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Deadbeat tenants on the rise?

By Robert Griswold, Friday, November 6, 2009.

Q: For the past 20 years I have been buying and managing rental homes and I have to say that these days tenants are worse than I have ever experienced. Not all tenants are bad, but lately I have seen a noticeable increase in tenants who do not pay their rent and then leave in the middle of the night after causing a lot of damage to the house. At one rental, I recently had to spend almost $6,000 to fix up the house for re-renting.

I certainly understand the economy is bad in our area and many parts of the country, but my management company is unable to collect any money after the tenant moves out. The manager simply gives the case to a collection agency, and I never collect any money from the agency. It has been a repeated problem. Can you please suggest what I should do? Can you suggest a reputable collection agency? more...

Who gets security deposit in divorce?

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, October 22, 2009.

Q: Our tenants are currently on a month-to-month rental agreement and apparently have just gone through a separation and divorce. He left several months ago and she and the children have been in the house for the past nine months. She has paid the rent and the utilities and has maintained the place in good order. She had more money coming in during the separation and now that the divorce is final, she tells me that she has less income from her ex-husband so she needs to move to a less expensive home.

She gave me a written notice last Friday that she is moving at the end of the month, and the ex-husband showed up last night at my house and angrily demanded that he get the full security deposit back right then and there. more...

Can landlord stop animal-killer?

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, October 8, 2009.

Q: My neighbor and I both rent single-family homes from the same landlord in a residential neighborhood. This neighbor, however, traps squirrels and feeds them live to his dogs. He also shoot birds and squirrels with a pellet gun, with the shots often hitting or ricocheting into my yard, nearly hitting my family or pets. Our enjoyment and use of the yard is affected by his shooting of birds and animals, and having to listen to his dogs tear apart live animals is disgusting.

We are in the middle of a one-year lease and can't move or we would be responsible for the remaining rent. What is the landlord's responsibility in getting the neighbor to cease this behavior? more...

AC outage could bring rent strike

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, September 24, 2009.

Q: Our son is renting a condo in an area where it gets very hot in the summer. Two weeks ago, he came home from work to find that his air conditioning unit was not working. It was after hours on Friday evening and he tried to reach the property management agency to have them check it out, but no one was in so he left a voicemail message on their answering machine. They have no emergency number and the office is open only Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The temperature reached nearly 110 degrees that Saturday and Sunday.

My son was inconvenienced -- he couldn't stay in the rental unit because the heat was unbearable. We watched his dogs for him and he spent the weekend at a friend's house and went to work from his friend's house. He was able to reach the property management office on Monday and they came right out to fix the air conditioning unit that same day. more...

Condo values at risk in HOA cost-cutting?

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, September 10, 2009.

Q: For the past seven years we have owned a condo on a golf course that we rent out to supplement our income. It is an older community built in the early 1970s, but still is a desirable place to live with a good reputation. However, due to the poor economy and an increase in the number of delinquencies that have reduced their assessment income, the association is implementing some new cost-saving measures that have us concerned.

Right near our particular unit is a very attractive fountain with a natural rock waterfall and a large pond. To date this has been well maintained by ourselves and the owner before us. We have always considered it part of our property because the association has never maintained it. We have retained and pay for a service company that performs a quarterly maintenance program that keeps the water feature clean and operating properly. We even paid for a new motor and pump for the fountain only three months ago. more...

Landlord gets 'F' in mailbox security

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, August 27, 2009.

Q: I live in a 500-unit apartment community comprised of nearly 20 buildings. My problem is that the mailboxes to the individual units are not secure. The mailboxes are centrally located in each building with four rows of six mailboxes in a single "bank" per building.

Shortly after moving in I inadvertently started to open the wrong mailbox and discovered that my mailbox key worked on someone else's mailbox. A little more research led me to realize that my mailbox key works on each and every one of these 24 mailboxes! After talking to my neighbor across the way, I have learned that any mailbox key will work on all of the mailboxes. I found that my key even works on the mailboxes at other buildings! more...

Landlord too lax on noise enforcement

By Robert Griswold, Friday, August 14, 2009.

Q: I have a question about noise. I live on the ground floor of a four-story "luxury" apartment community. We have a "quiet hours" clause written in all of our leases that states residents must be quiet from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The tenants who just moved in above me, a family of four, make a lot of noise between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. almost every night.

I've informed the landlord and even bought a video camera to record the noises along with the times. I've shown several tapes to the landlord and he agrees that the noises (which include children screaming, running around, thumping, thuds and loud banging noises, in addition to foot traffic) are excessive. However, the tenants have continued virtually unabated with their noise-making. more...

