Dealing with the Landlord?

This thread is kind of a microcosm of what landlords see all the time.

Tenant moving in: "Oh, I have perfect rental history. I will pay on time every month, never had a pet, don't plan to. I get an extra $xxx a month over what I put on the app. I will fix the knobs on the cabinets. Don't worry about the lawn. The place is just fine the way it is. You don't have to spend money to repair the _________(fill in fence or whatev). Does it have new carpet and paint. If I take care of the ________ will you lower the rent $xxx a month?(they never do)"

Tenant moving out: "It was like that when I moved in. The carpet was stained by the prev tenant(who actually didn't have a dog, strangely). You can use my deposit for the last rent. I didn't fix it because it was ok the way it was. My child needed a puppy, so we got one. I want all my deposit back. And interest. You owe me for the 5 light bulbs I put in over the past 3 years. I don't know where the toilet tank lid went. My mom, and her boyfriend were living in that room, so - not my fault(and were not on the lease). I lost the garage door opener when my car got towed. No, I never smoked in here, only on the patio. I didn't like the _______ so I took it down, now I can't find it. The lawnmower never worked anyway(it will if there is gas put in). You can get that off with nail polish remover."

"You need to give me a good reference, the landlord will call you soon."

mmuuuuuuaaaahhahhahahhhahahhahhaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
 
I once had a landlord try to withhold a $1,400.00 security deposit because I left a bag of trash and half a bag of rinsed cans and bottles in the apartment. The reason I left them was because the trash / recycling collection wasn't for a few days, and the landlord would have been ticketed had I put them out on the curb early.

The guy moving into the place was a friend of mine, and he'd said he'd put the bags out on recycling day. I'd arranged his taking the apartment, by the way: He'd always liked the place and jumped on the opportunity to lease it when I told him I was moving. So the landlord had zero income loss when I moved. I moved out, and Marc moved in.

The place was also spotless. I'd actually pretty much moved out two weeks earlier. All I had in the place was a laptop, a laptop desk, a chair, and a sleeping bag. I was waiting for Frontier to get the Internet connected at the new place, which was taking a while because it was an upgrade over what had been there. So I was sleeping on the floor and living on take-out in the old place in the interim. I took the opportunity to make the place ship-shape. It was in a lot better shape than it had been when I'd moved in, that's for sure.

But that didn't stop the landlord from trying to screw me out of $1,400.00. So I engaged the services of a neighborhood storefront lawyer who I'd used for collections while I was living there. He charged me $50.00 to send the landlord a nastygram. The landlord mailed the check the next day.

I've actually had pretty good luck with landlords over the years. It's not hard. Pay your rent a few days early and don't destroy the place, and most landlords will love you like a brother. But there are some who just seem to consider it part of their job to screw the tenant one way or another. That's why we have storefront lawyers.

Rich
 
docmirror said:
This thread is kind of a microcosm of what landlords see all the time.

Tenant moving in: "Oh, I have perfect rental history. I will pay on time every month, never had a pet, don't plan to. I get an extra $xxx a month over what I put on the app. I will fix the knobs on the cabinets. Don't worry about the lawn. The place is just fine the way it is. You don't have to spend money to repair the _________(fill in fence or whatev). Does it have new carpet and paint. If I take care of the ________ will you lower the rent $xxx a month?(they never do)"

Tenant moving out: "It was like that when I moved in. The carpet was stained by the prev tenant(who actually didn't have a dog, strangely). You can use my deposit for the last rent. I didn't fix it because it was ok the way it was. My child needed a puppy, so we got one. I want all my deposit back. And interest. You owe me for the 5 light bulbs I put in over the past 3 years. I don't know where the toilet tank lid went. My mom, and her boyfriend were living in that room, so - not my fault(and were not on the lease). I lost the garage door opener when my car got towed. No, I never smoked in here, only on the patio. I didn't like the _______ so I took it down, now I can't find it. The lawnmower never worked anyway(it will if there is gas put in). You can get that off with nail polish remover."

"You need to give me a good reference, the landlord will call you soon."

mmuuuuuuaaaahhahhahahhhahahhahhaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
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You forget the

"It's not my fault that while I was in Florida for the month of January the pipes froze, the water ran for days behind the walls, took out every inch of drywall & carpet in on two floors, and the place looked like Dresden when I came back ... It's really your fault.

See, I didn't want to have a big utility bill, so I shut the heat OFF. I swear, I called the utility company, and they told me it was OK, because they said landlords have special systems hooked to the furnace to turn them back on before the pipes freeze.

Really, it's your fault because you didn't have that thing hooked to the furnace that turns it back on when it is cold outside."​

True story. :mad2:
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
You forget the

"It's not my fault that while I was in Florida for the month of January the pipes froze, the water ran for days behind the walls, took out every inch of drywall & carpet in on two floors, and the place looked like Dresden when I came back ... It's really your fault.

