All Forum Posts by: Chris B.

I own a SFH rental in Tucson, South East side. 2200 sq ft. I'm looking for some maintenance references please:

Carpet cleaner: Paid over $450 last time to have the carpet cleaned.  Many rooms so the per room pricing doesn't work well for me here.  I recently had all of the downstairs tiled because of this but still have 4 bedrooms, loft, hallway upstairs with carpet.  Looking for someone who charges by the sq ft or will negotiate.  Seems like it should be a $200 or so job.

Vinyl Plank installer: Instead of carpet in the rooms, I'm considering replacing it with vinyl plank.  HD and Lowes labor charge are a bit high.  I'm hoping to hire someone directly with good references.

Painter: The interior will need some amount of paint.  I always use the same paint and will provide it.  I just need someone who can do a moderate amount of touchup work.  Maybe paid hourly?

Thanks!

I appreciate the feedback.  I have no problem if they move out early so the comment on allowing them to look for a place and move out before the end of the lease provides an opportunity I think both sides can appreciate.  Thanks!

The current tenants in one of my SFHs are hoarders.  Boxes still remain along with piles of clothes and everything else throughout the house in every room and hallway since move-in.  This is a safety and health hazard.  Its difficult to traverse the house.  Long term this will lead to maintenance and infestation issues.  The home hasn't been cleaned since I cleaned it before their move-in.  Dog hair is piling up along with trash.  They have been warned several times.  You get the picture. 

I'd like to just not renew the lease and kick them out when it expires in June 2023.  My soft side wants to tell them that I'll renew the contract only (month to month, not year) if they remove the junk and properly clean the place.  As-is, if they move out, the deposit won't come near covering the repairs at all (cost of doing business and making the poor decision to let them move in on my part) and I think there will be a good chance they will skip out on last month's rent also.  Apparently they did this at the last place too.  I had called the previous owner and he lied to me at screening time telling me they were great.  If I could get them to clean the place to my standard instead of kicking them out, it sure would cost me a lot less cleaning up after them.  This is likely kicking the bad apple can down the road.  What are your thoughts?  If they move out now, it could easily cost me 2k - 4k or more to recover the place including repainting the walls where they stuck stuff like light strips up.  Keeping them around may just lead to more issues.  But if a miracle happens, and they clean the mess to my standard, I'd be mostly happy.  Any monetary recovery is unlikely as most of their income is from disability.  The father does have a decent paid job though.

If I decide to terminate the lease and they don't pay last month's rent, I intend to immediately file for eviction also.

The place had brand new tile and interior paint right before they moved in.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Great thinking.  Thank you!

I am just getting going trying TenantCloud for the first time and have a question.  A property that is rented is located in a city that charges 1.5% rental tax and this is passed to the tenant.  I don't see a way to configure Tenant cloud to apply this tax to the tenant's invoice and add it for collection.  If it doesn't exist, I'll just add it to the rent due but then that will reflect me collecting more income than is accurate.  Anyone have any insight into this?

Thank you Theresa,

I think I get the jist of the reply in that problem tenants need to be dealt with appropriately which may be one warning and then greater action on a repeat offense.  The lease renewal is coming up in a few months so I'm trying to determine how to rewrite it to help with these issues.  Not renewing the lease is also one such solution I am considering.  My letting the tenant repeat the problem is not helping the situation and my fault.

Regarding the repair work, the insurance wrote the check for the amount the contractor is charging so there is no padding for me to hold onto.  In general is it acceptable to (honestly) pay family members for work performed or is this considered not appropriate because of the potential for abuse?  We keep documentation and can back up time spent.  Thanks!

My question revolves around when a landlord may bill a tenant for landlord's time or landlord's family's time.

My understanding is if a landlord performs repair work on damage created by the tenant, then the landlord may not bill for time involved but may bill for required materials purchased.  If this same repair were performed by a handyman, then the handyman's time may be included in the charge.  When, if ever, can a project be assigned to family members and allow them to bill for time involved?

Example 1:

Landlord (husband) owns a rental property in his name only and manages it himself.  Tenant damages the property:  Drives a car into the wall causing about $15k in damage.  Insurance declines to assist with hiring a contractor for repairs but instead offers to cut a check when a repair estimate is accepted.  Landlord hires wife to find a few contractors to bid on the project, coordinates with them on site visits, follows up with them and gets quotes, answers questions, and specifies any other contract adjustments.  Then coordinates between contractor and insurance company.  Then follows up with contractor through repair work until completion.  Time spent could easily be 20+ hours.  Maybe double.  Pay wife a fair wage.  What would that be?  $20 - $30 an hour in the Phoenix area?  This is essentially project management work and takes a certain level of understanding the tasks needed as well as responsibility. 

