All Forum Posts by: S. Perry

My lease states the following:

"Unless the parties agree otherwise in writing, Tenant may not permit, even temporarily, any pet on the property (including but not limited to any mammal, reptile, bird, fish, rodent, or insect.)"

"If tenant violates this paragraph or any agreement to keep a pet on the property, landlord may take all or any of the following action".....etc....

Having a puppy or even an older dog is a huge risk to the home. I work with animals for a living and know what they are capable of even with the best guardians providing supervision. This isn't so much about if I should allow pets it is to get a feel on if I should say something about the continued visiting and not collecting a pet deposit, additional rent, etc...or PICK UP THE POO already!

My SFH was rented with a no pets policy. If truth be told I would have considered a pet from a terrific prospective tenant if asked. This was not the case with current tenants.

Tenant is on a 2 year lease with a reduction in rent for the longer lease. Have had some irritating issues from this couple. Served a 3 day notice for their first official month (prorated for move-in month). They paid rent and I also collected late fee. I don't know what happened there but suspect they were attempting to see what they could get away with? 

Fast forward to this past May, specifically Memorial Day weekend. Tenant caught my hubby and didn't ASK but told my hubby that their daughter would be visiting for the long holiday weekend and would be bringing along her new puppy. It would be crated....blah, blah, blah. To be honest we love dogs and hubby was caught off guard. He doesn't do well with quick replies so half haphazardly said, "okay" and we left it at that. I personally would have had a different response but that is a moot point now. I would have allowed the pup but would have laid ground rules.

So pup comes, pup goes. AND THEN pup keeps coming seemingly every weekend or at least multiple times per month. Daughter lives out of town and visits with her children quite often. Actually they have a son as well with another grandchild and in addition to the couple renting the home there are multiple family members staying - "visiting" the home frequently. I don't begrudge this couple for having their kids and grandchildren visit them however the dog coming so often is getting on my nerves. 

We maintain the yard weekly (over 2 acres) and at first they did good about keeping the dog waste cleaned up. Now, not so much. We run through it with the tractor and of course have to clean it before putting it away til the following weekend and luckily we spotted a tie out before running over it and possibly causing damage to the tractor.

I want to at minimum send an e-mail addressing the subject...would prefer to just have a face to face (see them often). Hubby says we should let it go and not rock the boat. I feel we are being taken advantage of BUT I have an issue with the husband tenant due to an issue (unrelated) that took place in July. Too long to get in to let's just say he was very disrespectful to me personally and caused a large ruckus at the time. Perhaps I am holding a grudge.....

At any rate is this something that I should just let go? Of course I know their security deposit can be used to rectify interior situations if need be but this wasn't a "bring a dog if you feel like it and I won't charge extra" lease! We all know that pets are capable of easily eating up a security deposit and then some.

I am not a tyrant but am feeling like we are being taken advantage of. I don't want them to mistake our kindness for weakness.

I posted previously about my PM not doing such a great job and I finally fired them last week. Come to find out they were just not really good at returning calls to potential renters hence a big reason while the property didn't rent in 2 months. Can't rent if it doesn't get shown!

I went on the hunt for another PM and ran across an old acquaintance from nearly 20 years ago. He has graciously agreed to market the property and find us a tenant. After that he will wait in the wings (so to speak) to guide us with any issues we might face while we manage the property ourselves. I am terrified that I will make a mistake but am hopeful that I won't ruin this endeavor and will learn as I go along. He has multiple rentals himself and has assured me that I will be fine with his guidance and support.

This isn't the path I thought we would be taking (self management) but by having someone do what I consider the "hard part" - finding/screening a tenant - I think we will be okay!

Of course after firing the original PM company they are finally advertising the property! I had to request that they remove the CL posting over the weekend only to find out today that it is also showing up in various other locations. If they had done 1/2 as much advertising when I was their customer.......

I am going to rely heavily on this site and the wisdom of its members going forward.

The info I included is all the contracts states about terminating contract and fees associated. I have already paid them money which was to "market the property". I don't suspect I will even bother with asking for a refund on that money since technically they did market it and show it on a couple of occasions.

I may be firing my PM company. No tenant in home. Contract states either party can terminate the agreement with a 30 day notice. What is concerning is I may be liable for paying them first months rent *IF* I place a tenant in the home within those 30 days (or another PM company does which would mean I would be paying double fees of 1st months rent-common in my area)... I *think* this is how I am reading the contract:

Paraphrasing a bit here...

