All Forum Posts by: Carlos Lez

Nathan, Thanks for a detailed response. I clearly don't qualify for the exemption from accepting ESAs. I will look at the HUD guidelines.

 Does petscreening charge the applicant? What documentation do I need from the applicant to run petscreening? Thank you.

This is the first time I am receiving an application for an applicant for a studio with an ESA Cat. There are numerous posts about ESA laws but I am unsure as to what is the latest in Palo Alto CA. What documentation should  I request? Additionally, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share addendum to include in the lease regarding the ESA animal.

The building has carpeting all over and we have a no pet policy. What can I ask in terms of how to carry the animal around to prevent anyone else complaining of allergies and such? I mean, can I ask them to always carry the pet in a carrier and not put them down on the carpet?

Please bear with me as I am navigating this for the first time but don't want to be caught in the crosshairs and still protect myself and the property.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Thank you for your thoughtful replies. I recommended that she file a police report for her alleged complaint. No news so far. I'll update here if I receive a response.

Dear fellow members, I am confronted with a weird accusation that I haven’t seen in 15 years of managing student rentals. We have multiple properties rented to students living in different rooms. We start showing rooms to prospective tenants right around a month before lease expiration. We have a blurb in the lease that has the tenant agree that with a 24 hour notice we will be showing their room. We barely spend a minute in a room to show the layout to prospective students.
subsequent to a showing yesterday I get the following email. I am seeking advice on how to  address this and help me with a response. We don’t require but advise tenants to carry renters insurance which they usually don’t carry. We don’t know what transpired and if any of this is even true. The email;

when I returned to my room this morning I noticed that my room looked out of place. I know you guys had people come look at the rooms Saturday afternoon between 3 & 5. My suitcase was opened when I returned and I had a bag that was ripped in it. I know some of my drawers were left a little open and my heels were out of place when I returned. I took photos of how my room looked before I left with timestamps and took photos of how it looked when I returned with timestamps. I am concerned because I had money in my wallet that was left in my room that is now missing. I think that if you are showing people the rooms this is an invasion of privacy of someone to go through my things. And I expect the money to be returned to me.

 Doesn't say anything expressly about this. Is it implied in residential contracts? If you can share verbiage I'd appreciate it.

With the recent storms in the Bay Area there have been a lot of power outages due to PG&E equipment failure. Some areas have been out of power for 4 days and counting. One of the resident's writes to us;

"You need to consider a credit or money refund for March rental payment. We have been without electrical power for four days.Your leasing company is receiving a very poor grade!"

Any thoughts on a fitting reply? 

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.