I have to vent ! About a Tenant

[ultrarunner]

I can't feel sorry for the banks. These homeowners are basically tenents that didn't have enough money to rent a house much less buy one, yet were offered a ridiculous no-money-down mortgage. The banks approved them, and then wonder why the house is trashed when foreclosure is imposed on the property.

When it comes to human nature I try to subscribe to the adage: Given the opportunity, people will disappoint you.

I'm not negative, just a realist. When it comes to family, don't get me started!BTW, a statistic floating around says 80% of money loaned to a family member is never repayed. How's that for disappointment?

Scott

Bought my first rental in 1982, with the idea of buying one a year, move in, repair, rent and then repeat.

Sounds backward to say this... anytime a tenant "Voluntarily" leaves is really a blessing... Unlawful Detainers can cost thousands of dollars and tie up a property up for months.

I'm in no way sticking up for banks... however, nothing gives a person the right to maliciously destroy another's property... even if bank owned.

In the 90's... at least in Oakland CA, Banks were being sued and picketed for RED LINING... they simply refused to do business in certain areas and did this by enforcing rigorous lending requirements... Appraisal, Termite Clearance, 20% down, 6-months living expenses in the bank, 3 years in the same line of work, 2 years with the same employer, sufficient credit score, etc...

The banks eventually caved under threat from regulators that determined Banks must not discriminate based on property location or standards that prevented low-income, recently arrived people from sharing in the American Dream of Home Ownership.

At one time, all you needed was a pulse and address to buy... many of the new home owners in my neighborhoods were not US Citizens and recently immigrated... they had no difficulty buying with no money... some loans were structured for more than the purchase price to cover closing costs.

The mentality was today's high price will be tomorrow's bargain.

Owning/Managing rentals is a business and one that takes time... great tenants are the exception... fortunately, I've been blessed with mostly good tenants.... some going back 20 years or more.

I realize all the rational thinking in the world does not change the fact this tenant did you wrong.

It's too bad all the good landlords and good tenants couldn't get together and let the bad tenants and bad landlords make each other miserable.

 

[bdeboer]

Deep,

The tenant interview is the best based on my experience...you have to go with your gut feeling. I have let tenants move in with no security deposit and no first months rent in exchange for them doing repairs and me buying the materials and had it work out great and when they left , they left it neat and clean and I have had the other but no credit check, security deposit or first months rent will ever save you so don't beat yourself up..

Brin,

Have you noticed that the condition of their car seems to be good indicator of how they will treat your property? Temper tantrum dents and trash in the interior of the car - means holes in the walls and trash in the house.

 

[brin]

Brin,

Have you noticed that the condition of their car seems to be good indicator of how they will treat your property? Temper tantrum dents and trash in the interior of the car - means holes in the walls and trash in the house.

bdeboer - You are exactly right...and another thing I have noticed is if you pass by one of your rental properties and it is beginning to look rough on the outside and yard then you can be sure it is ten times worse inside...there are some real scumbags out there renting ! People who don't own rental property would be shocked to know how some people live and the filth they tolerate..Just disgusting.

 

[bdeboer]

The dirtiest one that we have had move out, left her vacuum sweepers and brooms. Not the only one to leave brooms behind. I guess if she didn't use them in a year and half why did she need them.

 

[Car Doc]

Yes there are some good old rental horror story's here no doubt!

I once rented to a couple who had a rental management business and they were handymen as well (so they said) and had most of their immediate family working for them and had them (family) living in their rentals what a disaster.

Their rental management business consisted of collecting rent and getting contracts signed etc and going in rentals and fixing the damage left and cleaning them up so the slum lord could move another trashy renter move in what a circle of idiots.

Anyway before long the whole crew was living in my house where the contract specifically stated 2 people ONLY and NO pets...2 dogs and a torn up garage door and screens and scratches on every door inside and out away they went good riddance and it cost me more than the damage deposit to fix it back up of course.

