buildings is moving into the apartment across the hall. This comes with an atypical set of potential issues. We're trying to figure out the best way to deal with it. Explanation (includes politics) inside. My roommate and I are active, vocal anarchists, who occasionally get harassed by the FBI. They have come to visit, staked out our block, and on at least one occasion called and bothered a previous landlord, among other things. We're not doing anything illegal here; such government harassment is fairly typical for our social circles. We're also pretty good tenants, most of the time.

That said, we're trying to figure out the best way to deal with the coming situation of our caretaker moving into the building. She has quite a bit of power with the (mostly absentee) landlords; she's the one who collects the rent and has a major voice in whether or not people stay or go. It's quite possible that at some point she as our neighbor is going to be subjected to some of this stuff, and we're worried that it could get us into trouble with the landlords if she does.

My roommate argues that the best thing to do is to just sit her down and warn her in advance: "hey, just so you know, this crazy stuff happens sometimes, but we want to assure you that we're not doing anything wrong here." I'm a little afraid to do that, because I think we'll scare her, especially if nothing does end up happening. Lots of people don't know this stuff happens all the time, and think that people who get harassed must be doing something wrong. His counter-argument is that if something does happen, it'll be worse, because she's more likely to think badly of us after the fact if we haven't been up front about it.

Help us, hive mind! What's the best thing for us to do here?

(Note: this question is quite real, as is state repression of activists; please don't let this devolve into accusations of unfounded paranoia, trolling or a referendum on our politics. If you don't want to answer here, you can email me at bugaboo@riseup.net. Thank you!)

I'm stuck in my flat

alby — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:57:06 -0800

The electric gate into our block of flats has malfunctioned and nobody can move their cars in or out. It's nearly 9PM here in the UK and we can't get hold of our landlord or the building company. If, come morning, we can't get our cars out of the car park can we (legally) charge someone (anyone?!) for the taxi journeys we're going to have to take instead? (There's moisture in one of the safety sensors and it's stopping the gate from operating, I'm working on a solution to dry it out.)

Rental discrimination/morality

JimDe — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:09:11 -0800

I'm a landlord for a owner-occupied 4-unit bldg. I know I can't discriminate, with respect to tenant selection, regarding "family status", but am I free to prefer a single-occupancy renter to a family? My motivation is mostly remunerative -- included in rent are: water, hot water, and heat, and so a single renter is cheaper for me than a family of three with respect to those utilities. Is my preference for 1 vs. 3 rentors actionable discrimination? (Call me a miser if you like, but I'm under rent control, and I need to watch my costs, since it is near impossible to pass inflationary costs on to tenants.)

OK, so like, the walls are still here, so I guess things are still cool?

ignignokt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:51:54 -0800

What should a landlord look for during a mid-lease inspection? I rented out my condo for the first time a few months ago and am going to check in on it next week. Is there anything I should look for beyond obvious damage? Are there any online checklists (that don't charge you to view them)?

Can I negotiate rental agency tenant-changeover fees?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:12:42 -0800

I live in London in a flat of three, and someone wants to move out. We have someone else ready to move in. The lettings agency wish to charge £150 for swapping a person over, and £100 for admin fees. Can we dispute this, for a more reasonable fee? The fees were similarly massive when we moved in (and we paid 6 weeks rent as deposit). When I visited the building we ended up saying yes to, the agent actually never came down (the janitor let us in). In fact, the first time I ever actually saw the agent was going into their offices to sign the contract and collect the keys.

While I understand that credit checks must be done, and some phone calls must be made, I fail to see the justification for paying half a months rent to change some names on a piece of paper when I found the other tenant. £100, that's going to sting but it's doable. But £250?

Two options seem to present themselves:

1) Try to negotiate, asking them for an itemised breakdown of these costs and making a case for them to reduce the fees for good tenants who have paid all their bills on time and never broken anything or asked them to do anything or fix anything.

2) Go straight to the Landlord. Do this actually have to be done through the Agency? Problem is in this case the 'Landlord' is a big company and I'd expect they'll just want the agency to handle it and will happily pay whatever they're being extorted for, in turn.

The person moving in is having a hard enough time getting 6 weeks rent, plus one months rent up front together, without high fees adding to the troubles.

