All Forum Posts by: Mona V.

I want to provide access through the common wall of the two units of a duplex. nothing fancy, sort of a "doorway" without a door, same size of a door. Possible a dry wall access, could be cased, whatever requires minimum work. I do not want to re-zone the house to sfh, at some point if I want to close the access I want to be able to. 

I learned that separation wall for a duplex could be a fire wall. Possibly could be a load bearing wall, not sure.  I am sending contractors to give me an idea of what it would take, but wondering if someone on bg has already done it and has advice in this regard. Is it feasible....if the structural integrity of the house is maintained, are there other issues to consider. Thanks!

Thank you all for replies. I was able to terminate the lease early, she wouldn't pay for repairs to the house (carpet stains/cleaning, a broken floor tile etc) and gets off the utilities, but paid a termination fee equivalent to the leftover rent. Its amazing how she thought she is "offering" me a deal, take it or leave it. Leaving it would save me few bucks but getting her the off the property is peace of mind.

Lesson learned -> Have a early lease termination terms in the lease, probably 3 month rent.

My tenant bought a house and moved out. She requested I end the lease early, but I told her we can start showing the house and if it rents I can terminate the lease when new tenant moves in. But she has not cleared all the stuff out, and more importantly turned off the AC in very humid weather. House needs to be painted before i can show it, and she is not allowing to paint. In this case I would just wait for her lease to end and then get work done and show the house. But since she keeps tuning off the AC, even after me telling her otherwise I feel like waiting for her lease to end might do more harm to the house with high level of humidity. I have also tried to explain her its in her interest to let us paint the house and rent asap but nothing is getting across, she basically wants something in return for us to be able to paint. She keeps saying she will allow to paint once we find a tenant, which makes no sense. She has 2 months left. Wondering how pros here would resolve this issue.

Thanks. She did get hurt and had a bruise.

My tenant informed me that she slipped, fell and caused a big crack in the fiberglass tub with the knee. House is 13 years old, so I would put life of tub at 13. She is claiming it's bad installation etc because they don't see any support below the tub. From reading through some posts looks like fiberglass tubs are installed like that. Besides builder built what he did. It's damaged caused by tenant and lease says damage should be incurred by tenant in such cases, so I want tenant to be liable for it. I am feeling resistance to it since she already told me her renter insurance doesn't cover it and I should file with mine. 

- Are landlords legally liable for this even if it's clearly caused by tenant accidently, and given age of the tub? 

- What would be my best bet to repair it - I see some miracle repair stuff online, or better option is to replace the tub which could be costlier. 

Thanks!

I own a small rental house, and adjacent empty lot.  Another investor who owns owns the lot behind mine, contacted me to sell the empty lot to him, or buy his, since he doesn't have street access from his lot.

Empty lots starts pretty close to the wall of the house. Normally I would prefer to sell both together (thats how I got it) since house would not have much room around without the empty lot. 

But since all I have been doing is paying property taxes on the empty lot, not averse to selling either. 

Anything I should be careful about in this scenario? If I sell only the empty lot and keep the house, could anything pose problem for me later on? On surface seems like a simple scenario, but this is the first time I had to think about something like this so trying to make sure I have a better idea before I make decisions. 

That area is slowly getting gentrified, prices in the area expected to increase, as usual speculation. 

Thank you Steve. Grading is not great but I never had problems before. Looks like this year was exceptionally rainy and the ground is soaking wet. What the contractor suggested was an exterior drainage  -

"Also, install a drain pipe all around the home with fabric sleeve and gravel on

top, and back fill". Not sure if its the same as french drain.

Due to heavy rainfall the crawlspace of the house has water now and a contractor suggested exterior waterproofing for around $4K. This is causing me a lot of problems (mold etc) so I don't mind fixing it, just not expert enough to know this would fix the problem.

Tried to get educated online (interior waterproofin vs exterior waterproofing, etc etc), but still not sure if the proposal below would solve the problem. Any advise is highly appreciated, thanks!

 

Video of the crawlspace

Proposal from the contractor :

Below grade waterproofing:
Installation of below grade waterproofing around the home. We will dig around the perimeter of
the home from 1 to 2 ft., inspect the mortar joints and bricks, if any deficiencies (holes) are
found we will patch the hole with hydraulic cement. Clean up the wall and apply fluid
waterproofing. Also, install a drain pipe all around the home with fabric sleeve and gravel on
top, and back fill.

They have already done this to pump water out :

Installed sum pump at crawlspace, dug out a 1’ foot hole at lower spot of the house and drained

the water away to avoid the formation of mold at the inside of the house.

Hi,

I had sent a handyman to repair, he came back and had to order parts but fell sick right around the time. He recovered, quarantined for 14 days, got the covid test done and test came back negative.

I have to send him back to complete the repair. Since he is fine now, should I still provide all this information to the tenant?

One of house's exterior got damaged because a dump truck pulled a hanging wire on the street, and also damaged the whole electrical connection to the house from the street. Electrical company came and repaired the broken power line but they wouldn't repair the fascia damage. I have high deductible so I am thinking of getting the repairs done myself, but wanted to know if I have any option to file a claim with the garbage company myself. It's a private company. Any insight into the matter would be helpful, thanks!!