All Forum Posts by: Sam Leon

I find the new subcategories make things difficult to navigate, and most times contexts of each overlap with others, forcing me to just ignore all subcategories except the "general" one.

If you want more subcategories, then set up the subs in such a way that they are mutually exclusive. For example, one could argue that SFH rentals and multifamily rentals are different, and if there are topics that fit both, go to general. The way it is now, it is very confusing for the users. I get why it's done this way, it's done this way for marketing to show others that BP covers a lot of areas with depths, at the expenses of it being really not too useful.

Furthermore, on desktops, the menu drop down and submenu navigation doesn't really work when it's nested too deeply and long, because the menu expands beyond the screen and there is no way to get to the bottom portion that's off the screen.  The solution for me is to change my screen resolution to 200% of original, then while I can see all the menus in that resolution, I navigate to it then bookmark them to create my own browser menu.  That way I bypass BP's menu bugs.

Originally posted by @Theresa Harris:

Originally posted by @Sam Leon:

I am in the same boat.

A 4 plex tenant told me he just tested positive.  The reason of the notification is because I was scheduled to enter for maintenance the next day.

He said he feels fine, no symptoms just something similar to a mild cold.  I do not believe he is isolating, as I went there two days in a row (one time to do some landscape debris cleanup, another time I had to service an adjacent apartment with a bad window operator) and both times his vehicle was not in the parking lot.

I am also not sure about informing others.  I don't think I am allowed to disclose.  However, if I just let everyone know "someone" has tested positive it will have the same effective, as two of the apartments are friends, and one apartment is currently rented but not occupied (living with a girlfriend out of town for months), so to say someone has tested positive is identifying that tenant, effectively.

Common area is only the laundry area, but I don't know if it's practical to go there daily to spray down the entire area.  Put hand sanitizer stations?

 Could he be isolating elsewhere?  

Just post a general note reminding people to be careful with covid as rates are increasing.  Do not mention one of the tenants is positive, just a general notice.

Not isolating elsewhere because I did see his car in and out at times.

Actually he posted a picture of him paddle boarding on his FB this weekend.  Of course I have no idea if this was taken two weeks ago and just posted...but two weeks ago south Florida was raining cats and dogs continuously.  Hmmm...

I am in the same boat.

A 4 plex tenant told me he just tested positive.  The reason of the notification is because I was scheduled to enter for maintenance the next day.

He said he feels fine, no symptoms just something similar to a mild cold.  I do not believe he is isolating, as I went there two days in a row (one time to do some landscape debris cleanup, another time I had to service an adjacent apartment with a bad window operator) and both times his vehicle was not in the parking lot.

I am also not sure about informing others.  I don't think I am allowed to disclose.  However, if I just let everyone know "someone" has tested positive it will have the same effective, as two of the apartments are friends, and one apartment is currently rented but not occupied (living with a girlfriend out of town for months), so to say someone has tested positive is identifying that tenant, effectively.

Common area is only the laundry area, but I don't know if it's practical to go there daily to spray down the entire area.  Put hand sanitizer stations?

Originally posted by @Johann Jells:

Regarding the tale of the humming fan, besides the fact that I think it's normal for a fan on slower speed, if you have a HD account you can have them email you a receipt for every single purchase! I have an email filter that just throws them into a HD folder, so if I need it for a return I always have it on me.  Lowes has not gotten aboard this yet.

I have receipts.  They were not looking for receipts.  They wanted the UPC code of the fan itself (that's not on the receipt) which is a sticker on top of the actual fan body, which you cannot see unless you get on a ladder with a down facing mirror, I had the model number, model name etc...which should be sufficient.  Then they asked me where I bought the fan from, which is laughable, because the fan is a Home Depot label, it's not sold anywhere else.

As for the humming, it's not normal.  I have had fans from Hunter, Monte Carlo, and even other Hampton Bay fans of the same model without any issue.  Sometimes if you use a "universal" dual wall control, and the motor load control can be incompatible with the speed control you can have a humming on the actual dimmer itself.  This happens a lot with four speed fans such as those made by A Modern Fan Company, and if you use a cheap 3 speed control on the wall you get issues but if you get the compatible $90 AMFC 4 speed control, no problem.