Thanks!

The oven that broke the camel's back

fireoyster — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:58:55 -0800

Our brand new rented townhouse keeps breaking. What, if anything, should we ask for? Back in June, my family moved into a new construction townhouse in a suburb and, since then, things keep breaking and the landlord is slow to get stuff fixed. Some of it is "minor:" not cleaning the off-white carpets from between when the live-in general contractor moved out and we moved in; some of the travertine tiles crumbling at their corners, a couple of sinks pour water on the floor (due to the spout not being forward enough relative to the sink bowl) if not turned on full-blast; one of the sinks has a stream of rust along the bottom of its spout.

However, some stuff has been "major:" brand new (I watched them unpack it) refrigerator died and he couldn't be bothered to get to it until the next afternoon, taking two trips (the next brand new fridge also broke) to fix it; garage door shorted out; air conditioner isn't balanced on the top floor; and, most recently, the oven has decided to break and will not shut off the heating elements, eventually either popping the breaker or getting hotter until I kill the breaker myself. The landlord has eventually, and in some cases partially, fixed the major problems, but new ones keep popping up.

We're paying $1850/month for this house, which is on the high side for this area and already a several hundred dollar discount off the "retail" price because the units weren't leasing. We thought it was worth it for all the space, location, and the "newness," so we moved in. However, all the maintenance problems are beginning to grate on us and make this place seem like it's not worth the high price we're paying. Add to it that I work nights, so staying up for maintenance is a pain, and we're ready to move. People drive by the complex periodically, though less often lately, asking if any units are available, and we're tempted to say "here, take ours!"

tl;dr question: In this situation, where maintenance is slow, problems keep happening, and the landlord is apparently distracted by other projects, what are the pitfalls of asking to bail on the lease? The landlord holds the majority of the cards and can say "no," in which case we stay until the end, and, if so, any tips for negotiating something else, like a rent credit or something?

Required notice for vacating apartment?

mellifluous — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:30:51 -0800

Our apartment was damaged on Friday, and the whole floor needs to come out, possibly some of the drywall too. The property manager needs us to vacate, and remove all of our stuff, for an extended period of time (1-2 months). (Note that we have been dealing with the property manager, and to a lesser extent, the superintendent, and not our landlord.) How much notice is he legally required to give us? We live in Toronto. YANAL. Today, at about 6, our landlord emailed us, saying the property manager wanted us out of our unit by Wednesday. Which gives us less than 2 days to co-ordinate moving, storage, and new accommodation.

Our insurance company informed us that repairs wouldn't take place for at least another three weeks. Until just a few hours ago, the super + PM had given us absolutely no information on when we could expect them to begin. The two of them came by to inspect the damage twice just today, and said nothing about it.

As far as I can tell, this is completely unreasonable. But I can't seem to find any specific tenancy law it violates, perhaps because repairs rarely require tenants to leave for such a long period of time. I have seen by-laws, for example, that require 24 hours of written notice for repairs - and that's reasonable for something like "I need to repair your water-pipe," but not for something like "I need you, and all of your stuff, out for 2 months."

What can we do?

What's a good way to collect rent online?

getupandgo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:52:34 -0800

Would anyone have recommendations for a rent payment website? I'm looking for a good solution for simplifying rent payments for a few out of state properties. I have talked to all of the tenants and they are pretty much all in agreement that they would use it if it were available, rather than sending checks in.agreement

I need the service for 8 units currently, are there any websites that people have experience using that they'd recommend?

User friendliness is a priority; something that tenants can just enter their routing number and link it to their bank accounts for either one time or automatic payment. Additionally, cost is a factor, although not as much as reliability and simplicity (I'm guessing that the fees wouldn't be excessive, hopefully I'm correct in that assumption). I don't need anything ultra fancy, just easy and secure. It would also be great if I could expand it at a later date if I end up adding more property.

breaking a lease in new york for job-related reasons

saraindc — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:35:00 -0800

My friend was laid off several months ago in NY and can no longer afford her lease. I've heard that for job-related reasons (such as moving for a new job) that you can break a lease legally, does anyone know about this? What have the many others who must have found themselves in this situation done? Clearly its not so easy to find someone else to take over your lease as a lot of people have lost their jobs and can't afford a lease. Please help us!! Thanks!

