All Forum Posts by: Cody F.

I recently purchased a 41 unit apartment complex, the lease, rules and regulations, and application are from probably 20 years ago and haven't been updated. I'm searching for something with a good amount of legal coverage. Any help is appreciated, even if it's just pointing me in the right direction. Thank you!

I have an apartment complex with 41 units. It's a mix of 1,2, and 3 bedroom units. I want to start raising rents as I renovate each unit but I'm worried about the legalities of that. Can I potentially get in trouble for charging more for one than another? Like say I charge 600 for one 3br but only charge 550 for a different 3br. Could a tenant call discrimination or something for charging one tenant more than another for the same amount of rooms?

@Michael Noto they aren't very good tenants, they left garbage in the middle of the yard one week, were late on rent last month, smoke inside, and play loud music from their cars outside. This is a 41 unit apartment complex. I don't want the rest of the tenants to start thinking they can set up security cameras too. And the cameras could be making other tenants feel uncomfortable. I'm thinking about putting up a legitimate security camera system up for the complex but I'm trying to work that into the budget which takes time.

We had a tenant put up security cameras and drill into the wood of our deck to install them. We don't have anything in our lease or rules about cameras. We gave them a notice to take them down but the tenant responded that they talked to a "Family attorney" stating that our lease didn't say they couldn't put them up. They then stated their cars had been keyed twice and said "are you going to pay for the damages? "

I'm not exactly sure how to deal with this. I'm a new landlord and this is a first. All help is appreciated!

**This property is a 41-unit apartment complex. Not a SFH.

@Lucas Miller I see, yeah we have a 41 unit apartment complex. We just purchased it back in August so it's been a sharp learning curve so far. I've had 1 rental property for about 7 years now and it's been great because I've only had 2 tenants in that time that were low maintenance. Unfortunately that didn't give me much experience, which I'm having to catch up on now.

@Lucas Miller thank you, do you have a recommended way to screen tenants? I used my smart move last time but it was expensive and didn't provide much detail

I've had to evict several people in the past few months, how do you go about reporting that so other land lords know?

And is there a way to garnish wages or go about collecting that debt or will they just get away with not paying rent?

It's terrible to think that people could get away with something like this, all help and suggestions are appreciated!

@Justin Fishman thanks for your input, I've been trying to figure this out. I was completely lost but now I'll look into them. Have you heard of buildium?

I'm trying to automate my application and screening process so my applicants can apply easier and I can simplify the clutter of paper apps and digging to find. Hoping to find something that can do background checks on the tenants for a reasonable price as well! I'm hoping to find some software that can simplify the two and maybe even offer a website to boot. Suggestions and feedback greatly appreciated!!

I'm having trouble every month it seems like with people being late on their rent. I've gotten strict with a notice on the 5th and 10th. And if they haven't paid by the 10th depending on the individual they face eviction if they aren't caught up by the end of the month. We then file to evict by the 5th of the next month. I've evicted several people so far and the people who would pay later in the month are starting to pay sooner but it's still a problem. I'm interested in hearing how other landlords combat this problem!