WOW, this thread is still going after 5 years.  I was the OP and it seems like the discussions has evolved to wondering why big box store employees are not more knowledgeable in the specific trades.

Let me clarify, my original question asked of an employee was very simple, is item #XXXXXX in stock?  As it's NOT on the shelf where it's supposed to be.  That's really all I need help with.  I need a specific item, and I can't find them where they are supposed to be.  Of course you check store inventory online and it says it has 50 of them, the question is where.  In the staging area in the back?  Up high on the shelves?  Incorrectly placed somewhere else on the shelves?  No I don't ask a HD employee how to do this or that.  No reason to.  But then again, they should VOLUNTEER incorrect information or knowledge to customers.  If they don't know, they don't know, don't misdirect or misinform customers.

Originally posted by @Patricia Steiner:

A couple of recommendations from some of my many "hard earned lessons:" 

Stop enabling that owner to be a deadbeat. Often times, we resolve issues that are not ours to fix - because we know how and we can.  Guess what? It's not appreciated; it's expected and enabling.  If there is a current issue, send him an email/letter advising of the specific issue, that it is negatively impacting your property, and that it needs to be corrected immediately.  Keep it factual, direct and concise. Do not tell him that you have fixed his maintenance issues in the past; he will only see your "kindness" as "weakness."

Tell your tenant to let the neighboring tenants know that they will need to seek remedies directly with their landlord. Suggest that the look up their rights as tenants to withhold rent for repairs not made.  You cannot be their advocate.  It's time for them to "cowboy up" and stand their ground with their landlord.

Let the other two owners know of the issues and that you may have to file claims for reimbursement with the HOA unless the offending owner starts to maintain his property.

Bottom line: Leave the problem where it belongs. Document it, demand that his property be maintained as to not negatively impact yours, and "out" him with the other owners.  You don't need to sell, you don't need to resent him (he's not worth the energy), and you don't need to help him either.

May the force be with you.  I'm on your side.

Thank you Patricia, just to clarify, I am not fixing problems in the other unit.  What I was saying is, when there is a problem with the common wall, we don't know who's issue it is until we investigate.  So let's say there is some moisture on the wall, his tenant calls him, my tenant calls me.  He doesn't respond or he says he'll look at it when he "gets back in town" to his tenant.  Yet I move to investigate because I care about my tenants and my properties and want to prevent any damages from getting any further.  So every time I am the one who went to investigate from my side of the property.  One time there was a leak from his shower valve connection on the hot side, and I had to use an endoscope to capture a video to send to him before he came out 3 days later to fix, meanwhile I told his tenant to shut off the hot water heater inlet valve and only open it if absolutely necessary.  Another time again the wall got wet because his dishwasher drain hose broke in the wall and leaked everywhere.  Drain clogs that affected both units, it's always been me responding to my tenants first, and usually I solve it before his tenant sees a text back saying "I am out of town at the moment will get back to you soon".

There is no way not to "enable" without causing major inconvenience to my tenants.

If his tenant hears a drip in the wall, he would call his landlord, no reply.  He would then ask my tenant if he hears a drip, he goes to listen on his side, and may be hear a faint drip.  No idea what it is.  My tenant would say to him "I can call my landlord and he will come take a look, your landlord never does anything".  So this is kind of how it has been.  I can of course say let's wait a few days and see his landlord does anything, but in my mind I am also thinking, it could be a drip from a drain it could be a supply leak it could be from my unit, it could be from his, it could be a common problem or not, but if it's a leak then there may be mold, rot, termites critters etc...and really shouldn't be left unresolved so I would go and investigate, and he does nothing again.

Originally posted by @Jeremy Bourgeois:

Hey @Sam Leon

Not a situation I'd like to be in... Unfortunately, some things are just completely out of your control. So, how do you get this situation under control?

Here are a few suggestions. They may be a bit extreme, but who knows, maybe they will help! Or at least help you think of other solutions to the problem.