I ask because this happened to me as an owner - landlord and I put in the time myself and to the best of my understanding, I can't bill for my time.  I'm not planning on retroactively and dishonestly going to bill a tenant as my wife but rather want to approach the next problem like this correctly.  I work full time and did need to take time off from my job to deal with this so there was a real loss on my part for time spent.

Example 2:

Tenant constantly violates HOA parking policy and brings in many tickets per year. They aren't much at $20 each and the tenant pays me and I pay the HOA when quarterly dues are submitted. The tenant gets a copy of the notice letters but does nothing. I have to reach out to the tenant each time to ask them to pay the fine to me and I pay it to the HOA. I'd rather have them deal directly with the HOA and keep me and my quarterly assessment out of it. I'm thinking about adding an addendum to my contract stating that the tenant must deal with the HOA directly to resolve any issues created by the tenant and pay any associated fines. If the landlord needs to pay fines on behalf of the tenant and collect funds from the tenant, then there will be a $25 fee per incident. Or maybe my wife can put in the effort dealing with tenant violations and bill for time which will be passed to the tenants. What are your thoughts?

Thank you team for your assistance and advice!

 I see this post is almost a year old, but its not ancient.  QuickBooks Self Employed looks to be $15 a month today.  How did you manage to get it for $4.99 a month?

I appreciate all of your feedback on my situation.  Yes, the tenants are in now, and have paid me fully and on time so far and provided all of the documentation I have asked for.   I do like to verify AC air filters are changed regularly and this seems like a perfectly reasonable for a visit seasonally to allow me to stay on top of this.

I recently had a tenant family of 5 (3 adults who all signed the contract) move into a property of mine.  I did a background check and called the past landlord who lives out of state.  Landlord gave a good review and the background check showed an eviction filed 5 years ago, but dismissed Credit overall was acceptable.  So far, all is good with this tenant and myself, but they've only been in my place a month now.  I received a call from the previous landlord out of the blue today to pass along some information.  I guess he felt guilty not letting me know everything that went on with him and them when I called him a month ago and he apparently kept my number.  He told me today that he had been asking them to move out of the house for 6 months but had been being too nice and not forcing it.  They frequently were late on rent.  He also said once they moved into my place, they stopped communicating with him and have not returned the keys or made the last month's payment due to him.  Also, his 3 year old and 5 year HVAC systems (2 in homes in AZ sometimes) had both been reported broken at the same time once he got serious trying to get them out.  He called techs out to repair the systems and according to him, the techs refused to work on the property and wouldn't provide a reason.  That's really strange and I'm curious what transpired there to have them deny working on the property.  He called a neighbor to check in on the house and the neighbor noticed the house was full of trash through the windows.  I suggested he get an attorney involved and consider an eviction or look into maybe getting it judged abandoned to see if he can get it back that way.

Now this is all what he has told me.  I have no evidence what did or didn't happen however I can do my best to protect my property.  This unit is a 2 hour drive from my home, but I'm willing to make the drive as this is a nice recently painted home with new tile floors.  I'm not afraid to get an attorney involved as necessary.  A few questions for those with more experience:

1. My contract provides no grace period for late payments.  I found this to be abused in the past.  I used a standard AZ Realtor contract. The rent is considered late if not received by 5PM on the 1st of the month and late fees apply.  No payment on the 1st equals a 5 day notice to "pay or quit" will be mailed out on the 2nd.  If someone continuously pays late, month after month, but within the 10 day window, is there grounds to terminate the contract after a certain number of these events?  (Request the tenant leave or evict if denied)

2. What techniques do you recommend against receiving a partial payment as a stall tactic?  I currently am allowing Zell (and check or money order) but have stipulated I reserve the right to change methods.  The tenant paid the first full month through Zelle.  My understanding is if you accept any amount of payment, even not intentionally, that you implicitly have agreed to the partial payment and you cannot evict the tenant for that month.  So if they send me $500 instead of $2000 on January 1, then I can not send a 5 day notice until February 1.  Is that correct and if so, what are the best techniques to combat this?  It looks like a rent service such as Tenantcolud nay have the ability to reject incomplete payments.

2. I would like to perform quarterly inspections.  Is this a reasonable frequency?  I'd like to do it more often, but don't want it to be considered harassment.

3. I'd greatly appreciate any additional advice on for preparing for this situation.

I have been a long time, small scale landlord for a while and slowly am getting wiser, but generally I've had decent tenants.   I hope these current tenants treat me well and I will be respectful also, but I think there is sufficient reasoning to prepare myself for otherwise.  Thanks!