All Forum Posts by: Casey S.

@Peter Tverdov  That's a fair point.  Thought about stating here's what I legally should give you ($30 "unused space" concession) but I want to provide a good property to live in and I didn't do so for (almost) the entire month of July so I'll refund you one month's rent (to all tenants).  Like I've said, this has been a great learning experience for me no matter how it ends up.  

@Austin Thompson @Greg H. I will be offering the prorated concession amount based off the entire monthly rent total (still only equates to roughly $30).  Along with the partial rental refund comparative to the unusable space (i.e. "concession") that I'm drafting up, I will also be attaching a picture of the completed bathroom (finished today after 3 week renovation timeline) to help ease concerns before move-in.  

Even though the parents have not been the easiest to deal with, my preference would be for the tenants to continue on with their lease (as I believe they are nice kids and won't "beat up" the house).  If that is out of the question (from the parents perspective) how would you proceed forward?  Obviously I would like to keep the deposit and monthly rent that have been paid thus far.

Thank you both for your time and comments.

@Colleen F. thank you for your comment.  I am writing up a concession for a partial refund comparative to the unused space.  I did notify the tenants this bathroom renovation would be taking place (via text; will certainly get this signed/agreed upon in the future) and that if their timetable changed on when they would be occupying the property to let me know and I would ensure the renovations would be complete.  The bathroom renovations have only been ongoing for roughly 3 weeks (started week of July 8th) and actually finished up today so I will be attaching a picture of the finished renovation along with the "concession" document.  

I understand that I could have handled this whole situation better and will certainly learn from this but from my perspective, I communicated what would be done, have executed on my promise that the renovations would be done prior to the date the tenants stated they would be moving back into the property by and will now be offering a concession for the time they had "unlivable" space.  I've tried being as up front and open as possible during this whole process and if one parent has a negative perception of me and how I've handled the situation, I can live with that knowing that I tried doing the right thing.

@Austin Thompson  Thank you very much for the recommendation!  Is there a "standard document" for this that would hold up better from a legal standpoint i.e. can I type this up in a Word document and sign/date at the bottom and mail to them or should I simply email them?  Apologies for my ignorance however I greatly appreciate your input.

@Austin Thompson Moving forward, if you were in my shoes, what course of action would you recommend?   Appreciate your response thus far and your time.

@Austin Thompson Appreciate the thorough response!  I'll start by answering your questions.  Yes, I am charging them during the summer months as they signed a year lease.  If the tenants decided they needed to move in sometime during the summer then the only hinderance from a "livability" standpoint is the one bathroom that has been demoed for roughly the past 2-3 weeks (finished today) but there is another bathroom available (not sure if this has any bearing but wanted to mention).  The rest of the renovations are purely cosmetic e.g. patching holes and painting.  I've never said at any time they were unable to move into the property but merely stated if they were in fact going to be "gone" for the summer then I would take that time to do renovations so I didn't impose when they were actually living there.

From a lease perspective, they did each individually sign the lease with the students and parents both signing.  This will definitely help me make modifications to the lease going forward and I appreciate your tip on having the guarantors apply and become approved but not actually sign the lease.  

@Peter Tverdov thanks for the reply.  This has definitely been a learning experience and removing the co-signature clause is something that I was considering doing.  You are exactly right on the "control freak helicopter" parents as I believe what happened is the parents finally saw the property (months after the lease had been signed) and decided it wasn't up to standards for their children (even though it was in the process of being updated) and wanted to find any potential way out of the lease.  Out of curiosity, what part of the story do you think is missing?

@Jason D. Appreciate the reply.  That's where my lack of experience as a landlord hurts, I did not have a 'scope of work' document however I do have past text messages where I mentioned "there may be a period of time (this summer) where one bathroom or the other is being worked on" and the tenant replied "alright, sounds good!".  Not sure how well that would hold up on the legal front but I did provide communication to different tenants both in writing (mentioned text) and in person that renovations would be happening this summer while they weren't living there.  Any other thoughts?

Hi All, I have a landlord-renter dispute that I was wanting to run by you all to gather some input before I proceed further.

For some background, I bought a property in a small college town in July 18’ in which I inherited an existing lease. That lease ran through April 30th 2019 and I was able to secure tenants for a year-long lease starting May 1st. The shape of the property was “not great” when the new tenants walked through the property and subsequently signed the lease (3 tenants total each with their parent’s co-signature). Per our discussions during the “lease signing process” since they were college students, none of the tenants would be occupying the property during the summer and since this was the case, I relayed to them that I would take that time to make renovations (repair holes in walls, paint, renovate bathroom, etc.) to improve the state of the property and have it available by August 1st (they stated they wouldn’t even need the property available until Aug. 12th).

Here’s where the fun starts. At various times throughout the summer, the tenants and their parents have made trips to the property to drop off furniture, clothes, etc. and each time have called to voice their displeasure in the state of the property e.g. the bathroom is completely unusable (even though I have stated numerous times the renovations that I would be making and the date that it would be ready by). In the most recent instance of this occurring the mother of one of the tenants informed me that they would like out of the lease and would also like their security deposit plus the two month’s rent that I have collected thus far returned. She was adamant that I broke this section of the rental agreement:

POSSESSION. Landlord shall attempt to have Tenant's house ready on the date stipulated on this lease but cannot be held liable for failure to do so. In the event delivery is delayed, rent shall be abated on a daily basis until you are offered possession. If Landlord is not able to deliver Tenant's apartment within seven days of the date so stipulated, then, upon Tenant's request, Tenant's deposit and any prepaid rent will be refunded in full and this lease will become null and void.

From my perspective, the house was ready and in a “livable” standard on May 1st (the start date which was stipulated on the lease) or else they would not have signed the lease in the first place. Since it was communicated to me that the property would be unoccupied during the summer (early May-August 12th) I wanted to take that time to improve the property however whenever the tenants and their parents have visited the property periodically during the summer (never staying the night) they have stated that it is “unlivable” due to the bathroom being “gutted” and pieced together slowly but surely (finally finished the rehab of the bathroom today).

With all of that said, I have reached out to a lawyer to discuss some potential options but I wanted to see if any fellow landlords had any advice or have previous experiences that may help me out with this situation.

Thank you,

Casey