All Forum Posts by: Ashley V.

I have a tenant that has started paying late a couple of times. We usual receive her pmt a day or 2 after the grace period is up. I have noticed that when she drops off checks that she will back date them to the 5th (last day to pay before late fees kick in) even if the check wasn't dropped off until the 6th or 7th. How should I handle this? 

Also she is dropping the checks off to a receptionist and not me directly. Thanks for any input.

 Yes from what I have read MS law does not cover late fees except that if you charge one is must be stated in the lease. I am just wondering if I am interpreting it correctly and not missing something. If this is correct is a 10% late fee too much?  

I believe Mississippi does not have any late fee laws that I am aware of (it just goes by what is stated in the lease) - is that correct? Is 10% late fee too much for a higher end property? I do give a 5 day grace period before late fee kicks in. 

Not yet, she has just indicated that she has one. If so I am thinking of requesting a copy of it to attached to lease. She basically does not have a income; her husband is the primary source of income which makes me want his signature in case a problem was to arise with non pmt, damages, etc. They seem like they will be great tenants but you never know.

I have a new tenant signing a lease in the next couple of days. The wife is available to sign in person but not the husband (he works off shore). The wife says she has his power of attorney to sign on his behalf - do you think this is ok? I just wanted to make sure I am protected since he is the primary source of income. If her signing as power of attorney is ok, do I need to make a copy of the power for my documentation?

My current leases run until July 31 with the new lease term starting Aug 1. I would like to change that in the future to allow a couple of days vacancy between tenants to allow us time to clean. How do you do this with your leases? I am thinking about running the lease from Aug 1 until July 28 to give us a few days to clean, assess damages, clean carpets, etc. 

My problem is being called when there isn't a legitimate issue.

I really do not mind being called for repairs even if they are under $50 (we have never refused to make a repair no matter how  small). With previous tenants I have never had any problem with the $50 rule; they usually just call and let us know what the problem is and we have always offered to fix it.

 Its just that with this particular tenant they call when there isn't even a legitimate problem. 9 out of 10 calls have been for common sense things with no real problem. Just trying to figure our how to recuperate some of our time dealing with nonsense.

First let me share that the lease on this home states the tenant will be responsible for small repairs less that $50 even if it is due to normal wear and tear. We have a new tenant that has been here for about 6 months. They pay on time and keep the house tidy however they constantly call us for every small thing. A lot of them are common sense stuff that end of wasting our time.

For example, in the last week we haven been called over twice. The first was a complaint that the fireplace was not working. My husband checked it out and nothing wrong with it. They simply were not holding the button down long enough for it to light (gas fireplace). Second call was that the garbage disposal in sink had gone out. Husband checked it out and nothing wrong with it. We have had other frivolous calls like that a faucet was leaking. Husband checked it out and it just wasn't turned off tightly.  

Tenant is well aware of their responsibility for small repairs. She signed lease and we went over it verbally too and specifically discussed the $50 rule.  I am considering keeping a well documented list and deducting some of these house calls from her deposit. Nothing major, just $20-30 for my husband having to drive across town to check this stuff out when there really isn't a problem to begin with. How would you handle this?

I am about 6 months into a lease with a new set of tenants in my rental house. In the front yard there are several large oak trees and due to the shade the grass is very sparse. It has always been this way and the tenants viewed the house twice before committing to the lease. Per the lease the tenant is responsible for all yard maintenance. 

6 months into the lease they are starting to complain about the lack of grass in that area and have asked me to have it sodded. I have asked a lawn care company about sodding it just to get ideas and it will be very costly and they also cannot guarantee that the sod will last due to 1) large trees causing shade and sucking all of the moisture out of the ground and 2) poor soil in that area. They said it would be a lot of maintenance to keep it going.

Due to this I really don't want to invest $$ into the sod to only have it die later if the tenant does not maintain it property. It would be up to the tenant to properly water it and I just don't see her as being the type to maintain it. For instance, we just came out of a 4 month drought and she let several areas of groundcover die from not watering it and is also the type to complain about her water bill being high.

Should I just say no?  Or let her do it at her expense (which I doubt she will)?