New owner/old lease

ian1977 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:38:59 -0800

Does my new landlord have to honor my old lease? I live in an 8 unit building and I am 6 months into a year lease. About a week ago I had a note on my door saying my building is now owned by Such and Such Company and to please send my rent there.

Now tonight I come home to another note saying that the new company wants 2 things from all tenants. One is whether or not we have a garage. Fine no problem.

The other is....since the previous owner didn't give the new company any of the original paperwork (huh?) could we please kindly fill out the rental application by Friday. This includes basic stuff (name, employer, etc) but also signing off on their right to do background check, credit check, etc. It also has a thing you fill out for a rental reference that they would send to an old landlord. The letter does state that this info is 'simply for our records and files.'

I looked at my old lease. Its typical boilerplate generic lease....it does have one paragraph about 'Lease is Subject to Mortgage' and says that, for example, should the property be foreclosed on, the new owners rights are superior to the rights of the tenant.

So here are my questions:

Why am I filling out the rental application? Ostensibly its just so they have one on file. Thats fine and dandy if thats all it is....but is that really all it is?

The whole 'lease is subject to mortgage' thing. Does anyone know what that means in practice? Is the new owner likely to void my lease because i don't fit their idea of a perfect tenant?

Do new owners typically honor the remainder of old leases?

Any other advice? It seems like the company is just doing pretty standard stuff, the place is going from ma and pa ownership to McRental Corp...so it makes sense that the company wants everything on THEIR paperwork. But then why I am giving them permission to do a background check, credit check etc? I already have the apartment, I am not applying for one. I guess I am just asking, is this a red flag situation?

My landlord's a jerk, but how big of a jerk?

Beardman — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:32:29 -0800

Does my landlord have to give me advance notice if he's going to shut down the building's water for a few hours? This is in Ontario. This morning at 9:00 AM, some plumbers turned off the building's water. It wasn't an emergency, it was a repair that they had been scheduled to make. They told me the landlord was going to tell us. The first we heard of it was when the plumber knocked on the door and said "We're shutting it off now."

Obviously it's rude not to inform your tenants, and the landlord knows this too--he usually lets us know. However, I want to know how much notice he is actually obligated to give us, according to the Residential Tenancies Act, in which water is considered a vital service. I asked on Yahoo Answers, and someone replied that the RTC doesn't apply. Is that true? Is my landlord really not obligated to tell me when he turns off my water supply in a non-emergency situation? I would have assumed 12 or 24 hours was required! I want to know so that I can specify how much notice I want in the future.

Asymmetric pet policy?

WowLookStars — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:18:05 -0800

Is it legal for a landlord to allow a cat in one half of a duplex but not the other? We're trying to sort out what our next step will be.

The lease says no pets. We asked our landlord for permission to get a cat, following suggestions from this post and other similar ones. We offered one month's rent as a pet deposit ($475) and invited him over for a pre-cat inspection at a time of his choosing to see how clean we keep the place. When he turned that down, saying that pets have cost him quite a bit in the past, we offered him $1000 as a deposit. He turned that down as well, and said that there was no way we could convince him to allow a pet.

We are experienced pet owners and are certain that there would be minimal, if any, damage. (My cat died in Jan at the age of 18, otherwise we'd have had a cat when we signed the lease). Our half of the duplex has carpet without pads under it, and the carpet is quite stained already from the previous tenant's children and/or pets. We have no children and do not smoke.

The neighbor in the other half of the duplex has had a secret cat for almost a year now. She got the cat after she moved in but before she signed the lease; our landlord is rather lazy and didn't get her to sign a lease for 5 months. He discovered her cat recently (after our cat request), and told her that either she goes or the cat goes. She didn't care and asked for 30 days to find a new place. The next day, he asked her for a pet deposit and said her cat could stay.

We are confused, dissapointed, and very tempted to just get a cat anyway. If he forced the issue, do we have any options other than finding a new place? We wouldn't abandon a family pet if it came to that; cats stay with you for 10+ years, and we only plan to stay in this area for one more year.

Location is in rural NE Texas.

