All Forum Posts by: Brian R.

One city I have a property in requires all multi unit owners to purchase a key lock box from the fire department, and then have a key to the door in it.  It is mounted next to the front door of the building.  The fire department has a key to the lock box, and can get in in the case of an emergency.  The lock box is about $250.00, and if you don't have it, will cause you to fail your yearly inspection.

I use landlord locks.com.  After purchasing the handsets, I can change the cylinders in about a minute each.  I then have one master key that opens all my doors for myself, and each tenant gets a key that only works on their unit.  

If the city is involved, contact a lawyer now!  I have had others I know go through this for a road project.  They were able to get the state (that is who was purchasing the land) to pick up the cost of their lawyer as well as got about $30,000 more for the property than what was originally offered.  Don't try to do it your self.

Are you sure you are getting charged the fees because their is no record of them being paid before?  Check out this article from the Saint Paul newspaper.  Adding a new door to a church cost $9,000.00 in fees, and the door was not to a new bathroom.

https://www.twincities.com/2016/08/18/met-council-...

My guess is that if you were to purchase the property, and then try to evict based on the fact that these tenants owned the previous owner money, it would not fly.  It would be up to the previous owner to go after the tenants.  You would have to wait until you own the property, and the the day comes that they owe you and don't pay before you could start anything.  You could get a letter from the current owner saying tenant John Doe hasn't paid me rent for the months of February and March, but the judge more than likely wouldn't care about that.

This isn't legal advise, it it based on what I have been told by others in the past.

I would not buy the property until unless the previous owner gets them out first.  

If you do buy it, plan on doing the evictions yourself, but you will not get any money from those tenants.  Figure out what it is going to cost you for the evictions, lost rent, etc. and try to get a reduction on the purchase price of the property.

I am just starting this process on a property in Anoka County.  I talked to the assessor yesterday, and was told good luck, go to the board of appeals meeting in April, that is the value.

The parcel I am fighting is a 20 foot wide by 130 foot deep adjacent to my property with a SFH on. I bought the house and property between my house and the neighbor from the city, torn the house down, split the lot, and sold half of it to the neighbor. The lot was 40 feet wide, and the land was worth more than the house. The person who owned the house was selling drugs and prositution from the house. The city kept arresting the guy, and the courts would release him. I paid $30,000 for the property and house, and about $10,000 to raze the house and misc. costs. Since that time, the 20 feet of property has been valued at $6,600.00. No problem. For 2017 it went to $10,000 and now the proposed value went to $25,000.00. The neighbor who I split the lot with and I will both be fighting the value.

Let me know how it goes for you.

I would check you state laws.  Minnesota has a specific statute about this for landlords:

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=504B.265

I would not rent to them.  I have a rule, no more than 2 people per bedroom, as does one of the cities that I have a property in.  Your city may have the same rule.  I see too many problems with these people.

"at Tenant's sole expense, shall keep in good order, condition and repair of the Premises and every part thereof (regardless of whether the damaged portion of the Premises or the means of repairing the same are accessible to Tenant), including, without limiting to the generality of the foregoing, all plumbing, .... " 

I read it to be that you are responsible to fix/replace everything connected with the property, including the water heater.  

When I rented a commercial space in a strip mall, I had to pay to replace an outside window that cracked.  The lease specifically stated that if the roof leaked in my portion of the building, I was responsible for paying the landlords contractor, or a contractor he approved me using, to fix it, I had to repair any damage to the HVAC system, and anything else that was associated with my space, no matter if it was inside or outside the building.  As someone said above, that is typical of commercial leases.