• Submit an offer for his condo! If you are financially able to make this deal work, why not take control of both sides?
• Find his contact info, reach out, and try to come to some sort of agreement! Maybe giving him a call and just letting him know in a very tactful way how this is affecting you.
• Get in contact with the HOA! Let them know what exactly is going on and try to work on a solution that is best for everyone. However, I would try to work out a solution with the other landlord before doing this, as it could create some unnecessary tension if you didn't.

These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. Hopefully it helps you think critically and come to an intelligent solution in your mind!

Best of luck

 Thanks Jeremy, it is a small building, with only four owners, so as you can imagine, the HOA is basically the entirety of the owners.

The HOA rules and bylaws stipulates that the common wall issues are not 100% HOA responsibility.  If there is anything inside that is serves exclusively a particular unit, then it's still that unit's responsibility to cure, providing that HOA grants the right to access that space for the repair and the owner hires an HOA authorized licensed and insured professional.  Given that we are such a small HOA, and all the owners are on the board (except one who lives overseas who's basically an absentee), we typically let the owners do the investigation/exploratory to determine the nature of the issues, and reimburse the cost to the owners if it's a common issue.  In other words, if it's a leak on the supply line running to units A & B before it tees off, then it's a "common" problem, it it is in the hot water pipe to unit B, then it's unit B's own issue to rectify.

I already had a conversation wih that owner, who is also a board member,  his response was always he would look into it, then no action for many days.

Have you ever had to deal with another landlord who is a slumlord?

I am in a small condo building and my unit A is adjacent to another unit B.  I rent out unit A and the other owner rents out unit B.  I maintain unit A regularly and have a long term happy tenant.  Unit B tenants come and go and the repeat stories I heard from them is their landlord "doesn't do anything".  OK many tenants would say the same and it's none of my business.

But unit A and B shares a common wall, where all the plumbing supplies and drains are.

So when something happens in that common wall, my tenant would call me and his tenant would call him.

One time the wall was wet, and I opened up the wall on my side and found a pin hole leak on his copper pipe.

Another time the wall was wet again, and I investigated and found a broken dishwasher drain hose on his end, and why would anyone run a DW drain hose into the common wall only to have it looped back into the sink cabinet 18" over?  and all kinds of kitchen waste crap was spilling into the common wall.

Several times the toilet won't flush, and it's in the main drain, I went to investigate and have it snaked from the common roof stack to clear the blockage.

Roach infestation issues (most likely caused by the broken DW drain hose spilling food waste into the wall) happened along that common wall, I went over and did pest control.

I can go on and on and on.

Whenever there is an issue, it's always up to me to handle, because he would ignore the issue, or simply tell his tenant he is "out of town at the moment."  I can't let the problem go unresolved because it would affect my tenant.

It got so bad that when there is a problem in unit B along or close to that common wall, that tenant would talk to my tenant (who may not even be experiencing the problem on his end yet) to call me to come out to investigate because "his landlord is hopeless".

Yet this is totally unfair to me.

Any thought on how to handle issues like this? Yes technically speaking a common wall issue in certain situations are HOA responsibility so you can say just let HOA handles it. But it is a 4 unit building with 4 owners, and we have always just operate by having the owners fix their issues then seek reimbursement from the HOA account so as to not having to go through too many steps to solve simple issues.

A confusing move by Zillow for sure.  I am very disappointed with their services since they took over Postlets.  Took a totally free functional system and turned it into a paid system full of bugs.

I recently visited Zillow to do some market research and noticed on every rental listing they are showing this:

In-person tours may not currently allow for safe social distancing or comply with public health orders. If you select "Request a tour," please consider alternatives, such as Zillow 3D Home™ tours or video consultations.

So they are basically making the decision for the landlords and tell the applicants you are reluctant to show the property due to COVID-19?

I have a tenant who has been furloughed "until further notice".  Lease is to expire mid June and he is not sure he can afford to renew for one year and wanted to explore options.

Other than not increasing rent, switching to month to month, the "until further notice" does not give much to budget and plan.  Are you all doing anything for well behaving tenants with expiring leases or are you looking to turn over tasks and new applicants?