How to handle a goober for a landlord?

mr. remy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:49:32 -0800

I've got eleven months to go on a lease, and a whole slew of problems with a new (to me) apartment, and a cheap, possibly negligent landlord. How do I remedy them? LOTS of details inside. But if you don't want to read the whole kit-and-caboodle inside here are the Cliff notes: (a) Landlord took more than weeks to fix the unusable bathroom sink; blamed the repairman. (b) Landlord expects me to find/select/transport the washer/dryer he’s obligated by lease to provide, and was missing on our move-in, and for less than $200. (c) Landlord flat-out refused to clean disgustingly smelly carpets we encountered on moving day (d) Landlord reneged on verbal agreement to replace crappy kitchen linoleum (e) Landlord made repeated, guilt-trippy and borderline abusive calls about first month's rent, and (bonus) (f) makes (super odd) references to lesbians. [Way too many details inside; you probably don't need to bother reading unless you want specific specifics] After long and futile summer craigslisting, my girlfriend and I went to a realtor to find us an apartment [Boston area] for one year, beginning 9/1. The realtor found us a fair (not exceptional) apartment for a fair (not exceptional) price. Since it met our needs (though not, as I’ve said, exceptionally) we took it. I forked over a lot of money up front (first month, last month, month security, and half-month’s fee to realtor) totalling about 5K. Since then we’ve had a number of issues with the landlord. In order of occurance:

[The sink] The landlord was unable to do a walkthrough until September 5th, though we moved in on the 1st. On the 5th we informed him the sink was unusably plugged. Stuck full of hair. Wouldn’t drain. Landlord said he’d take care of it immediately. He blamed the issue on previous tenants; “butches, lesbians; don’t know where to wash their hair, always washing their hair in inappropriate places.” But he didn’t do anything. We still couldn’t use the sink two weeks later… at which time I called and asked the landlord what was happening. He said he’d already sent the handyman over, who’d said there wasn’t a problem. After consulting the handyman, Mr. Landlord called me back to tell me the handyman had visited unit number 3, instead of our unit, number 2. Within 24 hours the handyman came to fix the leak, so we considered this issue closed. Until…

[The washing machine/dryer] Our lease specifies we’ll be provided a washer/dryer, though if either breaks they will not be repaired. Due to some miscommunication, the machines vanished with the previous tenant (Mr. Landlord: “girls have no respect for property, got no respect at all, take anything isn’t nailed down, even took the bins in the fridge”). He did not provide replacement appliances at move-in. Girlfriend and I were understanding, and said we could even do without a dryer, as long as we got a washer soon. Mr. Landlord asked if I’d do the legwork and get a washer for him. Stupidly, I said yes. But now he’s asking me to find one for under $200, used, (including, presumably, delivery). I’m not sure I have the time/information to do this on my own. Not to mention, issue number 3…

[The bedroom carpet/THE STENCH!] The previous tenants (Mr. Landlord: “butches, lesbians, who hate men – like some of ‘em Catholic nuns I know I went to school with”) moved out on the last day of August, letting us move a little stuff in before they were totally gone. There were no in-between days for Mr. Landlord to do work on the place. It was left in decent condition, with carpets vacuumed. Not spot-clean, certainly not as clean as I’d leave the place, but adequete -- barely. However: the bedroom stank. Stank like stagnant poop residue in the corner. Or a dead animal in the wall. Or a pet’s tank overturned on the floor. Badly enough that girlfriend and I had to buy an air purifier, and have to air the room out all the time. During the walkthrough (9/5), girlfriend and I told Mr. and Mrs. Landlord that we were bothered by the stench, and wanted the carpets professionally cleaned (nothing in the apartment had been touched by landlords at all, remember). Mr. and Mrs. Landlord flatly refused, on the grounds (a) they claimed not to smell anything (b) “that is definitely the tenants’ responsibility.” Since then, we have been trying to live with the smell (which has abated a bit, but is nevertheless unpleasant...) and would probably have just rented a steam-vac, but for…

