a few tenant issues/questions

[Funyon Funyon]

Thanks for any thoughts on these three issues. Sorry this is so long.

We recently purchased a 2 apartment/1 commercial multi-use property that we discovered needs a lot of work. With the property we inherited 1 tenant and his fairly lax lease. We have 2 major issues with this tenant. The first is that he smokes cigarettes and pot (not legal here) in his apartment for which we have had complaints about (as the smell travels) from both the apartment above him and from the renter of the commercial space below him. There is no mention of smoking in his lease but we have informed him that we have gotten complaints from the other tenants and he is not to smoke anything in the apt or common spaces anymore. The problem has persisted and we are not sure as to what the next steps to take to address this issue.

This same tenant also has an unauthorized person living in this apartment. When asked he says that this other person is not living there but we have been over in his apartment (with permission) 5 times in the past week because of various work that needs to be performed and this other person is there every time we have been there to do work even when the tenant is not there. He is obviously sleeping on the couch. We live in NY and have had issues dealing with squatters before as they have a lot of rights here and do not want a repeat of this situation. We have told the tenant that there is no one else allowed to live in this apartment who is not on the lease but we are not sure how to proceed. Any advice?

We own another property and have a pretty landlord friendly lease for our mostly young student tenants. Part of our lease says No Pets. We had a tenant get a dog and only discovered this 2 days before she moved out. The dog has urinated on the carpet which will require replacement (professional cleaning did not get the stain/odor out) and possible replacement of the subfloor as well. Our plan is to take her security deposit to pay for the replacement of the carpeting and to write her an invoice for the remainder of the bill and take her to small claims court if she doesn’t pay the outstanding balance. My question is what can be done to prevent this from happening in the future as in tenants just ignoring their lease. If we walk through the apartments quarterly and notice or suspect things that aren’t right is there anything other then asking them to fix the problem or threatening eviction? Obviously it doesn’t take a long time for a dog to destroy an apartment, she only had the pet for a brief period. But what do you do if you have tenants that just ignore the rules meant to protect your property.

Thanks so much for any thoughts/ideas.

[Ray Harrell]

For new tenants, be firm and assertive during the showing. Don't smile or be friendly. Tenants will know you mean business from the start, and those who plan to break the rules will simply move along to a friendly landlord. I made the mistake of being friendly and accommodating for my first tenants. They feel you out during the first few days, and if you give an inch they will take a mile. DON'T GIVE ON ANYTHING! On the 5th of the month, put that quit or pay notice on the door, open so everyone can read it! DO NOT accept partial payments. ENFORCE the late fee. If they bring a pet, tell them the pet needs to be gone the next day or you will call animal control for a stray pet on the property. The first time you serve notice to vacate, DO NOT change your mind for any reason!