Rental Property Investor · Member since 2019 · 137 posts · 42 votes
Hi everyone,
I was reading online about professional renters. Some of them would claim the rental is uninhabitable. When a tenant makes a claim that the property is unfit to live in, landlords must refile with proof of a habitable environment. Tenants will then proceed to trash the property in an attempt to justify their claim.
My question is how do you get proof of a habitable environment during tenancy and how do you prove that your property is habitable before the tenant trashed it? How do prove that the tenant purposely trashed the place?
Investor · Santa Ana, CA · Member since 2015 · 19 posts · 8 votes
5y
Take pictures before move-in, and do a move-in checklist with the tenant and have them sign it. The checklist should list all the issues that the tenant found on move-in. The checklist is used again when the tenants move out to identify issues that need to be fixed.
Rental Property Investor · Member since 2019 · 137 posts · 42 votes
5y
@David Lu
Thank you for suggestions! This is very helpful! What if this happened after they have moved in for several months? Is there a time limit on how long the photos are valid for?
Let us say they moved in for 5 months. Then they broke something and claim inhabitable. Since the photos are taken 5 months ago, are they still valid?
Investor · Santa Ana, CA · Member since 2015 · 19 posts · 8 votes
5y
If you at least have pictures at move-in then that would be good. But having a signed move-in checklist would be best. It means that the tenant signed off on the condition at move-in. Anything that broke afterwards is after they moved in. You can find examples of move-in checklists online.
Some items will break from normal wear and tear. For example you must have working furnace and stove to meet the habitability requirement. And those can break without the tenant purposely damaging them. Those should be landlord's responsibility to fix. But if the tenant trashes the place to the degree that it becomes a health hazard, and it wasn't that way on move-in, then you should just serve an eviction notice for damage to the property.
Investor · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2013 · 8k+ posts · 10k+ votes
5y
It sounds like you’re looking for a management company. If you truly didn’t know about the move in checklist. This is a non-issue. You’re worrying the tenant will break something in such a way that a professional repairman can’t tell it was broken on purpose? If something breaks you obviously fix it and they still owe rent, what did they get out of that? Then what? They break it again and call it bad luck?