[The kitchen floor] Prior to signing the lease, when still considering the apartment, I remarked to the realtor that the kitchen linoleum was in terrible shape: cracked, scratched, buckled, patched, broken, beat-up. [Pics on flickr here]. And still before signing the lease for the apartment, I asked the realtor if he'd relay to the landlords that we wanted the linoleum fixed. He picked up the phone immediately and called the Mr. and Mrs., asked if they'd be willing to make this repair. They said they hadn't seen it in a while, but that conditional upon it being in bad shape, they'd take care of it. Satisfied, the realtor hung up the phone, we signed the lease, paid the money, and we got the apartment. I did NOT get a clause about the linoleum put in the lease; the realtor said that it would diminish my chances of getting the apartment if I appeared too needy up front. During the walkthrough on 9/5, Mr. Landlord said he ‘could get around to replacing it sometime’ but not immediately, or soon, or (I’m guessing) during my tenancy because expenses were tight. Honestly, I wouldn’t have moved into the place if I’d known he’d be so disagreeable. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was…

[The rent check issue]
(i) (9/29) I got a call yesterday morning, from Mr. Landlord saying he didn’t get my half of the rent. I explained that my girlfriend would be paying all of the rent this month, because I’d paid all of the fees on the place before move-in, and cash was a bit tight. He was irritated, and said he expected rent by the 25th (as it says in the lease). I explained that my girlfriend had sent him two bank checks on the 20th, and that he should take another look around – at least one showed as ‘delivered’. This actually took three phone calls, because landlord does not have his ‘money girl’ on hand.

(ii) (9/29)Another call from landlord, yesterday afternoon, saying the checks /did/ come in the mail. Followed by a tirade about how expects it on the 25th, as outlined in the lease. I explained that it was mailed on the 21st, and that, frankly, 4 days was ample leeway for something to arrive by mail from one end of town to the other. And that next month I will send it earlier.

(iii) (9/29) Received another chiding call from landlord about an hour after (ii) concluded, telling me that I had seemed initially like a nice person and he didn’t expect this kind of thing from me. Told me I had him over a barrel, and how was he supposed to pay his bills if our bills weren’t paid on time. And how is he supposed to pay his mortgage on the place if we don’t get him our rent by the 25th (or 17th for an out-of-state check)? I tell him I don’t know… my girlfriend sent him two checks on the 20th, mailed on the 21st, etc., etc., etc….

(iv) (9/29) I ignore a call at night from the landlord. I’m sick of talking to him.

(v) (9/30) I ignore a morning call from the landlord. I’m sick of talking to him.

(vi) (9/30) I call the landlord back, feeling guilty and a little harassed. Landlord starts in on my ‘irresponsible behavior, because it turns out my GF’s checks are from an out of state bank (though they was a cashier’s check sent directly from Bank of America), and that as explained in the lease, out of state checks are due on the 17th, and that we’re ‘off to a bad start’ and that I’m causing him ‘a lot of stress and anxiety, stress and anxiety, because how am I gonna pay my stuff if you pay your rent late?” Yet again, I explained I had not sent any check, that he needed to talk to my girlfriend, but for what it was worth we’d get him everything on time next month. [[This means that if we’re going to pay with out of state checks, and need to allow him ample time to process the paperwork, and need to mail them more than 5 days in advance we will need to post the checks around the 10th of the month prior to the month for which we are paying. Am I nuts? Is this incredibly high maintenance? ]]

Metafilter, what do I DOOOOO? How do I get my issues fixed? Do I stand a chance at getting this resolved?

How much should I charge to manage a student house?

walla — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:49:46 -0800

What should I charge to manage a property? A friend recently asked me to help him fill his rentals. I filled all ten in a month with good tenants. We did not set a fee in advance - I wanted to see how it went before I committed to the job. How much should I ask for? I will probably continue managing the property. So would it be better to charge a finder's fee for the renters I found, a percentage of monthly gross from now on, or a combination of both? How much would I charge for each option?

The property is a university student house, so it's fairly labor-intensive. However, I am friends with the owner and he has been going through tough financial times (he's been losing $1000s to mismanagement for months), so I want to be fair to generous. Google has yielded a wide range of answers, none of which seem to fit these circumstances.

Thank you, hive mind!

