All Forum Posts by: Kimberly H.

watermark your pictures

What Ian Rosado said, she sounds like a nut.

Our lease requires 60 day notice of move-out.

Our lease requires the condition of the house be restored to move-in condition, minus normal wear and tear, before move out, to get full security deposit returned.

We are updating our lease and was wondering if there is something legally defensible we could add...

We are also able to start showing the property 60 days out. Let's say there are tenant-damaged items, the home is messy, the weeds or 4' tall or whatever condition caused by the tenant that interferes with its showability in getting the property rented.

To help avoid this, can we require, as in legally defensible in court require,  that the tenant needs to have the house in rentable condition at the time they give their 60-day notice, and if they don't we can make the repairs asap and charge them instead of giving them until their move-out day to repair the items themselves?

We do periodic inspections and I'm not talking about major problems, but things like those above, or their kids put stickers all over their bedroom doors and broke the glass in a small corner of a mirrored closet door which doesn't bother them but certainly would a new tenant. Had a tenant who bought a house a little before their lease was up and was motivated to get it rented to someone else so they wouldn't still have to pay rent through lease expiration, but didn't understand how their mess and damage would be a detractor to a new tenant and took their time making repairs. Since we are updating the lease I thought I could see if there was anything I could add to address this kind of issue...??

I had someone say the same when our min score was 600. I ignored and moved on.

@Lee Rimmer a holding deposit put down to hold a house for you is not refundable if you change your mind and don't want to live there.

A different house could have a totally different landlord and different policy.

You say it was still "up" and not off the market, but a lot of the listing websites online can take a LONG time to update status.

@Will Gaston Does she have a lawyer or is she representing herself?

My dorm in college had bats in the attic or something, I remember a couple of times bats flying down the hall. Who knew I could sue for free room and board? lol. Let us know how it turns out.

@Rachel Pivonka

I agree exactly with what @Russell Brazil said.

@Brian H.

@Brian, some items get more rent, like more bedrooms, bigger home, more garage spots, etc. Some things get your place rented faster and maybe a slight amount more in rent, like finishes and perhaps in your area, a/c.

@Jeremy Marek I'm in the Chicago area, and I wouldn't bother to ask people the questions they know to lie about, like felonies and smoking. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe others here actually get admissions from people when they ask about that. Since I get people who lie about it on their application, and they know from the rental listing its an issue, I doubt they are going to fess up when I ask.  

I ask what they don't know to lie about, like how many total people including kids will be living in the unit, ask what animals they have, ask about verifiable income. You can also ask about credit score but a lot don't know what theirs is.  Make sure they give scores, some people think their score is bad at 620, another thinks that's good.  Pre-screen based on that. In our area you will have plenty who will lie on their application about felonies, smoking and rental history and evictions.  The felonies you will eventually find out from your screening check and or court records, and for the smoking ask their references how often they smoke, not if they smoke.  

In our area, you can't expect someone to pay for and fill out an application just for a showing.  If they did, I would think that there was something wrong with them because no one else is making them do that. But definitely pre-screen.  Or if the place is vacant just do a group showing or rental open house for a couple hours 2x a week and perhaps not bother to prescreen at all.