All Forum Posts by: Marcia Maynard

Rented a house to a single father with three children. The tenancy lasted 4 months. Didn't get the last month rent and he never paid the water bill or garbage bill the entire time he lived there. We only checked that the utilities were in his name, not that he was paying them. Those utilities would have became a lean on our property, so we paid them after he was long gone.

In hindsight, these were the red flags that I didn't pay attention to PRIOR to giving him the keys to the property:

1. His previous landlord didn't really know how many people had been living in the home and hadn't done inspections for the three years. (We ended up with more people than Dad and his three kids. Factor in the girlfriend and her kids. Some property damage resulted from unsupervised kids.)

2. We went to his previous address after we had already spoken favorably about renting our house to him. Then noticed the kitchen was really dirty and the oven hadn't been cleaned in years. Crayon on the walls. Felt pressured not to back out as he was already packing his things and we had agreed on a move-in date. (We told him if he couldn't do what was necessary to keep our property in good shape, then he had better hire it done. We lucked out, he hired a cleaning service and lawn care service and left our unit clean and the lawn mowed.)

3. Out of state plates on his car, even though he had lived the previous three years in our state. Common in a border community (Washington/Oregon). When the tenant vacated after not paying the last month rent he skipped to Oregon and it became hard to track down his whereabouts for chasing the money he owed to us.

4. In a legal battle with his ex. Drama, drama, drama.

5. Not long enough on the job. He lost his job and then was late with rent in month three and stopped paying rent altogether in month four. His calm demeanor changed and he started making snide remarks towards us when we asked for what was in our rental agreement.

6. He had a toy skull hanging from his car rearview mirror. It creeped me out. Perhaps an omen!

Education Expenses and Professional Dues.

Bigger Pockets offers a wealth of information for free, but you will want to supplement the information available here with good books, classes and other resources. (Don't forget, you can pay to upgrade your membership level with Bigger Pockets and realize even more benefits.)

1. Books specific to real estate investment and landlording.

My library of good books has been growing over time. This includes invaluable reference material and some books that serve to build my enthusiasm for this business.

2. Classes that teach what you need to know.

Some I have taken include a full day seminar taught by law enforcement (Vancouver Police Department and Clark County Sheriff Office) for landlords and property managers. I also have taken classes offered by our local rental association, including a class that allowed me to become certified for lead-based paint testing and removal.

3. Dues to professional associations - local, state and national.

For me that is the Clark County Rental Association and the Washington Landlord Association. As a member I receive monthly magazines and newsletters specific to doing business in my locale. The CCRA also publishes an easy reference guide to State of Washington Residential Rental Laws and a listing of Unlawful Detainers for our county that goes back 7 years, so I purchase updates of these as needed. We pay extra for dinner meetings with the CCRA to network with other landlords and hear the monthly guest speaker. We also make donations to our state PAC for the lobbying efforts of the Washington Apartment Association... extremely important for keeping our state laws landlord friendly.

So sorry to hear of your situation. This points to the importance of knowing the laws in your jurisdiction regarding the return of security deposits.

Possession of the property was returned to you on September 29, 2013. So you had 30 days from that date to return the security deposit or give a written explanation for amounts withheld. You did not, so you must return the full security. Which you have now done.

In some states if a landlord does not return the security deposit in the proper manner, the tenant MAY be entitled up to double to amount of deposit, but it is not always guaranteed. The judge will most likely ask the tenant to support her claim for double deposit. If she can not justify why she should get extra money back, then the judge may not grant it. This happened to me in Oregon.

When I was a college student, a landlord did not return my security deposit and I contacted a tenants rights organization that guided me in filing a claim. The tenants rights organization told me I was entitled to return of double the security deposit. In court I got back my full security deposit but the judge did not grant me double. I didn't get any more than the real expenses that I incurred in trying to deal with landlord on this matter. The landlord had to pay the court costs, my filing fee and my travel expenses and return my original security deposit, that's all.

About the October rent, if you responded within the 30 days with a full accounting, then you may have been able to make a claim for October rent as per the terms of the lease agreement. But to do so, you would have had to try to re-rent the unit right away and would only be entitled to amount of rent not paid by an incoming tenant. Since you missed the deadline for doing so, I think you need to return the October rent to her.

You have some preparation to do before you go to court. She filed a complaint and were summoned to appear; this is normal legal process - it was not a criminal complaint. Gather all your documentation. Demonstrate that you made a good faith effort in trying to resolve the issue with the tenant. Sure, you made some mistakes. Now you know.

For the future? See my comment in a previous forum....

"Tenant unhappy about not getting deposit back".

Good luck!