Landlord unwilling to return cleaning deposit

monkeystronghold — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:00:15 -0800

My former landlord returned substantially less money from the cleaning deposit than expected. Should I bother with small claims court? I've left my rental home of two years, and I'm now having trouble with the landlord. At the time of move in, I paid a $500 damage deposit, and $125 pet fee, and a $500 refundable(?) cleaning deposit/fee. Check in condition agreement documented the home problems pretty thoroughly. Now, 30 days after move out, she sent a refund that kept the entire $500 depost for cleaning. It stated that she had paid $12 for 99 hours of cleaning.

Some additional information:

- The Rental Agreement is a standard form and says "Non-Refundable Fee". She crossed out the "Non-Refundable" part at the time of signing, changing the text to read "Cleaning". All other correspondence refers to this as a "Cleaning Deposit". Verbally, she said this money would be used for cleaning if the house was not cleaned upon vacating.

- I sincerely believe that I left the house as clean as when I moved in

- The house had been abused by the previous tenants. Carpet riddled with cigarette burns. The hardwood floors are untreated wood painted with wall paint. Holes in doors. Etc. This was not a house of refinement. I have emails to her documenting things we found to be broken, in addition to the move in report that accurately assesses the condition of the house.

- I requested a move out walkthrough on multiple occasions, and she never responded. The assessment that she sent stated that she paid for 99 hours of cleaning. The gap between my opinion (clean as when we moved in) and hers (99 hours of cleaning?!) is vast.

I tried to call to discuss it with her, calmly, and she got very upset and hung up. All correspondence since that time has been in writing.

I've lived in many rentals and never had a problem, so I have no idea what I should do next. Is small claims court worth the trouble? I'm in Oregon if it matters.

Subleasing tenant cosmetically damaged my table. How much, if any, of her deposit should I keep?

evadery — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:54:35 -0800

Subleasing tenant cosmetically damaged my table. How much, if any, of her deposit should I keep? I am in my late 20's and I had a tenant stay at my place for 4 months in the summer as I subleased another place with my fiancee (in town for the summer). She paid her rent on time, was courteous, kept the place in good condition, and all in all a good fit. Unfortunately, she left hair products on my antique wooden dining room table (passed from generation to generation) and left a large black waxy stain on it around the size of two fingers held together, but in an irregular pattern.

It was very noticeable, and compounding the problem, as I tried to remove it, I stripped some of the red from the previous refinishing of the table several years ago. So, before it it was pretty obvious and bad, and now it is very obvious and bad.

I have received a handful of quotes pricing out the cost of fixing the table, and the general guesstimate is around $300-$350 (not including transport of the table top, which may or may not fit in my car, and would cost $130 round trip at my favourite place). All parties say that touching up the area would be visible and not ideal, and the entire top of the table should be redone, but none of the legs, etc. The entire top would need to be redone regardless of whether I had removed some of the colouring, as the removal of the wax would necessitate the full work.

Other relevant facts:
-The tenant gave me a deposit of $825.
-The room is shared with a roommate, but I don't think there is any debate about who caused the damage.
-There are very slight discolourations on the table from resting glasses, etc, but before the wax I would have not considered getting it refinished under any circumstances.
-I will get it refurnished due to this problem, either now, or when I move out of my apt into a house (estimated time-10 months from now). I would not have gotten it refurnished otherwise.

So, hivemind, what should I do, and what is fair under the circumstances? If I did the work now, what percentage of the final cost should the tenant be charged? Thanks.

Trash day came early.

thisisnotkatrina — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:50:14 -0800

Landlord threw out my things before my lease was up - do I have any recourse? I had been living in an apartment since last September and decided not to renew my lease in favor of moving in with my boyfriend. The lease is set to end August 31, 2009.

I got a call last week from my landlord asking when I'd be out so that they could get the keys. I told them that I had planned for Wednesday, August 26th and I'd leave the keys when I left.

So Wednesday comes and I go and gather the rest of my things. My mom was to come up later that day and get my furniture that I would not be taking with me. In my gathering, I find a dead mouse and called the landlord to tell them. There was no answer but I left a message stating that I didn't have anything to clean the spot with but I'd be there until 4:30 or so and my mom was coming up after to get my furniture and that she had her own set of keys.

I left and left my keys and a note for the landlord saying thanks and here's my new address (for the security deposit).

