All Forum Posts by: Kathryn S.

Quote from @Alan Asriants:

If you've done your end of making sure that the ceiling leak has been addressed and you want to go in there and patch it up but your tenant is withholding rent. It seems like they are trying to take advantage of you. It's possible that they heard a little bit too much from the fair housing commission and are now considered a "professional tenant"

Usually these people will not listen keep withholding payment, and take advantage of the system as much as possible. Unless you can come to terms with this individual; eviction might be the only route, and that might be a tricky process with someone who "knows their rights"

my buddy recently had an issue with this, and it took him over a year to remove the tenant. The tenant claimed that there was a mold issue even though they themselves provided a mold report that directly stated there was no mold issues. This took the fair housing committee three months to figure out. They are a mess

Yes, we just went through an eviction in Philly. Tenant listened to her friends' advice and insisted on waiting for me to evict her, if you can believve it. She completely lost her mind. It's getting harder and harder in Philly. At some point, I hope the government comes to their senses. Thank you for your input. 

Quote from @JD Martin:

Does PA law allow him to unilaterally withhold an arbitrary amount of rent for repairs? If not, you should have given him a pay or quit notice as soon as you were legally able, and begun the eviction process. If you put up with BS from your tenants you will get BS. It sounds like you got right to it on the repairs. I'd get started sending this guy packing.

Thank you. I think we are heading for eviction. 

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Kathryn S.:

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Generally a tenant cannot deny you entry to fix a problem. Just give 24 hr notice (if that what it is?) nad go do it. I would print out the law on this for your area and leave it with him in case he gets upset (sounds like he might?)

 Hi yes. We are not sure what his problems are. He has been a decent tenant since he moved in. The only reason we have requested his presence while contractor is there doing the repair purely because we are worried that the tenant might accuse the contractor damaged his stuff, etc. later. He might be using this repair as an excuse to not pay rent, or with intention to move out (which would be music to my ears at this point.) 

Maybe video the interior before and after work (not sure about the legality?)

Also note that he cannot withhold rent from you. Document that in case this goes to SC Court.

Yes, that would be our last resort - taking video and pictures before and after the work is done. Thank you Bruce. 

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Generally a tenant cannot deny you entry to fix a problem. Just give 24 hr notice (if that what it is?) nad go do it. I would print out the law on this for your area and leave it with him in case he gets upset (sounds like he might?)

 Hi yes. We are not sure what his problems are. He has been a decent tenant since he moved in. The only reason we have requested his presence while contractor is there doing the repair purely because we are worried that the tenant might accuse the contractor damaged his stuff, etc. later. He might be using this repair as an excuse to not pay rent, or with intention to move out (which would be music to my ears at this point.) 

We sent a difficult tenant an update on ceiling leak repair. We are now ready to schedule a repaint job. Because he has been non-cooperative, we asked that he gave us a few days and time to schedule this job. He has not responded. He also withheld 50% of the rent citing ceiling leak as a reason. At this point, should we give him a 24-hour notice and go in and repaint the ceiling? 

Philly requires a period of 30-day "eviction diversion" program phase. We are still in that phase. 

Thank you very much!!

Thank you everyone for taking the time and respond to my problem. I ended up sending the tenant a 24-hour notice and went in with a contractor. Maybe because of the 24-hour lag, we couldn't say definitely that there's no leaking. Regardless at this point, we've addressed roof and plumbing. We sent another commuication asking the tenant to give us a few days to schedule ceiling repaint. 

I'll send another thread on this - the tenant does not respond to our request for scheduling ceiling repaint.. Never ends.. Thank you everyone!

We have a young and stubborn tenant who steadfastly refuses to give a firm answer as to if the bedroom ceiling is still leaking. We replaced a lower roof and checked potential plumbing issues. All we would like to do before repairing the ceiling is to get his confirmation that he no longer experiences any leaking. He simply refuses to answer that question insisting that we should know what we are doing.

Of course he also withholds half the rent. We are currently in the diversion phase (30-day Philly requirement before filing in eviction court). We have language in our lease that tenants must report problems immediately. Technically he is not violating this clause. He simply does not want to confirm if the problem still exists.

Legally, Is the tenant obligated to provide that information? Just want to be prepared for the worst scenario if we end up in the eviction court.

Thank you!

In the process of purchasing rental properties in a LLC. Wish to quitclaim deed it to a Trust after rehab, rent and refi. Anyone know if this is doable? I'm under the impression that this is doable, without major $ impact as long as members of the LLC and beneficiaries of the new Trust are the same. Thank you

In the middle to close our first rental deal in PA (We live in NJ). Just learned about the importance of using Trust instead of LLC. I understand it is difficult to get financing if the entity is a trust, so I'm entertaining the idea of purchasing with personal name, rehab then refi - after refi, and only after refi to quitclaim deed to a Trust.. Anyone has done this before?? Pros and Cons?? Many thanks!!

Thank you Basit. Yes, I'm now looking into setting this LLC up in PA.