Tenant uses job loss to break lease

By Robert Griswold, Friday, July 31, 2009.

Q: Our tenant broke our one-year lease after six months. He has written me a letter claiming he is not responsible for the remaining six months of rent because he had to move after losing his job.

We understand that landlords have an obligation to minimize the loss of rent, but the rental market here is very slow and there is hardly any demand. In the past we have just put up a small sign and we would receive dozens of calls. Not this time. So we have even hired a top local real estate firm to list and show the rental unit, but after 60 days we still have no qualified applicants. more...

After the honeymoon: Rent increase?

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, July 16, 2009.

Q: I have lived by myself in an apartment for the last 12 years. I am planning to get married in the fall and I am in the middle of a 12-month lease where I am the only authorized tenant. The lease is actually quite favorable, as I renewed it last December when the landlord was offering a great incentive for lease renewals.

My concern is that if my wife moves in with me, the landlord might consider me to be in violation of my lease and could renegotiate to the much higher rental rate that new incoming tenants are now paying for a comparable apartment. What can I do to maintain my current favorable lease terms if my wife moves in with me? more...

Renting to 'tenants from hell'

By Robert Griswold, Monday, July 6, 2009.

Q: I am the owner of a single-family residence and seem to have rented to the tenants from hell. They have been complainers from Day 1. The husband is a contractor, and in the beginning I had him doing some of the repairs to the house, but the list of their needs never seemed to stop.

A few months ago, I received a four-page list of items requiring repairs to the property. The house is more than 30 years old and definitely has had some deferred maintenance issues. I responded to the tenants letting them know that I had received their list and that I was scheduling independent inspections of the property. I live out of state so I made arrangements to travel and meet with the local inspectors. Once I notified the tenants of my plans, they contacted the city and filed a formal complaint. more...

Is $450 cleaning charge legal?

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, June 18, 2009.

Q: I recently vacated my apartment and am in a dispute with the resident manager about the proper charges for cleaning and repairs. We had a three-bedroom unit, and I lived there for two years with my spouse and our four young children. I don't think we damaged the property significantly or that the cleaning needed is unusual after the length of time we lived there, especially for a family our size.

The resident manager walked through the apartment a few days before we moved out to assess the condition and said that there would be some charges, but we thought they would be minor. We just received our accounting paperwork for our security deposit and were expecting the majority of our $1,000 deposit to be returned. But the manager has charges totaling nearly $1,500 and says we owe them money. more...

Partial rent payments spell trouble

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, June 4, 2009.

Q: I am a new landlord and not quite sure how to handle tenants that offer partial payments. About a year ago my wife and I were fortunate to buy an almost new rental house in our neighborhood as an investment property. It was a foreclosure property and we got a great deal. We had heard that being a landlord was really easy and would be a good supplemental source of income in our retirement days.

Everything went well at first and we quickly found a nice family who were great renters for the first few months. But then they had their hours cut back at work and we began to see excuses as they were clearly having problems meeting their rent obligation. When we served them a legal "Notice of Nonpayment of Rent," they asked us to accept their rent on a weekly basis until they could get their financial situation in order. more...

Nipping problem tenant in the bud

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, May 21, 2009.

Q: I manage a very large rental property and while the majority of our residents are great, we do have an occasional "problem tenant" who is making life miserable for neighbors. Is there anything you can suggest? more...

Tenant uproar over assigned parking

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, May 7, 2009.

Q: I live in a 39-unit apartment complex where parking is becoming a real problem. Our building is older and was built with only a single parking space for each unit. Unfortunately, there are often several residents per apartment who own vehicles. more...

Renter, owner clash over deposit amount

By Robert Griswold, Thursday, April 23, 2009.

Q: I live in a small apartment complex that recently changed ownership. I was not that worried about a new owner until I gave notice that I will be moving out next month at the end of my lease. I told the owner I wanted to know what I can do to get my full $1,500 security deposit back, expecting him to give me a list of cleaning requirements. But I was very surprised when he told me that I have only a $1,200 security deposit per the records he received from the prior owner. His position is that since that is the amount he received, that is all I am potentially entitled to.

I know that I paid a $1,500 deposit, because when I moved in four years ago the required security deposit was 1 1/2 months' rent. I even pulled out a copy of my move-in paperwork and the canceled check, but he insists that is my problem and I need to contact the prior owner. What should I do? more...

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