All Forum Posts by: Don Young

I keep having to miss these! I'll be out of town next week again, but I'll be there in January if things go my way. Looking forward to see how everything is going for everyone!

I'll be there! Good idea @Patsy Waldron!

I regrettably cannot make this one either, but I'll see you all at the next one if possible. Thanks for the reminder @Ryan Arth

Have fun all!

Hello BP,

A friend of mine said his long-time landlord recently asked him to sign a new lease. Their rental agreement had been mostly unwritten and verbal up to this point. The landlord only gave him the last page of the agreement to sign which seems like a major red flag to begin with,  and they also put some wording in the lease which seems contradictory to what I thought was law here in Ohio.

In case the attached picture did not come through, I am particularly speaking to the second paragraph in the picture. "In the event the tenant defaults in the payment of rent or other amounts required hereunder when due, the landlord may at its option immediately terminate this lease. The tenant shall at once surrender possessions of the premises to the landlord, and the landlord may without further notice remove all persons and all property from the premises. The tenant shall be liable for all rents remaining under the term of this lease until the premises are released. All notices to given given under this lease shall be effective only when made in writing and delivered to the landlord's office in the building or to the tenant in the premises."

Is this unusual wording? Does defaulting only imply being late, or something more than that? I don't think a landlord is allowed to simply terminate the lease and immediately remove all persons and all their property without further notice.

I'm wondering if I should suggest to my friend that he request that the document be reworded before signing, or if this language is typical to indicate that the standard eviction process will be used if needed?

Hi @Nick Ferguson, welcome to BP! I've found this site is great for networking and a good place to start is by attending a meetup. I attend one that is the last Thursday of every month (today!) at The Brew Garden in Middleburg Heights at 6 PM. It's a pretty informal meetup - we'll have dinner, maybe a couple beers, and talk real estate. It's a good time, you should come if you are free.

@Ron Szmik, @Aaron Westerburg, and @Ryan Arth are generally there every month along with a number of others that come when they can.

@Joe Ebanks, I have problems with the @names sometimes too. It seems that you can't go back and enter these into text you have already written. I'd love to compare our findings.

Hi @Joe Ebanks, I am sorry that I cannot help with your question, but I am also interested in this information for Akron, OH and surrounding areas like Cuyahoga Falls and Stow. I would maybe try and find a real estate agent in the area that is familiar with working with investors if this thread doesn't pan out. I am not sure of the best way to find investor-friendly agents in a given area aside from posting here or just calling a bunch.

@Ryan Arth, do you have any idea on this? I cannot remember if you mentioned having any multifamily properties or if your properties are all SFHs...

Hi Tom Kuhen , I obviously am not entirely familiar with this law but the way I understand it is that if you live somewhere more than 6 months, you are owed the 5% yearly interest on the excess deposit put down for the entirety of the year, paid at the end of each year. So, if you stayed just over 6 months you would be owed about 2.5% x (security deposit - one months rent). So, yes, I would think it would essentially be prorated.

@Susan M., thanks for your input and the link! I completely agree with all of your points, but I am not so sure I agree that spite is an acceptable reason for waiting until the last minute to give a deposit back. I do however understand that this is the real world and we are human. I have not been in your shoes or his and cannot say for certain that I would be able to look past the annoyance and avoid waiting out of spite in that kind of scenario, though I hope I can when it becomes time!

I understand that some landlords might be irritated about a tenant asking them for the deposit back within a week, but that is not what I am currently asking him for. If I were, he could simply tell me by law he has 30 days to return it and that would be that. I just want an acknowledgement from him that we had paid him the security deposit that we paid. Is this really asking a lot? Especially for "good tenants". Something he told us we were more than once. I'm fine with getting it on day 30, I just want the peace of mind of knowing that we will.

I've got to say, it is really interesting being a renter and also trying to learn the business to get into myself one day soon. I hope I don't forget my days as a tenant when I am no longer one.

@Christian Carson, thanks for the advice. Seems like a great way to think about it. I would surely have an easier time convincing someone that we had paid the deposit than he would convincing them that we did not. What scares me is that one might argue we put ourselves in this situation by not getting some kind of receipt or paying with a check and that would be true.