30 plus years as a professional sign language interpreter specializing in medical and mental health interpreting as well as interpreting on every topic imaginable doing on-site community interpreting and video relay service interpreting. Well developed communication skills - listening and speaking. Wide knowledge base. Calm under pressure. Keen intuition and observation skills.

14 years as "Accessibility Services Manager" at a major medical center, providing accommodations for people with disabilities and language/cultural support services. My department was under the Risk Management Department originally and later under the Patient Relations Department. Managed a budget just shy of one million, part of which was designated for making facilities accessible - working closely with the Engineering Department. I was the designated ADA Coordinator for the hospital and served as the hospital representative on a community wide committee for " Emergency Preparedness for People with Disabilities and the Elderly" where we promoted how to shelter in place in the event of a natural disaster. During my tenure at the hospital I applied the concepts of ROI (return on investment) and risk-benefit analysis. I also negotiated contracts with vendors, and wrote policies and procedures related to my area of expertise. Critical thinking skills, communication skills, people skills and flexibility were essential to my work.

2 years volunteer with Second Step Housing, a program to assist low income individuals in obtaining housing. I taught classes to people who were having difficulty renting because of past mistakes (poor rental histories and poor legal histories) on the topics of "The Inquiry and Interview", "How to Establish and Maintain Good Landlord-Tenant Relationships" and "Money Management Matters".

Authorized Occupant or Unauthorized Occupant?

Authorized Occupants are named in the rental agreement. Unauthorized Occupants are those who stay past the period allowed for Guests.

If I suspect Unauthorized Occupants have moved in, I knock on the door and see who answers at a time when I think the Tenant is at work or elsewhere. It is not uncommon for the Unauthorized Occupant to out themselves if they don't know who I am. "Do you live here?" "Yes." "Oh, sorry I haven't met you... when did you move in?" "Two months ago." "Well my name is ....... what's yours?" It's amazing how many times the person tells me their name.

I serve the Tenant a "Notice to Inspect" and while I'm there I look for signs... (receiving mail at the unit, extra water usage, extra vehicles, personal toiletries and clothing, using the property facilities on a regular basis, etc.)

Sometimes a monetary deterrent works, sometimes it doesn't... but I've collected a bit of cash from rule breakers to offset the headache. For example:

* Unauthorized occupant? $50 fee and move 'em out. (each time)

* Unauthorized pet? $50 fee and remove the animal. (each time and per animal)

* Smoking on the premises (inside or outside)? $50 fee (each time)

* Disabling smoke or CO detectors? $50 fee (each time)

If they don't pay up and abide by the rules from that point forward, then a ten-day notice to comply follows and I collect another $20 for serving the legal notice. It's all in the rental agreement upon move-in. No surprises.

Our first RE investment was a duplex. It's a great way to start. We now own 2 duplexes, an 8-plex (4 duplexes grouped together) and 3 SFH.

Check your local utility requirements. Here's a snapshot from our experience.

GARBAGE: Garbage/Recycling. In our municipality, all residential units must have garbage/recycling service. SFH garbage/recycling can be in the name of the owner or tenant. We require our SFH tenants to establish service in their name and pay for it. Multifamily garbage/recycling must be paid by the owner. We pay on all our multifamily properties and factor the cost into our rents. This utility will put a lien on the property if not paid. We have separate bins for the duplexes and a shared dumpster for the 8-plex.

WATER: Water/Sewer. If separately metered, we have tenants pay their own. This utility will put a lien on the property if not paid, so the utility provides us with a copy of the bill. We monitor usage (a spike can indicate a water leak or the move-in of unauthorized tenants) We watch to make sure the tenants are paying their bill.

ELECTRIC: Separately metered. This utility will chase the tenant and will not put a lien on the property for unpaid bills. The electric company will not share with us any information about the account other than the name on the account and start/stop dates.

NATURAL GAS: Separately metered. No lien on property, will go after tenant. Will share only name on the account and start/stop dates.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Optional for our tenants and totally their responsibility to pay. We restrict what can and cannot be done on our properties after too many installations gone bad. It's hard on a property to have tenants switching from cable to dish/satellite to broadband at each turn of the property. We're considering adding value to our 8-plex by providing cable.

*****

Some landlords will handle all utilities and then send a bill to the tenant for their share. Others will cover some or all utilities and factor the cost into the rent. Some add a separate utility fee in addition to the rent.

Regardless, the energy and conservation ideas mentioned in other posts are worth looking into. Some utility companies give away free conservation kits and rebates for energy star appliances (furnaces, refrigerators, etc.).

Haven't read the book, but there are a few things we decided to remove or not to install.

