All Forum Posts by: Katrina Cebrian

10 months ago we rented a brand new construction 3-bed 2-bath home to a woman who claimed the sole occupants would be herself and her daughter. Since then, my husband and I have seen several other people regularly at the house as well as 4-6 cars regularly in the driveway and parked in the street in front of it. My husband and I are night owls and our properties are not far from our home, so we sometimes find ourselves driving out there around 2-3am and we invariably find at least 4 extra cars in the driveway and in front of the home. Also, we know that at least two people regularly receive mail at the property's address. 

It seems she has moved in a man her age, a younger man who might be her son (or the older man's son), her daughter's boyfriend, as well as her sister (who incidentally is sometimes the person who pays the rent, and who also several months ago was interested in renting another property of ours but then became disinterested-perhaps because she decided she would just stay with our tenant). 

About 2 months ago, the tenant asked us if she could have some extra interior wall paint, stating there were areas that "needed a bit of touching up". My husband and I are new landlords, and we probably shouldn't have let her do it, but we did. In our defense, painting houses is the tenant's profession - she is a small business owner/contractor who paints new construction homes for several well-established homebuilders.

We have not mentioned that we know other people are living in the house, although it is very obvious. 

She is not a 'bad' tenant- rent always gets paid on time (albeit at the last minute). We have not had any serious complaints - only two letters from the HOA: one regarding garbage receptacles that were placed in areas visible from the street (which was immediately remedied), and the other regarding the lawn needing to be mowed and trimmed (also promptly remedied). So, not terrible, right, but definitely notable.

To note: we have three other single family homes in this neighborhood and none of those tenants ever caused the HOA to send us a single letter. None of those tenants have moved 3-4 people into the home, either. Oh, and of the four rentals in this neighborhood her rent is the lowest of the four - $250 less than the others of the same quality and size. 

My question: Her lease is up in January. What should we do? 

1. - We want to raise the rent to get it closer to what we're getting for the other rentals. How should we do this and by how much? 
2. - Have her roommates fill out applications and get put on the lease? What if the reason some of these people aren't on the lease is because they are undocumented? What do we do in that case? 
3. - Should we not renew her lease? 

Are we being too lenient? 

Would love the opinions of more experienced landlords. Thank  you in advance!

@Daryl Luc Thank you for your input!

@Ned J.Thank you. As a newbie, I guess I do have to learn to listen to my intuition.

@Steve K. Thank you for making me visualize the gory possible outcomes of renting to someone like this. 

@Account Closed Thanks so much for your detailed response! I was just about to Google what the incidence rate was for lawsuits against landlords and what percentage of them actually went anywhere. Thanks for giving me a realistic idea of what's actually more probable. I do suspect a lot of these people are trolling; I seem to be getting all bad leads right now. I just got one - a father and son (and pregnant fiancee, God help her) duo - with 3 entire pages of  convictions and arrests (repeated offenses) for everything you can think of : burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, domestic battery, felony battery, drug possession, that's not even all of it. It was absolutely horrifying to think of people like that in my house *shudder*. I honestly don't know why they even try-points for persistence, I guess.

All- Thanks so much for all of your responses. What a wonderful resource this forum is! I'm so glad I discovered it. =) It's so nice to be able to discuss these things with people; my husband and I don't have many friends/family who really want to talk about any of this - they think we're crazy and are going to go bankrupt with this whole real estate investing thing. LoL. It's so nice to meet like-minded people. I'm looking forward to learning more from all of you here. Take care!

@Michael Noto They miss the  annual 'income 3x the rent' mark by $3,000.

@Nathan Gesner That's what I was wondering - I don't think Fair Housing applies to me as I only have 2 SFRs at this time which I manage and market myself (without a real estate broker), though I have 2 others  under contract being built which should be done and closed on in a few months. 

To Note: I looked up the alleged victim and it appears they have a history of aberrant behavior and domestic battery charges/arrests themselves (prior to their relationship with the applicant); I'm wondering if this applicant was in fact the victim and not the other way around. 

@Edward L lauckern Thank you! 

I have an applicant who has a relatively recent history of two domestic battery arrests but no convictions. Can I legally reject his application based on this? 

A little background- my husband and I are newbie buy and hold investors with two brand new construction SFRs that we built to rent. The first one rented easy peasy with lovely perfect tenants (beginner’s luck) and we are screening for this second property. I do not feel comfortable renting to someone who seems to be violent and volatile and who may have a drinking problem- one of the incidents involved him trying to run his girlfriend (and mother of his child )off the road with his vehicle while she was driving her own vehicle. We want to protect our investment and keep this neighborhood safe. 

Can I legally (in the state of Florid) reject his application based on arrests without conviction for this violent crime? I really don’t want to have to deal with this sort of drama and he just sounds like bad news.

I would love some ideas on how to handle this. Thank you!