Agreement may be terminated with at least a 30 day notice (written) with intent to terminate on specific date. The termination of this agreement shall not affect the right of the manager to receive leasing commissions or fees which have accrued up to termination date.

I suppose their fees could be avoided if I were to give notice on Nov. 30th and then don't place a tenant in the home until Jan 1st. 30 days would play out in Dec. (or similar ).

I am getting fed up with my PM company and my property doesn't even have a tenant yet. We went the PM route for a couple of reasons and the biggie was time. We don't have time to manage a property and all it entails. That being said we may just have to make time.

Perhaps I am being too impatient so I am seeking some advice. This is all new to me and maybe I am in need of a reality check. Be gentle!

My rental should have been rented within days. First problem was a neighbor who was doing a bit of sabotage. This has been resolved (hopefully). We even went the way of a price reduction (below market now). Second issue was that the property ads online (various locations) are not updated as often as one might think they should be. At first it was every other day. That then turned into every 4, every 6 days. Then an entire week went by and a bit of digging showed the property wasn't listed anywhere, in fact online sites were saying that the property had been removed from the posting X number of days ago. I went to the PM company and asked what was going on. Their response was disbelief. Office manager asked me if I was sure. YES. I am sure and that is why I am here. Then I was told that *sometimes* accounts get hacked....ads get removed. I don't know if she was referring to CL and what goes on there at times or what but I know what I saw and the ads were physically removed. At any rate within a day the ads were back online. Property has been shown 5 times in 6-plus weeks. I am not happy with the pictures nor the description they have on the ads. Poor quality cell phone pictures and pretty generic wording. I asked if I could provide different (higher quality pictures) and was refused being told that the pictures don't really matter. I requested yesterday via e-mail if they would PLEASE consider placing a sign in the yard. The house has a massive amount of traffic passing it daily!! I have not gotten a response and no sign has been placed.

I am seriously considering buying my own sign and putting their phone number on it however I have no idea if they are even responding to potential renters!!

For someone with ZERO experience in vetting a tenant.....ZERO experience in being a LL how hard/expensive is it to obtain all the necessary documents (leases, laws, etc...) find a handyman to handle everything needed/when needed AND not fail?

That is my thinking as well however I can't post from their accounts so inquiries will be coming to me. Even if the posts contain info which states to "contact company A" people don't always follow directions and will opt to reply traditionally which puts them to me.

Also, if anyone might offer up how often they are listing on various sites (every day, EOD, etc....and does Postlets...which the PM uses) do things automatically in as far as how things get updated? Also, if a price change were to happen does Postlets require you remove ads entirely or can you just go in and make changes to the ad? At first they were updating ads on Sun/Tues/Thurs. It then switched to every 6 days, then back to every other day and now nothing for 4 days.

I am thinking I am getting played.

I posted previously about a neighbor trying to sabotage the rental of my SFH. Now it appears as if the PM company is following in those footsteps.

I spoke to the neighbor in an attempt to correct that situation and I am hopeful it has been resolved. I contacted the PM concerning the neighbor conversation and mentioned that my property was no longer listed on his company's website. The response I got was "We don't push our site and it is all automated and older listings get pushed off". That reason didn't make much sense to me as there are properties on there that were there prior to me signing on with them. Also.....I can't find my property listed anywhere minus a 4 day old posting on CL. All other sites I search including but not limited to: Zillow, Truilla, Realtor.com, Yahoo, Hotpads, etc...all say the ad is no longer available due to being removed 10/22. Today is the 25th, heading into a weekend, near the end of the month and I paid for this company to advertise my home! Calling only gets me to voice mail and response times are quite slow as in it might take them a couple of days to get back with me if history were to repeat itself. I have searched the contract I signed with them and don't see anything relating to ME listing the property myself. Is this something that others have done even when using a PM company? This is getting way old....and I wish I had time to manage the property on my own but can't at this time so it isn't an option.

Had a conversation with the neighbor again yesterday. He swore that he has never said anything to anyone yet contradicted himself too many times to count. At any rate he made an attempt to get defensive with me and I called his bluff and when I came on as strong as he did he actually backed down. At this point there is nothing else I can do personally while remaining a "good neighbor". I am going to suggest the PM notify me whenever there is going to be a showing so that I can show up and be a buffer and make sure the neighbor doesn't have contact with prospective tenants.

HAHA!! I told someone that I was going to threaten the neighbor with that earlier today. He would not be pleased with Section 8 (nor would any of the other neighbors).