See, I didn't want to have a big utility bill, so I shut the heat OFF. I swear, I called the utility company, and they told me it was OK, because they said landlords have special systems hooked to the furnace to turn them back on before the pipes freeze.

Really, it's your fault because you didn't have that thing hooked to the furnace that turns it back on when it is cold outside."​

True story. :mad2:
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Remind me to never become a landlord. How many people have done that kind of thing to you? :mad2:
 
James331 said:
But yeah, if you have someone living in a house for 4 years or something you can through some new carpet in and take a roller to the walls, if that's too much work maybe you shouldn't be renting out to people.
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Where's the backpedal emoticon? You said:

James331 said:
I've always considered any landlord who doesn't replace the carpet and through paint up before a new tenate moves is a slumlord.

IMO new carpet and paint is part of doing business.
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Oh, and ...

James331 said:
You can buy carpet for under a buck a sqft.

http://t.homedepot.com/b/Flooring-Carpet-Carpet-Tile-Carpet/N-5yc1vZbzsm

I've carpeted more than a few rooms, ain't rock surgery.
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I don't put buck a sq. ft. crap carpet without padding in my units.

I showed you the average range of installed carpet costs.

Tell you what, go buy a place, put your own sweat, blood, and cash into it for a few years, then come back and tell us how you ran it.

Maybe then you can show us how you perform surgery on a rock.
 
overdrive148 said:
Remind me to never become a landlord. How many people have done that kind of thing to you? :mad2:
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80% of the tenants are good to fabulous. I always kept the places neat, fresh, and modern, as if I were living in them. That lets you charge a few bucks a month above the neighboring units, which actually keeps much of the bottom sucking riff-raff away.

10%-20% of tenants don't give a crap, are intentionally, unintentionally, or physically destructive to your property, and would steal you blind given a chance.

These would bankrupt you in the blink of an eye. We've spent thousands on repairs (including pulling out all the brand new carpeting) on more than one occasion after a tenant skips out part-way into a 12 month lease and trashed the place.

These clowns know how to play the game; you'll never collect, and even if you get a judgement attached to their salary, they'll just quit their job and get another, forcing you to rinse and repeat until you give up.

You wouldn't believe what can be done in such a short amount of time. Had one with a 4 year old who must have spent every waking hour crayoning in every wall below 3' high. Seriously, there was more crayon than paint. Mom and Dad watched this happen every day. Oh, and every bit of that has to be sanded off to get paint to stick to the walls again -- and crayon gums up sandpaper quickly. :nonod:
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
You forget the

"It's not my fault that while I was in Florida for the month of January the pipes froze, the water ran for days behind the walls, took out every inch of drywall & carpet in on two floors, and the place looked like Dresden when I came back ... It's really your fault.

See, I didn't want to have a big utility bill, so I shut the heat OFF. I swear, I called the utility company, and they told me it was OK, because they said landlords have special systems hooked to the furnace to turn them back on before the pipes freeze.

Really, it's your fault because you didn't have that thing hooked to the furnace that turns it back on when it is cold outside."​

True story. :mad2:
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No I didn't forget. Just didn't add it. BTW, we shouldn't forget the good tenants out there. You know who you are and I thank you. Specifically, I want to thank Jeanie in Escondido who got the breast reduction surgery and wanted my professional opinion on the work over beers in the kitchen. Top, top notch tenant there.

Yup, true story - not mad at all. :D
 
overdrive148 said:
Remind me to never become a landlord. How many people have done that kind of thing to you? :mad2:
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You're in luck... not only did I used to own rent houses, I owned them in Oklahoma City (Late 90's early 2000s). Some of my first investments were in duplex/quadplexes located by Oklahoma City University. At one time I had 12 units that rented between $550 - $850 a month.

Now here's why you're in luck. Oklahoma is a very tenant friendly place, if the tenant is keeping proper documentation. Find your lease, find a copy of the check for your deposit and request in writing the full refund of your deposit. If there are reasons that your security deposit is being withheld then they are obligated to return to you also in writing these reasons. You can then decide to dispute them or repair them yourself if needed.

In between tenants I would inspect the units and if needed replace carpet or paint. I would also go through and repair any cosmetic or maintenance items I might not have known about. The pet deposit was a sunk cost and I used that to either go towards carpet replacement or professional cleaning. Deposits were returned in full unless there were specific items such as holes in the wall or general damage outside of a normal lived in place. The landlord shouldn't expect a property to be "rent ready" the second someone moves out. In your case it's very possible that the original owner left without turning over the deposit account and now she's left with that debt... could be ignorance on her part, so she's trying to get out of paying that back. In my case I sold the properties as they became vacant over the course of 5 years... so I didn't turn over the deposit account.
 