I didn't hear back from them until about 5:30 when my mom was on my way to the apartment. They apologized and made no mention of me needing to clean the spot. We hung up. An hour later, my mom calls to tell me that she forgot the keys and she'd get the stuff out the next day if she could.

I figured it was no big deal since I had the apartment til Monday and didn't call back the landlord.

Flash to today, my mom wasn't able to get back there until today. She goes to get the furniture only to find that someone had already moved into the apartment and everything was gone. She spotted my bed in the dumpster, but the rain yesterday had ruined it, along with anything else that had been in there.

All told the things I lost didn't amount to much in value (a double bed, a small couch, a satellite chair, a desk/chair, vcr, dvd player, stereo, extra cellphone) but it was MY stuff, stuff that was going to be used, stuff that I paid for.

My mom called the landlord to tell them this and she explained that when she talked to me on Wednesday I said I was done (I did not say this) and that I had left my keys so they assumed I was done. My mom told her that my lease did not end until the end of the day Monday and she hoped they wouldn't be taking anything out of my security deposit. The landlord said that "the attorney handles that" and I would get a letter/check within 30 days.

My opinion is that I told her that my mom would be up to get the rest of my stuff, I told her my mom had a set of keys, AND regardless of when I said I'd be out, my lease doesn't end until Monday. I realize now I should have called back when I knew my mom wasn't going up Wednesday but I figured if they walked in and all my stuff was there they would at least call and ask what was up. (They were otherwise very cool landlords, always called me right back and always called to warn me if they'd be in.)

So now not only have a lost a good portion of my stuff, I'm afraid I'll be charged (via the security deposit) for not removing the last of my things.

So what I'm asking here is do I have any recourse? Can I get them to pay for what they made me lose? (The stuff had a value of probably only ~200$ which would hardly even replace the bed, but still..) Can they charge me via the security deposit? Do I need a lawyer? I don't have any money for one. I mean seriously bank account = 0.00$ but I have an uncle who lives in another state who probably would send a letter if I asked.

Thanks in advance, this all took place in Pittsburgh, PA for the record.

Letting agents won't let go!

freya_lamb — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:25:06 -0800

UKRentalfilter: Can my landlord end his agreement with the letting agents if one of two tenants under the current contract wants to stay in the property? Flatmate and I have lived here for two years, he was here before and I moved in when his original co-renter moved out. The letting agents issued a new contract with both our names on it. Now my flatmate wants to go, and I want to stay. I have a new co-renter lined up and my landlord is happy for me to stay on in this new arrangement. However, he doesn't want to stay with the letting agent who have been (mis)managing the property since my flatmate first arrived.

Landlord tried to get out of his contract with them last year, by issuing us with a new, private contract and telling them we were moving out. They phoned and visited for two weeks until they'd established that we hadn't actually moved out and therefore wouldn't let him break his contract with them. I think it's different this time because one of us actually is moving out so a new contract will have to be drawn up anyway, but he's intimated by the agents and thinks they will withhold the deposit and charge him a massive fee unless they think we've both moved out.

He's offered to issue a new contract with me and the new co-signer, as long as I move my stuff out for when the agent visits for the final inspection/handing over of keys. I would then move back in again under the new contract.

This all seems like a ridiculous hassle to me, I really want to stay in the flat (great price/location - not easy to find in the centre of the city), is this really the only way we can wing it? Current flatmate and I pay half the rent each, monthly, direct to the landlord's account. We call him direct if there are problems with the flat and he sorts them out - we never speak to the letting agents. A lawyer won't help me much because the contract in dispute is between landlord and agents, not him and me, can anyone shed any light on the situation? Thanks!

Help! My landlord is trying to scam me!

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:29:48 -0800

Help! My landlord is trying to scam me! Okay, so, when I first signed my lease, my landlord had me sign a "rider" that basically said the following : Although the amount on the official lease is $1800, the actual rent on the apartment is $2150. However, as long as I pay my rent on-time, I get a "discount" of $350.

This is obviously a ploy to get around the rent control laws of my city. If not for the "rider," my apartment would be rent-controlled since it is under $2000 a month.

Anyway, I renewed my lease in June, and he wanted me to sign another "rider" along with it, since the original "rider" was only valid for the term of the lease. I kept putting it off, and ultimately I forgot to send in the new "rider."

