All Forum Posts by: Casandra M.

I'll keep it short:

We put a used stove in a tenant's unit.

Tenant complains the stove will not heat to more than 350 degrees.

We decide to send a repairman over because these tenants have been high maintenance and we want to minimize contact with them beyond what is necessary for our immediate response. 

Repairman calls me telling me that the stove works, the issue is that the tenant didn't know there was a preheat time difference between gas stoves (what she's used to), and electric stoves (the previous and new stove in the unit). So, after 10 minutes of preheating, the stove wouldn't be 425/450 or whatever she was setting it to, because it wasn't preheated enough.

Would you charge the tenant the repairman's bill for his base visit cost, or should we eat the cost because we chose to not go over and test what she was claiming, before we called in a repairman?

@Ryan Reynebeau - Our properties are in Wisconsin and most of our units have dogs with a monthly $25 fee per dog. In all our offers, we have a contingency in the offer that we can review lease prior to closing and ensure they are up to our standards. It is written in such a way that we are able to retract our offer if we find material issues with the current leases. In your situation, it would be good to get an idea of rent vs pet fees, because if a tenant gets rid of their dogs, their rent would be reduced during the current lease. In Wisconsin, a monthly fee is different than the base monthly rent. For example, if a WI tenant is late on rent, the rent fees are only applied to the late rent, not monthly fees. 

For your last question, you are referring to what's called a "Series LLC", which Wisconsin law does not have. Technically, you can set up series LLCs in Wisconsin, but because of the vague legal wording, each LLC does not have it's own "shield" of protection. This essentially means that anything under the parent LLC is not independently protected from the other LLCs, rendering the concept of series LLCs moot in Wisconsin.

We really like the envelopes at the below link, but are trying to find a cheaper alternative. Does anyone have a recommendation of somewhere else to order these types of envelopes? My initial google searches have turned up nothing. 

https://wilegalblank.com/collections/rental-folders-envelopes/products/tenant-file-envelope-1

If the property is in Wisconsin, I suggest using wisconsinlegalblank.com for all leases and forms. 

Also to keep in mind if the property is in WI.... a deposit is just that...a deposit. It's 100% refundable and 100% illegal to retain a "default" amount, including all of it, if not due to a reason beyond normal wear and tear. For pets, we retain a deposit and also charge a monthly fee. 

The deposit for the lease that you are retaining should be carried over to the next lease if you choose to keep them, but you do have an option to up the lease. When a tenant re-ups a lease with us, we do an end-of-lease walkthrough before resigning to ensure the current deposit is enough compared to any damages that might have occurred during the course of the tenancy. 

What was the tenant's prior lease - are they legally in a month-to-month with you right now? If so, then you need to give the appropriate month-to-month notice to the tenant per your state guidelines. In Wisconsin, this is typically a 28 day notice, or 1 full rental period worth of notice. 

In Wisconsin, but I'm sure is somewhat common in other Section 8 states, you cannot evict a tenant just because Section 8 stopped. Section 8 from what I understand is considered apart of the income to cover the rent - if section 8 is cancelled, the tenant is still responsible for coming up with the full rent amount out that is listed on the lease. With that said, in Wisconsin, you don't need a reason to not renew a lease (year or month-to-month leases), so as long as you send proper notice, you can remove them.

I thought in Wisconsin, series LLCs don't provide legal protection for each LLC, but rather, are treated as one company in a Wisconsin court, essentially eliminating the conceptual benefits of the series LLC?

After a second look it looks like it's illegal to take charges for it out of the security deposit. You can require it as part of your lease on a special provision, but you would have to sue to recover the cost (can't take any of it from a deposit) - the site I provided also outlines this. 

NO - you unfortunately cannot unless the tenant has caused unusual wear and tear, regardless of the lease statements. This is a common misconception that just because a lease states something, a tenant has to do. There are certain provisions in place in Wisconsin law that overrides anything you put in the lease. 

Here is a great resource that full explains and gets updated frequently to reflect any recent changes in law: http://www.tenantresourcecenter.org/carpet_cleaning 

A lot of investors on this site utilize Cozy and recommend it (I personally do not use a software). When our renters are late on rent, we complete out the month to see how many days late they are, then send out an invoice before next month's rent is due, showing the balance of what they will owe with next month's rent + the late charges. 

My in-laws had issues with this a few years ago. They have a small portfolio (<10 units) and were in a year where they were going to raise rents by $25 a unit, so they started a $10 discount for anyone that had rent postmarked and in the PO box after the 20th and before the 30th (rent due on the 1st). All late rent payments literally disappeared. They were concerned that people would just short their checks by $10 regardless but hasn't happened yet (they rent in a B class neighborhood). For them, it was worth not having the late payment headaches.