All Forum Posts by: Susan Clark

I have a three family home that has been a challenge and just as I think I’ve stabilized it I’m faced with an upstairs tenant who complains of overwhelming cigarette smoke filtering into her apartment causing extreme headaches to them as they now are work from home employees. My leases do say non smoking units but one family I particularly  has never abided by this and makes excuses or denys allegations. What can I do, if anything?

@Nathan G.thanks so much for your input. I agree with your idea of stability with a 1yr lease and I agree with the ease of month to month in my state what we ictil s are a nightmare and getting worse everyday. I’d love to hear more detail about early lease dismissal and I like the idea of saying yes you can go month to month for a 25% rent increase although o fear NY may not allow that increase. I mean right now I’m NY you can put anything in your lease and they sign but the tenant can do anything they want. We have a rent moratorium and I have some tenants paying $200-$400 less than their lease agreement and I can’t do anything about it but I still have to maintain repairs and pay my mortgages. Thanks again for the input

@Tony T.what about reaching out to small theatre groups for the sanctuary and maybe getting zoned for small coffee house or bakery or something of that nature along with a few small businesses. Like a church complex.

I have property in WESTERN NY. My tenant of one year is asking to go to a mo th to month lease. I know she’s wanting to move. Wht are pros and cons to 1yr leases and month to month. I’m leaning towards a 6months lease if ThTs even allowed. What’s your experience.

I have a 5bdrm student housing that my daughter lives in and I’m trying to rent out the other 4bdrms. Twice already I’ve been told I’m discriminating according to gender because I’m only renting to females. Not stating students or career people just has to be female. Am I wrong. How should I phrase this. I was to understand that if a place was owner occupy the rules were also a bit different.

I have two separate tenants who are abusing the dog policy of my units. One is housing a puppy (pit bull) without proper approval and every time I try and force the issue they claim the dog isn’t there and was just visiting (will not accept the fact that even visits are not allowed) second tenant same building keeps having ex wife visit for the weekend with large unregistered dog (pitbull rotty mix)when I call them on it they say it won’t happen again but the women keeps coming and the dog is said to be there by tenant who is disgruntled about their dog and late payment issues. Help!

I had an inherrited tenant that was so discusting that I had to condemn the unit just to clean her out and at the time I payed for pest control to spray the unit. Move down the time line said tenant finally left the unit and there were cockroaches, we again payed for extermination and then told the tenants moving in (wanted her unit as we were finishing everything up ) that we had it fumigated. Move down the time line further they’ve been in since July, and in October they saw a cockroach. We put traps out and on their request we then had them prepare everything and sprayed AGAIN. At this point said new tenant is breaking their lease and want their deposit back and this is why Hello, Danielle and I were talking about it and we think it is not right that we are not getting our security deposit back. We moved into this apartment not knowing of this problem. We have spent a lot of our time off work going thru cleaning and moving everything we have. We can't move into another apartment because it is impossible not to carry cockroaches with us. Instead, everything is going into a storage and we will be moving back home. We have spent money on a storage unit, cockroaches preventatives, laundry ( everything has to be washed at the laundry mat). Why would you do??

I’m looking for ideas on how I might make a deal work. I’m looking st a duplex thara beencp the market for aome tIme, needs work, and has dropped In prIce 15k sInce It went on the market. The owner was recently widowed and doesn’t want to care for the properties alone. So she’s sold of all the other properties and this one remains. She was interested and willing to hold the mortgage with me but when she checked with her attorney he said that’s not really possible since this is in an estate. My question is, does anyone have ideas I could present her with that might work around the estate or is that a done deal or an issue that can’t be creatively worked around. Thank you

Thank you all for your help. I will contact my insurance and pray he doesn’t press the issue. He doesn’t seem like he wants to. He seems genuinely more concerned with a solution to slippery stairs. 

Tonight I was texted and called by my tenant. his daughter had been visiting the single family rental they live in and fell down the porch stairs and broke her wrist. It was raining and the stairs were damp.  The tenant has said the steps were slippery in the past and each time we have gone and addressed the problem. Tonight I mentioned the tread strips we applied earlier in the year and he said he took them off because they too didn't work and water pools in the steps. there is a railing on the stairs and it is firmly in place (we fixed that earlier last year). Am I liable for this incident? Who do I go to to ask or protect myself.

Thanks