All Forum Posts by: Amy Martin

Sounds like regardless whether they allow landlords to resume evictions or not, it’s going to be hard to find quality renters in 2021. My rental lease expires in April 2021. Should I sell the property since it’s going to be a bad market for landlords? (I have full time job and very young kids... don’t really have time to deal with any bad renters and potential evictions). 

@Kim Meredith Hampton

That's a great idea. Yes I did ask him for the new address and he wouldn't give it to me. 

So if I need to sue him for unpaid rent, I will still need his new address first so the sheriff can serve him right?

@Mark Ebinal @Andrew B. @Sean McDonnell Thank you guys so much for answering my question! I do feel better after your posts.

Just a follow up question: If he moves out by March 11 (he told me he already signed a lease at a different place and will be moving in there on March 11th), and the April rent doesn't become due until April 1, how and where do I find him if I need to file a lawsuit against him? If I can't locate him, then he won't be served....

Hi seasoned landlords! 

I have a question for you guys - my tenant told me yesterday that even though the lease doesn't expire until the last day of April, he's signed a new lease somewhere else and is moving out by March 11th. He sent me a text message asking if it's okay for him to break the lease so he doesn't have to pay April rent, because he's paying child support and low on money. 

I told him it's not okay because April 30 is when the lease ends. I also told him that he and I signed a contract, so not paying April rent is a breach of contract. He said he understands, but I'm not positive he will actually pay it. 

The tenants have made the wall dirty and painted the walls weird colors like purple, pink, etc. I have informed him several times (as it is stated in the lease agreement) that he will need to paint the walls back to its original color. 

So my question is - Do I have any way to make sure I can get April rent before he disappears? (Assuming the tenant will leave my property without cleaning up or painting the walls, I will have to spend money to get the place fixed up, which will come out of the security deposit). 

Thanks!

Amy

The HOA is not willing to negotiate. I will either have to pay the full balance or they will file a lien on my property. I may end up paying the full amount just to stop all their collection activities first, then think about suing either the tenants or the HOA...just a thought...

 Thomas - 

Thank you for the advice. If I do have to sue the tenants, I need to wait until the lease ends, right? 

 I know I filled out some form at closing about my own home address. I'm not sure if the law firm that did the closing even bothered to pass it on to anyone though. I know the attorney at closing was horrible, he lost all the paperwork I filled out and I had to fill out all paperwork again. But I can't remember what forms I filled anymore. 

Regarding proper notice - if the covenants state the HOA has to send certified letter, not just regular mail, to give me final notices before they impose the fine. Would there be a legitimate argument that they failed to follow the covenants provisions since they did not send certified letters?

 Jon - 

Yes my lease states the tenants should be responsible for any HOA violations, and I provided the tenants with a copy of the covenants/restrictions at the signing of the lease.

My question is - even though I gave me a copy of the covenants and restrictions, I did not specifically highlight anything in the covenants. Can the tenants just claim they were not aware it was not okay to leave trash cans outside all the time, therefore they shouldn't be required to pay? 

Hi Kim, 

Thanks so much for the response.

In regards to your questions- I purchased the property with cash and therefore I pay the HOA dues directly. I paid two years of HOA dues when I first bought the property so it won't become due until 2018. The county property appraiser still sends letters to my rental property address, my tenants just forward the mail to me.

The recorded covenant states that the HOA must send final notices to cure violations via certified letters. I do not believe the HOA actually sent any letters via certified mail though. Not sure if that is a good enough reason to fight this since this is only an issue of technicality.

However, assuming the HOA did send letters to my rental property address and my tenants just threw these letters away. Should I ask the tenants to pay for these fines or at least half of the fines, since their actions actually resulted in the violations? What would you do in situations like this?

I'm running into some problems with my rental property in GA, and I wanted to see if anyone here would be willing to provide some advice/suggestions on how to handle this situation regarding HOA fines.

I purchased this property in early 2016 and my tenants moved in shortly after. These tenants seem great (i.e., rarely bother me, always pay rent on time) and they renewed their lease in 2017. Two weeks go, I received a call and letter from a debt collection agency, saying there have been $3000 fines on my rental property due to various types of HOA violations, and they intend to file a lien on my property if I don't pay the fines within 15 days. Most of these violations are about weeding/leaving trash cans out/not applying fresh mulch, etc.

The issue is I had no idea of any of these HOA violation notices and apparently they've been sending these notice letters to the rental property address since May 2016. Upon renting out this house, I did inform the HOA that these tenants will be living in the house. However, I didn't ask the HOA to mail all future written letters/notices to my personal address. I called the tenants to verify if they have ever received any letters from the HOA, and their answer was "no". I'm not sure if the tenants just threw out these letters because the letters had my name on the letters.

Couple of questions I have regarding this issue: 

1- Should I bill my tenants back for the violations? I did not receive any notice of these violation due to the HOA letters were sent to my rental property, but I'm not sure if my tenants actually received notice either, if they never opened any of these HOA letters.

2- In an attempt to prevent future violations, I asked my tenants to hide their trash cans inside the garage or in the backyard. However, the tenants said they use the garage as an office and therefore can't put the trash cans inside. They said they absolutely cannot put the trash can inside the garage and will only be able to put it behind the side door of the fence. However, the iron fence door doesn't block the view from the street and therefore unable to hide the trash cans very well. I'm guessing in order to prevent any future HOA violations, I will have to pay to install a wooden fence door that can block the view from the street. I'm not sure if I want to incur these unnecessary expenses though, since this is not my fault as a landlord. Should I ask the tenants to pay for the wooden fence door?

I know many folks here are very seasoned landlords. I would greatly appreciate advice from you guys!

- Amy