Months later, he calls me and bugs me, so finally I bring it into his office.

A few days later, he calls me and tells me that my last rent check bounced, and that I need to write him a new check and pay the $350 late fee. I knew this was absurd, because I have plenty of money in my account. A quick call to my bank confirmed that my landlord never tried to cash the check, and that it never bounced.

I called him back, and he yelled at me, insisting that the check had bounced, and that he has the "bounced" check which was "returned" by my bank with stuff written on it. He threatened me with eviction if I didn't send in a new check along with the $350.

Tomorrow, I am going to the bank to get an official letter stating that they never recieved the check and that it never bounced. I called his office to say that I will be bringing in this letter, but his secretary was instructed to tell me "not to bother, since he won't be in and that I don't have an appointment." Obviously, I'm going to bring in the letter anyway and leave it with his secretary.

But I'm wondering what happens next. Over the phone, he threatened to evict me! I don't want to lose my deposit, and I don't want my credit effected. I don't even want to leave my apartment. He's obviously mad at me for taking so long to bring in the "rider," but I wonder if it's really in his interest to evict me over this, especially since I've been a good tenant and have always paid my rent on-time.

What can I do to avoid being scammed, evicted, or losing my deposit? Would his "rider" even hold up in court? Does eviction effect your credit rating? Is this worth lawyering-up over? My deposit was $1800, but I have no idea what a lawyer would cost.

I live in NYC, if that makes any difference.

If you like, you can email me privately at dontwannabescammed@gmail.com.

Do bunnies make good tenants?

metahawk — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:36:54 -0800

As a new landlord, what should I consider when a prospective tenant has two litter-box trained bunnies? We just bought a house which includes an unfurnished rental unit. We have started to put the word out among circles that we have connections with (school, work). The first person to show interest wants to know if we will consider her friend (described a nice and reliable) who has two rabbits who are "litter box trained and live in a pen"

I read in a previous post that bunnies mostly chew and poop. Since it is unfurnished, my concern would be mostly carpets, floors and wires. Am i foolish to consider this? If I do consider it, what should I ask the owner or what rules might we need to have? (Example - if the person tells me that the rabbits are used to being in their pens when she isn't home and we put that in the rental contract, is that sufficient?)

My husband thinks we should just say no pets but I would like to be open to situations that don't really cause us any problems. (the contract the previous owner used said "pets only with permission".

Help me handle my finances during my last month in apartment

lblair — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:01:10 -0800

Can I persuade my landlord to let me use my security deposit for my last month's rent? If not, what's my next best option? ( I'm dealing with paying my credit card bills too.) My lease is up on 8/31 and I'm broke. (I'm moving home with my parents to save money.) I have about $1000. That's about how much my rent is. My security deposit was a month and a half's rent. My apartment is in good condition, and with the exception of being a few days late with the rent a couple times, I think I've been a pretty good renter. (Lived here 2 years.)

My problem is that I am also behind on a bunch of (small) credit card bills. Also about $1000 worth of needs-to-be-paid-asap type stuff. So, right now I can either pay my rent and wait and pay the credit cards over the next 1-2 months. (I have a crappy p/t job and I'm trying to find a better one, but til then . . . ) Or, I can try to convince my landlord to let me use the deposit, and put my $1000 towards my credit cards. (I know, I know, being in credit card debt is a whole other story, but I'm moving home so I can work and save money and pay them off.)

I think it would be better for me to pay the credit cards and try to negotiate about my rent, simply because the cards will ruin my credit a lot more if I'm late on them. If I'm lucky my landlord will agree to taking my deposit for August rent. If he won't, and I just don't pay it, I'm afraid of legal action or ruining my rental history.

I tried to google for the answer and the impression I got was that using the deposit for last month's rent is generally something that you can't do, but people try to do it anyway- sometimes by talking to their landlord, and sometimes by simply not paying the last month's rent. (I live in IL, if that matters.)

So my question is- what is the best way to persuade my landlord to let me do this? If he says no, then what? How bad are those 'over-30-day' hits on your credit report? (I'm not about to be sent to collections, but I think I have gone over/will soon go over 30 days on some of them.)