All Forum Posts by: Clara Tang

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Clara Tang:

 So you did get an attorney? Good!

The tenant moved out and we had the walkthrough this noon.  Her mom came too.  Neither of them mentioned anything they said in texts and emails.  

Phew!

Thanks, everyone for your suggestions and support!

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Clara Tang:

 So you did get an attorney? Good!

 Yes after her mom sending us selfie, her reluctance to talk, and constant threat of mold issue, we feel we had no choice but engaging an attorney.

Quote from @Jarod Rotolo:

@Clara Tang

Sounds like your likely going to spend a lot of money. Have you considered asking her if instead of charging her late penalties, can you offer to give her $500 to help with moving expenses, will she move out today?

We did think about it but wanted to make sure they moved out before 10th so we suggested sit down and talk.  But before we engaged the attorney, the tenant just refused to talk and kept threatening us with the mold issue.  And her mom was harassing us, even after we stopped communicating with her.  

we will just wait until 11th. Hopefully with the attorney involvement, she will move as she promised.

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Clara Tang:

The mom called us and left a message this morning saying the AC was down.

what should we do now?

First, do nothing until the actual tenant reports the problem. No communication with the Mom, remember? Send over an HVAC Tech to diagnose, and if this is a prank call, they pay for it, send them the bill. If there actually is a problem, get it fixed....you are still a landlord, right???

Please tell us you have an appt with an attorney tomorrow....?

Okay. We ignored her mom and she finally sent a message to my husband report the AC problem.  We will ask our contractor to go and check.

The mom called us and left a message this morning saying the AC was down.

what should we do now?

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Clara Tang:

Someone can't just start working and then say you owe them money. That's ridiculous. Did they give you a bid first? Did you sign a legal contract with her? 

No. So she has nothing to stand on here.

I would keep a record of all contact to this point. Block all future contact. Get a lawyer already before this goes any further.....

They told my husband there were things needed to be fixed before the new tenants move in and they can help.  My husband said okay please take pictures and let me know first what they were first.  That's what they called our verbal agreement.  And they started "updating" us the status of their progress.  I replied in the text that we had not given any agreement to them to work on anything.  And asked them to sign the addendum as without one, they occupied our property illegally.  At that time, we still believed they would move out on Aug 10 and was okay if they stay but we wanted to have a contact to say they know and accept our flooring project (prevent them from complaining the project makes the property inhabitable)

I don't know why they were so reluctant to sign an addendum, if they planned to move out on Aug 10.  I don't know why they are so eager to fix our property when they are busy packing and leaving.  Everything is just beyond my comprehension.

Quote from @Mariel DeVito:

Like someone posted, I would block the mother's contact.  You have no obligation to communicate with her. If she still steps outside of her boundary, I would get the law involved as I am perceiving this as a form of harassment now.  

Based on your comments, I sense that you are taking this rather emotionally.  Remember that it's a business.  As much as you want to be sympathetic to people and their issues, the property is still yours at the end of the day.  In my mind, if there were so many concerns about it, then why not move out sooner instead of delay the inevitable?

 Well, her mom sent a selfie to my husband, which is the last straw.  It took me a while to see why she did it.  In our last effort to have a meaningful conversation with the tenant, I said 'we need to talk to you as you are the one and only tenant on the lease.  Although we know your mom must be a lovely lady, we just cannot speak with her about our lease'  so she replied 'yes, I am beautiful, intelligent and lovely ' and a selfie to my husband.  And I said to my husband, let's go to see the lawyer.  She is insane.

Quote from @Mariel DeVito:

Like someone posted, I would block the mother's contact.  You have no obligation to communicate with her. If she still steps outside of her boundary, I would get the law involved as I am perceiving this as a form of harassment now.  

Based on your comments, I sense that you are taking this rather emotionally.  Remember that it's a business.  As much as you want to be sympathetic to people and their issues, the property is still yours at the end of the day.  In my mind, if there were so many concerns about it, then why not move out sooner instead of delay the inevitable?

You are right.  I might have been really lucky that I have not run into many jerks and lunatics before.  

"if there were so many concerns about it, then why not move out sooner instead of delay the inevitable? " My husband said so too.  I have no idea why they have been fixating on fixing our property all of sudden.  At first, I was thinking they tried to be nice so we would let them stay.  When they started mentioning they could report us to the health department and talking about working the whole weekend 8*2 hours and her hourly rate is $25, I started to think they may want to stay for free.  But if money is the concern, why not pick up our phone call, and talk to us?

I don't get it.  Honestly.

And she called herself "an absolute model tenant"

BTW, we gave a heads up to our new tenants, both in writing and verbal, telling them the worst situation would be eviction that could take a few weeks, but we have hired an attorney to try our best to get the current tenant out on Aug 10th.  They were cool.

To give you folks an update:

We engaged a lawyer and sent out a notice stating that 

1. as the tenant modified the $500 fee if they stay after Aug 10th, the addendum is void and their current stay is unlawful

2. as in our lease any repairment or alteration to the property over $30 needs our written agreement, which they don't have, we are not obligated to reimburse any cost.

3. exit walkthrough would be on Aug 11th.

Our tenant with a doctor of education degree replied -

1. she signed the addendum so she is not an illegal squatter.  She did mention that she revised the addendum "However he had added an extra modification that was untenable, of 500 per day for vacancy, and I was able to accept $50 per day, and thus signed the addendum that stated $50 instead of $500.', which double-baffled me with her reading comprehension! We said $500 late fee for the stay after Aug10th! and our lawyer made it clear that the addendum is void BECAUSE she revised it!!

2. the lease agrees on repairment under $30, so what they have been doing is ok.  Well, that is 'tenant's responsibility', so don't ask us to pay for the supplies and $25 per hour * 20+ hours! You cannot have both ways!

3. mold again.  We did a thorough dig through our communication.  After she told us about the dishwasher leakage, we asked a mold company to check, the response was 'replace the dishwasher' without any mention of mold.  After that no complaints for 2 years at least, until last week, she flipped the floor and took pictures telling us there may be mold.

After reading her response, I said we don't need to discuss any further as either she lacks basic reading comprehension and knowledge of contract law, or she is distorting the facts.  We decided to ask a handyman to go through the inspection with us, to check any work they said they did (if they cause any damage?), and any repairs we need to do before the new tenants move in. 

I have one last question - can we deduct the legal fee from her deposit?