All Forum Posts by: David P.

 Yup that is what I'm referring to. No power to landlords right now so screening very important which I thought I did but occupants and pets is something the screening process may not catch. I made them do the full online mysmartmove application, stalked them on Facebook but things still slip through. 

 We can still not do at fault eviction until next year if not extended again. Eviction is my last resort. 

 Thanks everyone. So to answer the question about the front tenants I never allowed them pets to begin with. They are MTM lease so once eviction moratorium in LA county is lifted I have some leverage. They moved in during the pandemic after passing all my screening checks but things still happened. They are still paying rent but they do break the rules with more occupancy and pets. I have gone to the property many times and it looks still well taken care of so I have let things slide while I don't have much leverage. I do have an umbrella policy with State Farm that does not restrict dog breeds. My rental dwelling policy is with AAA though which may have a restriction. 

The pitbull is not violent but is overly rowdy. Basically jumps around on people like crazy but never has bitten me or shown aggression to me. Due to the daughter only being 2 yrs old I can still see any dog knocked her over could cause harm so there is for sure concern. I told them before to get renters insurance and I think I'm going bring it up again with them. 

Thanks. Good points brought up. I think when he mentioned judge and court he meant if I tried to evict them for withholding rent for that reason alone. No damages have been done and it is not something that has happened regularly. I think I got notified twice in one year regarding the dogs being unleashed. Today situation was bad because not only unleased but unattended and inside the other tenant garage. The gate I will lock is just a yard gate that is near the rear tenants house and the front unit still has another gate to let out the pets that faces the front main street. This should solve majority of issues and limit any interactions the rear has with the pets. 

Glad to hear someone else agrees it's unreasonable for them to think I can get another family to get rid of their pets within 24 hours. 

Just came across a late night call with one of my tenants. His family has been living there over a year and I would consider them good tenants. They warned me before that the front tenants dogs (pitbulls) are sometimes unleashed and unintended.

I already warned the front tenant about this issue but today it blew up. The duplex is situated front and back. One of the young kids in front left the backyard gate open and the dogs were running around inside the rear tenants garage when they had the door open. They do have a young daughter so that is the rear tenants fear. Basically he had enough and called me and said if the dogs are not gone by tomorrow he will stop paying rent. This felt very unreasonable at the moment withe able to remedy a solution. 

After some back and forth we came up with a solution where I place a lock on the gate and make the gate inaccessible. The front tenant asked for one more chance so they are on board of not using that gate anymore and instead use the other side gate that faces the street for any pet duties. The rear tenant seem content and everything seem worked out. It didn't sit well with me afterwards. I understand his issue and he has brought it up before but threatening me with rent seem not right. Can he actually win in court with his reasons? He told me he didn't mind going to court in front of judge so alot of things were said tonight. I did discover from front tenant he had a medical emergency 2 days ago and was in hospital for irregular heartbeat where he collapsed at home and ambulance came. His first day back and this situation happened so I can understand the stress. 

 If your gardener ran over a metal stick then that is on him. If his cutting biweekly it shouldn't be that thick enough to not notice an object. Just careless mowing on his part. Just hire a new gardener. They are a dime a dozen.

 The inside unit is an air handler and furnace. It is all in one unit so if you replace it it will cover both AC and heat. I would say 2k parts labor.

I agree with most here that your PM is the problem. Screening and getting good tenants in is probably the most important job a landlord and PM can do outside of buying the property for a good deal. Nowadays you need to screen tenants with a fine comb. Imagine yourself as a bank lender and amount of documentation they require to get a loan. That is pretty much what I do now when i screen tenants is to paint a clear picture of everything they own/income/credit. I ask for bank statements/income statements/proof of payment to last landlord..etc. If all these tenants are having financial trouble outside of the flood one then that means your PM obviously didn't pick a tenant who was well qualfied. PM's in general don't have as much in stake since the property isn't their own so if you could self manage at least the tenant screening part i would at least have your PM pass over all the documentation of the tenant to you first before you give them the OK to move in. 

I had a similiar situation. Tenant wanted to upgrade shower fixtures and installed a tub spout incorrectly. Ended up leaking into walls slowly over a month before caught. Insurance got involved and cut me a a good size check. I used half of it to redo the entire house flooring which took a few weeks. Tenant at first was fine with everything but as the contractor started dragging their feet they started complanining. Never asked for compensation.

I had a similiar situation recently where i had trouble finding a tenant. One came along with a bankrutpcy and the more i dug the more shadier it sounded. She was willing to pay 2 years up front. After asking her to show slightly more documentation she got offended and declined. A few days later i found normal tenants and all had been well. I think i dodged a bullet there.