All Forum Posts by: Jason Maguire

 @Jay Hinrichs thank you Jay, and after the general consensus i would agree with you! This was the first time this happened to me in owning a few props over a few years now so just caught me off guard & i wanted to see what the broader audience thought.

 @Bruce Woodruff completely understand that now- that was just a sidebar frustration comment haha. National Grid ended up getting back to me & said they are going to reimburse me for getting the tank back up & running, so i guess that's a win!

@Marcos Carbi the best advice is to honestly just be respectful & be yourself when you introduce yourself. 

If the tenants are that far below market rent they probably most likely know that & won't be too surprised. When i first took over my duplex, i texted the tenants and asked when they were available to meet in person to discuss future leases. The first response i received in person was "Are you going to kick us out" I simply stated No, but that the markets were well below market rent & that we needed to work to get them up to a more reasonable price. I was very respectful, transparent & also honest & they were completely fine with the rent change. We went from $720 to $850 just like that! 

Agree with the others. It will show your tenants that you are serious about taking care of maintenance & repairs- Also, just follow the rule in your state for how much notice you need to give (mostly 24-48 hours).. as long as you're in that range & let them know you should be more than OK. Good luck getting that roof replaced!

@Craig Janet thank you for your thought as well Craig! Yeah, i am also trying to look a little bit more into the Right of Easement. Looking at first glance on their site, they are supposed to give notice so i need to understand if they reached out to my tenants or not beforehand.

Either way i agree the outcome probably wouldn't of been much different. Just don't like people free roaming my property without my consent or not being physically present.

@Nathan Gesner Thanks for your take! Yeah I wasn't made aware of them stopping by to swap out meters- left a voicemail last night & waiting to for them to call me back.

Definitely agree that there is not much the tenant can do to help me in this case, and upon further thought it'd be very hard to punish someone for something if they weren't in town or accidently forgot to let me know. Can see that getting tricky for sure- will just have to chalk this up as kind of a one off situation. Thanks again!

 @Bruce Woodruff 100%, and I'm trying to get in contact with National Grid right now to see if they did give me notice. I know i definitely didn't receive anything, but the utilities are also not in my name.

Thanks for your thoughts @Sandy Gabin ! I definitely think you make some solid points. I guess on the other negative side of adding something like that is,  what would the punishment be if they failed to notify me? I think that could be difficult to quantify/ qualify & could turn future tenants off if they think they are going to be fined X amount of dollars if they are out of town & not able to notify me of any "utility" work being done. Thanks again for your input!

Hi @Matt Devincenzo thanks for your insight! Yeah i want to look a little bit more into the "right of easement", it definitely makes sense- i was just under the impression that National Grid (utilities company) is not a government entity or anything like that so i didn't think they had those rights to access the property like that.

That being said, I need to further talk to the utility company & tenant to further assess everything. Appreciate your input & thoughts.