 

[ljellio]

I feel for all you guys but on the other side of the coin . Back when my now wife and I were first starting out my wife took a job as an inn keeper and part of her pay was a partial apartment over the in partial in that it did not have a kitchen and the heat was a wood stove in the living room. But we had access to the in kitchen and laundry room . The owner of the in advised us that we would have to provide our own fire wood. We liked living there and my wife liked the job so everything was great we ended up getting pretty "close" to the owner and I would help her out by shoveling walk ways and such in the winter there was even a few nights when weather was bad and she slept on the living room couch . I was bringing our fire wood in from my dads And we would do the inn laundry while doing ours things of that nature because we were "close" .at one point she even ran out of fire wood and I was burning my fire wood in the inn and in the rental cottage. 1 night she had a late arrival and I started the fire in the cabin on an exceptionally cold night so it would be worm for the guest . Well the guest locked the key in and I got to freeze while figuring out how to break in at the owners request. There was many weekends of working when not scheduled and late night check INS but again we are close right ? WRONG she ends up deciding to sell her house and because of this she wants the apartment for her self so she tells my wife we are not team players and she is fired and we have 2 days to get out or she is charging us a months rent. Can you believe that? There are other things I could tell you that I /we did for her but my rant has takin up enough of your time . So it's not always the landlord that gets used but I will agree it mostly is.

 

[Taylortractornut]

The old man that works on our Macks has a rental house near his shop. He has a slick way to rid folks quickly. The water meter is in his name. He was a master carpenter one time and had redone the whole house. One day during a check in the tennant kinda held the door closed. Then the rent was 2 months over due. Then he wentto evict them and got to wait 30 days. They poked some holes and marked walls. later when he put the water meter in his name about 35 bucks a month out of his pocket but when a enter quits paying he shuts the water off and they leave right then.

Another friend inheritedd a trailer court from his grandfather. He owned all the trailers and when he figured he wanted out of the rental business He offered to give the tenants the trailers if they cleaned up their lots and moved the trailers by a certain date. The teneants found new places but some left their trailers there as storage units after the last nothice he had them houled to the landfill, that was a whole new battle there.

 

[ultrarunner]

Many regulations covering Rental Property are regional... some of what I've read would subject the owner to civil and even criminal liability if it occurred in California...

Just wanted to throw that in the mix.

Discontinuing utilities is considered constructive eviction and the penalties are severe.

Just as the Inn owner giving an employee with a housing allowance 2 days to vacate... would never happen here without the Landlord going through the entire Unlawful Detainer process.

Being a Landlord today is filled with minefields with many just waiting for a screw-up or honest mistake... I've had "Testers" survey my available units just looking for actionable cause such a discrimination, failure to have proper city license, or provide required notices on a myriad of laws from Sex Offenders, Lead, Asbestos, Rent Control Ordinances... etc.

Over the years, I have steadily shifted from residential to commercial rentals... just a lot less to deal with in business to business rentals.

Landlords need to by savvy and remember they are running a business... courts lean very much against business and there are so many avenues for tenants to retain free and low-cost representation...

 

[CurlyDave]

I have been a landlord in both CA, and now in OR.

Totally different in the two states.

In CA it is very difficult to evict anyone. If someone couldn't pay their rent the best tactic was to offer them $200 and a week at a local motel. Almost always took the deal, and it was far less expensive than the lost rent, repairs, and court fees that came with evictions. Once they have voluntarily moved out of the unit they have no right to come back. Hotel law is different than apartment law and they can be evicted from a motel in one day.

In OR, evictions take about two weeks, and are very easy. Over the years I have learned that if someone can not pay rent one month, they need to go. Every time I have ignored this rule, I have ended up losing several months rent and having a difficult time getting them out.

Essentially if someone can not pay January's rent, no matter what they promise, they will not be able to pay two months rent in February.

I always do a background check. Credit is not that important -- they wouldn't be renting if they had good credit. What is important is to check for previous evictions and criminal convictions.

Criminal you don't want under any circumstances, and a previous eviction means that they have experience with the court system and both are more likely to need eviction and will be harder to evict. Leave those tenants for someone else.

 

[jpm]

i agree commercial rentals are much better.i had a small rental apt in my building and almost all renters were %@#% except my last one, then the place burnt down the town made rebuilding with the apt way to hard so it ended with two retail stores.the checks in by the third of the month with out any bs