All Forum Posts by: Marina Shlomov

We apply payments to the oldest outstanding charge first. Then whatever else is outstanding, such as rent, we are able to file evictions on. As far as the utilities go, we warn the tenants that we disconnect utilities within 3 days of them moving in. We also have a form (here's a link: http://alhpodland.com/alhpodland-rental-homes-tran...) which they have to fill out PRIOR to moving in. I'd send them a notification that utilities will be disconnected immediately (and shut them off) and add the charge for the utilities to their account.

Hope that helps.

I would evict the tenants first and then worry about collection. While you are deciding what to do, they are living in your house for free. Once you have them evicted, you can hire a collection agency to go after them, but in the mean time, you'll be able to start marketing your property and hopefully, collecting rent on it.

We usually don't calculate the cost of roofs and furnaces into the price of the purchase as they will have to be replaced (either now or later) anyway.

Everyone, I am so impressed. I started reading and had an opinion as to what I wanted to say. After readying through all the comments, I have completely changed my mind and my attitude towards those situations. 

Thanks everyone. 

Excellent article with great advice. It can by applied to any city in the US. 

Interestingly you guys are discussing garbage disposals. We own quite a few properties and at one point decided that give the option of having a disposal to folks who don't properly use it was a detriment to us, so about three years ago, we went and took the disposals out of all of our properties. It has made out life so much easier (and cheaper) and no one has complained yet. Sometimes, offering options that have a tendency to damage easily or break often is not the best solution for rental properties.

We have a Plumbing policy that outlines if there are drainage problems caused by the tenant, there is a $225 charge for our maintenance people to come and unclog the drains. Check it out here and see if that will help you in the future. Once I instituted this policy, we stopped getting calls to unclog drains. Every once in a while we'll get a call and our conversation always starts with: "We'll be happy to send someone out to your house, but if they find that the cause of the clog was due to ..... there will be a $225 charge to your account." Try and see if it works for you.

Welcome to BP. I'll do what I can.

Marina

You are very welcome. Anything I can do to help, just ask.

You could file a claim in small claims court. I have a similar problem with one of our properties. Unfortunately for me, it's a Section 8 tenant. They've caused over $20,000 in damages to the property. We don't generally accept Section 8 tenants, but we have a couple of properties where it's the only candidates we can find. Generally speaking, Section 8 tenants aren't bad, but in this particular case, it's a nightmare. I can't even take them to court as they have nothing I can take from them. So taking the tenant to court would be a waste of time and money. I did however, report this to Section 8 and the tenant has lost their voucher. I wanted to make sure they don't do this to anyone else. 

Small Claims Court will review claims under $10,000. Make sure you have an itemized list of the damages and the repair costs. Well documented and lots of photos and I think you shouldn't have any problems collecting the money.