All Forum Posts by: Delton Witte

I just wanted to come back and thank everyone for the responses and feedback. It hasn't gotten any better, but this first experience is almost over. I'm trying to think of all the things that have happened since this time....

-I replaced carpet in the basement and had some drywall work done where some had to be removed. There is also part of the basement that is unfinished and I had drywall hung in that area (no tape/texture), to make it feel a little more completed. 

*I had one carpet installer leave because they did not have all of their stuff out of the room when he came. He charged me $75 and I had to find an alternate installer. 

-The water heater began leaking shortly after posting this and had to be replaced, likely nothing to do with them, but you always wonder with people like this. 

-I sent a letter outlining their violations of the lease, and things improved for a while. 

-They complained about wasps and didn't give me an opportunity to do anything about it. Their trash is stored outside and typically hanging wide open, which I suspect attracted said wasps. They hired an exterminator on their own, which for some reason I felt like I should reimburse them for. 

-They put an elephant spout thing over the tub spout, which caused water to flow back into the wall and down onto the ceiling in the basement, but had to cut a hole in the ceiling to figure that out. In turn more drywall work was needed.  

*After this I sent a letter  informing them I would not be holding them to the term of the lease and they could provide a 30 day written notice and move out at anytime. They told me they weren't damaging the property on purpose. I just walked back through the list of things that were avoidable. 

-Exactly 3 weeks after telling me how it wasn't their fault and they weren't damaging the place on purpose, one of the unsupervised children used a lighter and started a fire under a bed in the master bedroom. The fire department had to come, but luckily the damage did not make it through to the subfloor. They provided their 30 day notice to me 2 days after the most recent fire and will be out by the end of October. Not looking forward to the clean up and repairs, but very glad that they are moving on. 

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will try to answer all questions as best I can at this point.

We do have a written agreement and unfortunately, it is for 18 months as I offered a $75 discount for agreeing to the longer lease.  

I like the idea of looking in prospective tenants vehicles, unfortunately it was a February evening in South Dakota when they came to look, so not a lot could be garnered from that. 

We probably could have done a better job of screening. I used Houserie for credit and criminal background checks. References were pedestrian, not glowing, but not bad. Credit was not great, but there are two couples living there (sisters and their significant others). Due to their level of combined income and no past issues with rent payments, I made an exception on the credit and increased the deposit. Lesson learned on that. They do not smoke (Hey! there's a positive)

Excepts from the lease:

16.CONDITION OF PREMISES:

The Tenants hereby acknowledge that the said property is in good condition. If there is anything about the condition of the property that is not good, they agree to report it to the Landlord within 3 days of taking possession of the property. They agree that failure to file any written notice of defects will be legally binding proof that the property is in good condition at the time of occupancy.

18.TENANT RESPONSIBILITY:

Good housekeeping is expected of everyone. Tenant agrees to keep quarters clean and in a sanitary condition. The Tenants agree not to permit any deterioration or destruction to occur while they are occupying the property. 

19.ALTERATIONS:

Tenant shall make no alterations, decorations, additions, or improvements in or to the premises without Landlords’ prior written consent, and then only by contractors or mechanics, or other approved by Landlord. All alterations, additions, or improvements upon the premises, made by either party, shall become the property of the Landlord and shall remain upon, and be surrendered with said premises, as a part thereof, at the end of the term hereof.

They acknowledge that they will be responsible for and pay any damage done by rain, wind, hail, tornadoes, etc., if this damage is caused by leaving windows open, allowing stoppage and/or overflow or water and/or sewage pipes, broken windows or doors, torn screens, broken door and window locks, etc. or any damage caused while Tenant has occupancy.

22.NOTIFICATION OF SERIOUS BUILDING PROBLEMS:

Tenant agrees to notify Landlord immediately if roof leaks, water spots appear on ceiling, or at the first sign of termite activity. Tenants also agree to notify the Owners immediately upon first discovering any signs of serious building problems such as foundation cracks, a tilting porch, a crack in plaster, buckling drywall or siding, a spongy floor, a leaky water heater, etc. If the tenant does not notify landlord in a prompt manner the tenant may be held financially responsible.

I should probably wait to post until I'm settled a little bit, but I'm fairly anxious at this point. I have been a landlord for almost three months. My wife and I bought the other half of the twinhome we had been living in and moved to the newly puchased side. 

About 2 weeks into the lease my wife arrived home to fire trucks. One tenant was making onion rings and a grease fire started. The oil burst up onto the walls and ceiling leaving a residue covering a large area. They said that they would clean it. I talked with my agent and she said my deductible was $1,000.00 and if I felt the damage was less than that I could have them clean it. While I was there I wiped the wall with my finger and the residue came right off, so I thought it was no big deal. 

Within the first month they LOADED the garage with junk. I believe they inadvertently bent the garage door tracks, anyway the complained that the door wasn't working and I had to have it serviced. They also incessantly complained about the residue left on their dishes by the hard water. I suggested and tried multiple fixes for them, but ended up calling someone to service the water heater as well. That apparently fixed the issue as I hadn't heard anything from them for almost 2 months until tonight.

We have had close to 10 inches of rain in the last week. They text me and said that they had water in the basement and the washer wasn't working right. 

I went over and found lots of water there, they said that it had been like that for a couple of days, but they aren't down there much and didn't notice until it started smelling. 

My wife and I worked to mitigate the water troubles as best we could and actually that is not my greatest concern. While I was there they told me the washer is also leaking into the basement, but they thought "maybe that was normal." 

There was a dorm refrigerator box 3/4 full of trash that had been sitting in the area where the water was. It was pretty soggy...worse than I thought. While I was taking it out for them it broke open and my wife and I ended up cleaning the mess. 

I noticed a few drawers that don't have the faces on them in the kitchen (how does one break the face off a kitchen drawer? Never seen that before.) Nothing has been cleaned from the fire over 2 months ago. There was trash just generally about the kitchen.

What should I do about the disorder, lack of notification of needed repairs, etc., can I do anything? Keep in mind these folks are also my next door neighbors.