OkieAviator said:
You're in luck... not only did I used to own rent houses, I owned them in Oklahoma City (Late 90's early 2000s). Some of my first investments were in duplex/quadplexes located by Oklahoma City University. At one time I had 12 units that rented between $550 - $850 a month.

Now here's why you're in luck. Oklahoma is a very tenant friendly place, if the tenant is keeping proper documentation. Find your lease, find a copy of the check for your deposit and request in writing the full refund of your deposit. If there are reasons that your security deposit is being withheld then they are obligated to return to you also in writing these reasons. You can then decide to dispute them or repair them yourself if needed.

In between tenants I would inspect the units and if needed replace carpet or paint. I would also go through and repair any cosmetic or maintenance items I might not have known about. The pet deposit was a sunk cost and I used that to either go towards carpet replacement or professional cleaning. Deposits were returned in full unless there were specific items such as holes in the wall or general damage outside of a normal lived in place. The landlord shouldn't expect a property to be "rent ready" the second someone moves out. In your case it's very possible that the original owner left without turning over the deposit account and now she's left with that debt... could be ignorance on her part, so she's trying to get out of paying that back. In my case I sold the properties as they became vacant over the course of 5 years... so I didn't turn over the deposit account.
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Not directly related to your story, but my feeling on the matter is that both renters and landlords, 99.9999% of the time are normal...its just that minuscule portion of people that ruin it for everyone.

From personal experience, we (meaning, myself...parents....close relatives) always were on good terms with the landlord. Perhaps its a cultural thing (when I was a small child, we immigrated the the US from russia), but I recall my mother and grandmother meticulously cleaning the entire house/apartment every time one of us would move. Meticulous to the point of scrubbing the floors, vacuuming the carpet/renting that Rug-Doctor thing from Safeway, washing/cleaning the baseboards....windows, moulding (or corners of the ceiling) around the top of the walls, etc....EVERY time we moved. By the same token, I remember my dad taking spackle and covering the holes in the walls that were made to put up pictures/paintings and the like....then they'd go and paint the walls to match the color of the exiting paint (they didn't repaint the entire house).

Is it REALLY a cultural thing? I dont know....maybe its the simple explanation of having whoever comes into the house after you not having the thought of...."WTF....how did the people before us live in such a ****box?"
 
It's been a looong time since I rented - but I seemed to have pretty good relations with my apartment manager(s) when I did. I don't remember getting stiffed for any deposits, so if it did happen it wasn't enough to be memorable. I was also the type of person who treated the places as "this isn't mine, so I better take good care of it" vs "this isn't mine, so I don't care what happens to it". I think that attitude was recognized.
 
Henning said:
How do you garnish wages on a crack dealer?:dunno:
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"Ahh, she be right mate -- es was like that when I got here." :rofl:


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/ratbag-renters-run-riot/story-e6frf7kx-1225942996771
28k52ma.png
 
vkhosid said:
Not directly related to your story, but my feeling on the matter is that both renters and landlords, 99.9999% of the time are normal...its just that minuscule portion of people that ruin it for everyone.
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For the most part I had great tenants. I did a pretty extensive screening process with a credit and referral checks. If there were account delinquencies I didn't rent. If they didn't want to give me 5 years of address history I didn't rent. If they were 1st or 2nd year college kids I didn't rent.... because my properties were close to a private university I had no problem with occupancy and I typically rented to upper class man or graduate students.

These were nice properties and people enjoyed living in them.. I didn't enjoy the amount of time and effort it took to maintain them though which is why I decided residential real estate wasn't for me. I also unloaded before the 'housing crash' even though Oklahoma wasn't really affected all that much.

Edit: I should also note a good friend of mine has some dirt cheap properties, single family homes for maybe $30,000 with a few of them Section 8 (Government pays the rent with your tax dollars). He has some crazy stories about renters. I'm guessing the type of tenants those properties attract or less than desirable.
 
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rent a car? take photos when you pick it up and drop it off. . . .meta data is your friend here.

rent an apartment - again - photos moving in - photos moving out. this was you can prove the condition.
 
comanchepilot said:
rent a car? take photos when you pick it up and drop it off. . . .meta data is your friend here.

rent an apartment - again - photos moving in - photos moving out. this was you can prove the condition.
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Oh - I cheated a car rental co once. Got a nearly new SUV from one of the big ones, and the fam went skiing. On the way back down the mtn I took a rock right in the windscreen and it put a nice sized star in it. Drove straight to one of those drive in windshield repair places, and in about 25 minutes you could barely see anything. Turned it in, and wait, and waited. Heard nothing! I am a bad, bad boy. Made up for the couple of times they charged me for BS stuff like $24 for the missing snow scraper/brush. After that I took it out of the car, and handed to the clerk. They didn't like that.
 
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