Tenant Has Got Me SMH

[Val J.]

I need help with how to proceed with a dilemma I'm having with my tenant. She's been with me for 2 years; is on time with her rent monthly.  However when it comes to maintenance task that I ask her to address they largely go ignored. For example, I've recently had to replace the outside compressor for the ac this Summer.  I also did a walk thru of the property in September. I emailed her some concerns about  items that needed to be addressed on her part.  One week ago, I told her that I'd be doing a follow-up to ensure that the things requested of her were addressed. These are the 3 of the things.  The house has beautiful hard wood floors that have been severely scratched because her children's 3 twin beds are scraping the finish off the floor.  We talked and I said I know that this will have to be fully addressed at move out but I asked her to place something under the beds so no additional damage occurs.  When I viewed the home yesterday she had  placed a rug only under one bed and had done nothing to the other two. 2. Since she's been a tenant I repeatedly remind her to change the hvac filters.  Back in September there was a filter but it was EXTREMELY dirty. Yesterday there was NONE. And other times during inspections there have been NONE or they were dirt filled.  I tried to be proactive  and I bought her filters and even followed up and texted her the size of the filters. . At that time I informed her that afterward the purchase of filters would be HER responsibility!  I have two properties, the home she occupies is older but I don't need to do nearly the micro-managing that I have to do with her. 3. She had an incident where the front security door was damaged and off track and I told her that since this item was broken because of her, I expected that she would pay for the repair. I offered to pay for it and add it to November's rent. These request were sent to her via email. She did not respond to the email.  I had to increase rent on both properties and both tenants chose to remain. When I would bring this unaddressed repair to her attention she would acknowledge that it happened but would do nothing about it.  Btw. One property the tenants are on a one year lease. This tenant is on a M2M.  And. I'm not patting myself on the back and I know it's my duty but anything these tenants ask me to address (leaks, broken this or that ) I try to resolve within 48 hours.  Additionally, I believe that her babies daddy is livening in the home. I asked him if he was living there and he said  "yes"    He doesn't seem to bright because he asked me "why is my living here a problem?" I stated because you're not on the lease. He said "why have a lease?" I didn't answer. I've read various post of how other landlords have handled this. Some say leave it alone, others say vet and add to lease and others say kick 'em out!!

Here's what I'm thinking of doing for this tenant:  To address the floors, I will or  have my representative place tennis balls, socks or something soft  to minimize further damage. 2. I went ahead and repaired the security door and I told here yesterday that this was her expense.  I'm planning to go back over there today and put in a filter and let her know the cost of the repair should be added to December's rent. 3. I will purchase the filters and inform her that each month I or my representative will come into the home (with notice of course) and replace the filters. And, I'm thinking of increasing her rent by an additional $10-$15.to pay for the expense of the filters and someone's time to go there monthly and change then out. 4. Babies Daddy??? I'm still thinking this over. I can tell he's been to Life College (aka prison) so he probably cannot qualify if I vet him. 

Sorry for the long post: Please give me your honest feedback as to what you would do or the best way to proceed. I don't want to lose her as a tenant but I want to run this as a business and help her to understand that expenses and responsibilities are not always one sided. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[Jim K.]

Hi, Val. Here's my take on your issue, and I own a number of low-income rentals in rough areas and self-manage all of them. I also have tenants with prison records.

1. Your tenant is a tenant and has a tenant's brain. You are not going to change that, nor should you want to. A tenant's brain is not wired to understand homeownership maintenance responsibilities. That's why tenants stay tenants, especially living in ugly areas that they could, with even a modicum of financial discipline, move out of. As it these tenants that are often the most profitable, you should welcome their howeownership illiteracy gratefully, not look down on it as you are doing here.

2. You have "beautiful hardwood floors" in a rental. This is unwise. In my rentals, I only have rather ugly hardwood floors that I know how to refinish and maintain myself. If you would rather preserve these beautiful hardwood floors unharmed, you should cover them with laminate or vinyl plank floating floors. I don't like laminate much.

3. You asked her to "put something under the beds." Hardware stores and department stores sell thick, durable felt pads to be put under heavy furniture. They're cheap. You should have bought some of these and installed them yourself, or had someone do it. You're really trusting a tenant to take care of your property like its her own AFTER the damage has been done? This has never worked in the history of rental property.

4. You don't have many rentals. YOU or someone you trust should be changing out the HVAC filters every three months. This is a golden opportunity for you to get a basic inspection of the property done with minimal fuss. You cannot trust a tenant to change out furnace filters. This is written in letters three inches high in the eternal book of landlording truths. You cannot expect a tenant (afflicted with the aforementioned tenant's brain) to understand the need for this, let alone understand why s/he must pay for it. Increase the rent and make it happen.

5. You cannot communicate critically important information in emails. You need to be on the phone with this woman. That's the only way you can be sure information can get through. There are a million excuses why an email might never be read, and if you continue in the way you are going, you will hear them all before you're done. There are far fewer for forgetting a conversation. You have to maintain good lines of communication as a landlord, even though it costs you time and energy and you really would prefer never to speak to this person.

6. You cannot let tenants sneak other people in who are not on the lease and expect to maintain control of what happens in your rentals. But this is a baby daddy. Showing forbearance here to the baby daddy can be valuable. If you do decide to let the baby daddy stay (after proper vetting and finding out if your hunch about prison is true), make sure the whole neighborhood knows why you did it. But if things don't work out, get rid of them all, and spread the reasons around the neighborhood as well. You can and should do better. If this is down South, it's going to be easier to find new tenants during this season than it is up here.

Good luck, Val. If you want to go on and grow in this business, take the time to read some books on property management. Get a base of other people's knowledge under you to help you out. You're breaking some of the really basic rules here. You're also cultivating a habit of disliking tenants for being tenants, and that's not going to help you in the long run.

If they weren't severely damaged in some way, would they really be living in your properties and paying you rent to make you richer, instead of finding a way to become homeowners and stop pouring money down a black hole? I don't even dare to talk to tenants about learning more about credit scores and mortgages. They always think I'm trying to kick them out in a sneaky-sneaky way.