All Forum Posts by: Carlos Lez

tenant says “The water heater smells like rotten eggs, sometimes like a foul smell and sounds like almost a gas leak near the water heater at night to clarify.”. I am a qualified engineer with construction skills and have maintained and installed water heaters. However I am not licensed. I went there to check out the water heater which is only 5 years old and is working correctly. There was no evidence of any leakage of combustion gases or hydrocarbons. There was no smell and gas detectors did not detect any leakage. 

I reported back to them but they now say “is it possible to have receipts of the tests done for the water heater because it did have a foul smell. I want to ask who did you have come in to check the water heater. I just want to insure you did have someone come in who knows what they are looking for and is experienced in checking out a water heater not just people in charge of renting the place.”

what would be an appropriate response to this?

 I totally agree with you. It is literally not worth engaging with these people. The more transparent you are the more they get after you. He is breaking the lease because he had some dress of doing a startup that has now gone bust and he is moving back to school.

 It is the current tenant who is breaking the lease. He wanted to see a link to my ad that I have posted to which he commented about pictures.

You are right that a prospective tenant will walk through the property before signing a lease.

What came across as of was the tenant telling me to post the ad a certain way. He is obligated to mitigate the damages and he should post his own ads.

 Your rant is baseless and does not answer the question which is about a tenant that wants to break is lease and is now trying to coach me on what type of an ad I should post. After 15 years of property management I don't need to learn what type of pictures to take or what details to include in the ad. 

Your response was baseless and full of assumptions. How did you come to this conclusion, "If the property is really that bad looking that you don't want to put up pics, maybe you need to update or sell."

Dear Fellow members,

I have this tenant who wants to terminate his lease after only  3 months into his one year lease. I understand that landlords have a duty to mitigate damages. But the tenant is telling me the following. I am seeking your valuable input on how to reply to him.  He is criticizing my method of advertising, unsolicited;

"Could you guys could put up pictures of the unit online so prospective tenants are more likely to inquire. Looking at the unit online all there is is a picture of the back of the house, nothing with the unit at all. I think these are necessary for a good faith attempt at advertising. I have some I can send as well if need be. I want there to be adequate resources and time to find a new tenant."

He had asked for a link to our ad and I sent him a link to one of the many ads that we have running.I haven't inquired with him on what efforts he is making to get that apartment re-rented.

 Thanks Nathan! Your responses are always precise and spot on.

Thank you for your quick response. I have the following blurb (for this exact same issue) as an addenda item in my lease that was also acknowledged and signed by them;

"Resident acknowledges and agrees that this is a co-ed (mixed gender) and co-living house. Resident acknowledges that the resolution of any and all conflicts among them and/or other housemate(s) is solely their responsibility and management can not and will not mediate. Conflicts among housemates is not a cause for breaching the lease. All housemates must resolve all conflicts among themselves. If there is a sense of an unsafe or dangerous
situation, resident agrees to call law enforcement at "911" immediately."

Am I obligated to respond to the resident or the dad for this matter?

Dear forumites,

I have a house that I rent by rooms to university student. I received an email from one of the housemates

"I'd like to meet you. My roommate has made me uncomfortable living here because of things he has posted on the internet about me, including a recording of me without my knowledge. Thank you for your time."

She is a freshman and alluding to a graduate male student who is in his 3rd year living at the property with no problems so far. Her dad has also called and left a message that she is experiencing this and needs to talk to her. It doesn't appear that the motivation is to break the lease because she seems to get along with the 2 other female housemates.

I am not sure as to how to even approach answering this? I would greatly appreciate if I someone can provide advise on how to address this situation.

Thanks in advance.

Dear Fellow members,

A prospective tenant put down a deposit to hold an apartment and it was immediately taken off the market. They then came around a week later to say they have changed their mind and their financial situation changed. I have refunded them pro rated based subtracting the one week it was taken off the market in the lost opportunity to rent. Ii had to reject turn down a few interested applicants and the unit is still not rented. Now they are insisting that at most I should keep only a couple of days of rent. Please advise. 

Yes Bill. The language is very confusing in that city document. Can anyone operating multi families in Palo Alto comment on what is the operational guideline?