1. Screen Doors/Storm Doors - Not required in our locality. We don't have many flying insects nor the need for storm doors in our part of the country. We do have screens in the windows that can be used for ventilation. When we had screen doors we were continually dealing with fixing them and they didn't look as good as a solid door. When we decided to remove them, only one tenant asked to keep hers; we let her keep it and she took over responsibility for it's maintenance. Only once has a new tenant asked for one, we discussed other options with her that satisfied her need.

2. Certain Shrubs and Landscaping Materials - We prefer to remove those that block clear sight lines (for security reasons), those which require a lot of maintenance, those that are messy, and those that require a lot of watering.

3. Garbage Disposals - We haven't taken any out and haven't experienced problems with them, but we won't be installing any.

4. Hot Shots - Those hot water dispensers at the sink. We won't be installing any and would remove them if they were there, for cost, maintenance and liability reasons.

5. Ceiling Fans - More popular during the last decade. Tenants liked them and they can be an attractive amenity, but they can become outdated quickly and many tenants don't clean them as often as they should. We have had tenants install their own incorrectly, even though our rental agreement does not allow for such modifications without our prior written permission. They can become unbalanced and wobbly too, especially when taken down or bumped by painters during a turnover. We still have them, but are rethinking this one.

An LLC can be helpful in other ways, such as establishing a clear business structure when there are partners involved and avoiding probate upon the death of one of the partners. We learned this the hard way when my brother-in-law died suddenly prior to us having an LLC. Probate was cumbersome and costly. We now have two LLCs. One for the properties/business owned by just my husband and me, and the other one for the properties/business we own with other family members.

The LLC gives our personal assets additional protection. Keep in mind, the business must be run as a business according to the terms of the LLC to reduce the risk of the shield being pierced.

Highly recommend having a good umbrella policy in place too.

Being that we specialize in affordable housing for people with low income, many of our tenants do not have bank accounts and pay with a cashiers check or money order. Rent is due on the 1st and late on the 2nd. The grace period of the 2nd - 5th applies to the late fee only. We charge a flat $50 late fee on the 6th. When tenants sign the rental agreement, we tell them "Don't be late, mail by the 28th!" Some tenants faithfully mail their rent on the 28th of every month. Our rental properties and our post office box are in the same area of town. If mailed properly, the rent check will arrive the next day, two days at the most, unless there is a holiday.

A few of our tenants set up automatic bill pay with their bank. These tend to be our most dependable payers. The funds are automatically deducted from the tenants bank account and their bank mails us the check. For the first time, there was a significant delay regarding one of these checks. The bank check was dated November 25 and we didn't receive it until December 5. We thought it was because of the late Thanksgiving holiday or perhaps the weather.

One time a tenant was on vacation and sent us their rent check via UPS expedited service to our P.O. Box. As you know, UPS does not deliver to P.O. Boxes. Fortunately, the tenant put our phone number on the parcel, or we may not have received it. We had to go to the UPS facility to collect it. Argh!

Thanks for the ideas suggested in some of the other posts. How do the deposit only cards work? How does that differ from direct deposit or electronic transfer? Seems risky for tenants to have our bank routing number and account number, so how secure is direct deposit or deposit slips; how does that work? So far, we've only done direct deposit with the Housing Authority for receiving Section 8 payments.

It's a wonderful idea. We have 4 duplexes grouped together that function as as 8-plex. For our first venture in providing holiday lighting we just bought a set of three spiral trees that had white lights. Tenants loved it. We plugged them into an outlet off the coin-op laundry room that is on our electricity bill. Where the extension cord crossed a sidewalk we bought a commercial quality device designed to cover cords over walkways and put two orange caution cones on either side. We did this for three years and never had a problem.

The trees wore out and this year we decided to do lighted white snowflakes on the fence plus a string of white lights on the gutters on the front side of each duplex. We asked the tenants what they thought of the idea and got the thumbs up. The lights on the gutters cost quite a bit more and we paid someone to put them up. They look good and the excitement of the tenants, especially the children, is wonderful. Only problem is getting electricity to each string. Tenants volunteered for us to plug into their porch lights, we are still working out the details.

One of our tenants in a single family home has a huge light display of the sort that attracts people from miles around to see. (Every holiday a different display!) We were concerned about fire safety and made sure they were plugged into GFCI exterior outlets. Don't give cheap packages of lights to your SFR tenants, but do let them do their own decorating within reason.

Excerpt from our rental agreement rules:

HOME DECORATING: ........... Holiday decorative lights may be used if they are in good condition, used according to manufacturer instructions, installed a safe distance from flammable objects, and used in a safe manner, taking caution not to overload electrical circuits.