All Forum Posts by: Pavan Krishna

Hi,

I'm a long-distance landlord.  I've a house in San Jose bay area and live out of state.  After the last tenants vacated, I spend 2 weeks at this house, got it all fixed up, engaged a tenant placement service and returned home.  Now the problem starts. 

Some seedy characters (perhaps based on the rental ads) figured out that this house is empty.  Our gardener called me today to let me know that 5 people picked the lock, entered the home.  They were drinking, smoking marjuana, etc..  As I'm out of state, I'm not in a position to respond right away and also cannot live at the house until i find my next tenant.  I called the local police non-urgent line to report the suspicious activity.  

Did anyone face similar situation?  How best to keep the bad guys out?  Are there any security companies that provide security to a home between tenants?  Should I install an alarm system?  Change the locks to more complex/advanced ones?  Install smart cameras?  Am open to any suggestions.

Thanks for your time

Hello Fellow BP-ers,

Recently my tenants gave me notice to vacate and told me that they will NOT be paying the last month rent and asked me to take it from the deposit.  I could not convince them otherwise.  Now they have vacated and there are lots of things I need to fix.  All of those costs need to come out of my pocket.

I can use your collective wisdom on how to structure the terms for the tenants going forward.  One idea I heard was to ask for Last Month Rent also along with First Month Rent + Deposit at the time of signing the lease.  Has anyone tried it?  Potentially the tenants can say that they are NOT going to pay the rent for last two months nullifying the benefit of collecting the last month rent in advance, right?

Are there any other suggestions or ideas that you have tried?  I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Hello my fellow BP-ers,  I'm an out-of-state landlord.  I'm in Oregon with the property is in the bay area California.  Tenants of one of the properties, will be vacating when lease expires (at the end of June).  This week the tenant informed me that they "were hit with some unexpected medical bills and will not be able to pay the June (last month) rent.  Please deduct from Security Deposit."  I did not agree with this as this will leave me with $500 for covering any rent-ready repairs.  $500 will be highly insufficient for that purpose.  The tenants say that they "cannot pay and asked me to go-ahead and hold them in default."  What are my options now?

I can give 3-day notice for not paying rent.  But, they are about to leave in a month.  Is it worth arguing with the tenants?  I'm concerned that they can do more damage on their way out, leaving me with bigger repairs than the typical turnover repairs.  Any advice is welcome.

Hello all!  This is the original poster.  THANK YOU for all of your advice.  It has been very helpful.  Couple of pieces of additional information:  I'm in Oregon.  However the property is in bay area California.  Yes, I'm an out-of-state landlord.  The summary of the thread so far:

1. First of all, The 1-year lease seem to be favoring tenants than the owners. In fact, month-to-month may be preferred option. This is a new learning for me.

2. It seems majority of the recommendation is to go with Month-to-Month with $x additional rent.

3. Second popular recommendation is: Ask them to sign the 1-year lease with an option to terminate the lease with 60/90-day notice.

4. Give clear options with a deadline to decide and roll with it.  Do not spend too much time negotiating.  I'm only weakening my position by doing so.

Thanks again for everyone's input.  It has been very helpful.

Hello fellow BPers,  i've tenants in my house for 10+ years.  For a while I engaged different property managers.  But, due to various book keeping, timely rent payment and other issues, i had to let them go and self managing the property for the past 3 years.  So far no issues with the rent payment with the tenants. 

I've been renewing 1-year leases for past 3 years.  The current lease comes for renewal in a month.  When I approached them about their intent to extend the lease, they told me that they want to go to month-to-month.  I prefer long term leases, at least 1-year.  however the tenants do not want to sign it.  I would like to tap into collective wisdom of this forum in figuring out my next steps.  I see the following as my available options:
1.  Try convincing them (again!) on need to sign 1-year lease.   best option for me, but least likely.  as we have been going round-and-round for the past 2 weeks on this with no resolution.
2.  Go to month-to-month:  they have been paying rent for 10+ years.  there is high possibility they will continue to do so.  2 problems with this approach.  a) they might vacate in middle of the winter, when it is least convenient for me.  b) if tenants start dictating terms to owners, not sure where this will lead.
3.  Ask them to vacate:  they have been there for 10+ years.  hate to lose them.  but, if it comes to losing control over my house, i guess, i need to resort to it.

Has anyone else faced similar problem?  please share your opinions/suggestions.

Thanks

When you get work done on your homes, do you make the contractors apply for permits? In the past, I had issues with contractors doing
substandard work. For example once a HVAC was installed without an air filter.

Now, due to some rodent problem, I need to replace the ducts in one of the homes. I asked the contractor to apply for permit and inspection. He is charging me $1,250 extra for the permit process. They "guarantee" passing inspection (for what its worth). He is asking me to pay in full, as permit process can take months. My questions are two fold:

1) Should I pay in full (including $1,250 for the permit) when the ducts are replaced? Even though inspections were not complete.
2) Once I pay in full, if the contractor never applied for permit or inspection has issues, how can i make the contractor hold their end of
the bargain?

Any thoughts are welcome.

one of my homes has rodent problem.  we are actively working with pest control to take care of them.  however, due to strong odor, my tenants have temporarily found a hotel room to stay until the odor comes down. 

they have not asked me for money/compensation.  however, i would like to acknowledge and share their pain.  what is appropriate in this scenario?  currently i'm thinking of returning the prorated rent during their hotel stay.  for example, if they stay in hotel for 2 nights, return the rent for 2 * (monthly rent/30).  please let me know, if there is a different way to think about.  eager to learn from the collective experience of this group.

In one of my rental homes, some rodents got into crawl space and through HVAC ducts into attic.  i'm working with Pest Control to take care of the rodents.  my tenants say there is strong odor coming out of the vents on the 2nd floor through the vents.  i've been contacting different contractors.  pest control contractors do not want to get into ducts.  HVAC contractors do not want to touch a dead rodent.  so, it seems like we are stuck.

has anyone in this forum faced a similar issue?  what did you do?  any help is appreciated.

In 2017 I had a HVAC installed.  At that time the property manager assured me that all things were done to the code.  Fast forward to 2020.  My tenants want to change the HVAC filter and cannot find the filter.  A local HVAC Tech told me that "the original installer did not put a place for the filter.  He should have done that.  It is not up to the code.  Now adding a filter is not a small task.  Ask the original installer to fix it." 

As per invoice, the original installer gives - 10 years parts warranty, 2 years labor warranty, limited lifetime chamber warranty, 10 years craftsmanship warranty.  Not sure whether any of the warranties cover not finishing the work up to the code.

Has anyone else faced a similar situation?  What are my options?  Any help is appreciated.

I'm new to BiggerPockets and this is my first post.  I'm new to managing rental properties directly as well.  I can benefit from the collective expertise of this forum.

After 5 years, my tenant in vacated my home in California. There was water damage on the living room floor. Tenants mentioned that their washing the rug might have caused the water damage.  This is not due to any water pipe leaks as there are no water pipes anywhere near living room floor.  I'm not able to find the same material to repair the floor.  So, I need to replace the floor.  I shared this info with the ex-tenant.  They understand the situation.

Now, I've 3 options.  1) Deduct the entire floor replacement cost from the security deposit.  2) Split the cost with the tenant.  3) Do not deduct anything from the security deposit and pay for the cost out of my pocket.

Which option do you recommend?  Are there any legal issues I need to be aware of?  Any info/help is appreciated.