All Forum Posts by: Ravi Kiran

I have this tenant who has been staying on the property for last 8 years. Sometimes she was late for rent and they were keeping me in loop about the same and then paid the rent a week later etc.

Now for Sept they didn’t pay the rent and when I reached out asking for rent after 5th Sept, they said that they vacated the place due to hazardous mold issue (she says she verified with over the counter mold kit) and also said this is a 5 day notice to fix the place. When I replied back to their email asking when I could pickup keys to assess the situation, she doesn’t respond to email, nor she pick the phone, nor responds to text. Yesterday I went to the home to see the condition, there was no car on the driveway… I opened the main door to peep inside…looks like they still have lot of their stuff inside and I can smell bad odor; I just closed the door and returned back. Any suggestions how to approach this situation ?

Few more points:

Their lease is valid till May 2025.

This is the first time she even told me about mold.

In the email she did ask me to settle the lease.

I have a little less than a month of rent as security deposit, which I am ready to settle without any additional penalties for abandoning the property.

At this point I am okay with her leaving the place, just I want to get the control of the property back to fix the mold issue.

History:

1) Recently the AC has been replaced and after that there was some intermittent issue with the installation (temp doesn’t reach target intermittently) and I had to call the tech back 5 times to finally get it resolved.

2) Also last month I replaced electric range with Brand new Electric range.

3) Two months back she said the refrigerator was leaking, I asked her to send picture of the make and mode of the refrigerator, but I never got a reply back.

4) Also for last 4-5 months she has been asking me to send her 5-day notice so that she can claim reimbursement, I was sharing a document and she was paying the rent a little late. But now I am wondering if those options have dried up and she is looking at the Mold issue as an excuse to not paying rent and dragging her foot.

5) I verified their lease, I do see mold clause in there asking the tenant to inform immediately about any mold.

Could you please advise ? As it has been more than 48 hrs since I have been informed about mold, could I enter the property and take it over as an emergency issue ? What to do with their belongings ?

@John Mocker Thanks a lot for the inputs. I would surely do.

@Mitchell Goldstein Thanks a lot for your thoughtful inputs. Regarding the Public Adjuster: what is the best platform to find one and what would be the charges involved ?

I just had a drunken driver rammed his Chevy Silverado into my rental home at middle of Friday Night. Thankfully the tenant’s son survived with bruises & lacerations, who was right at the impact point. The truck was fully totaled and the driver survived. Need your inputs & feedback on best way to approach this.

He drove over the side walk…

Drove into the concrete fence wall….

Then rammed into the bedroom exterior wall…3 feet into the home.

It’s a 4 bed 3 bath home

1 bedroom is fully damaged

Adjacent bedroom closet is damaged

Both bedrooms & a bathroom don’t have power

Now the tenant is staying in a hotel (they said they would be claiming on the drivers auto)

Now the tenants are saying they would like to pay only 50% rent until they find a new place. They are going to break the lease. I do understand their concern as the place isn’t fully functional for them.

The driver did have auto insurance (progressive)

I have home insurance (travelers)

Tenant has rental insurance

I’ve already filed a claim through my insurance (travelers) for getting the place ready. Looks like fixing the place is going to take atleast 3 months.

But for loss of rent and tenants hotel expenses, lease break charges etc. How could I get that covered ?

Do I have to file a claim against the Drivers auto insurance or should have to go to my Travelers ? Does drivers auto insurance even entertain these requests from a 3rd party like me ?

Need some of your inputs as to how I should approach this claim. Thanks in advance.

@Timur Galimzyanov

Thanks for your inputs. Looks like its a challenge to go through the rezoning and still make the numbers work (mainly the civil work, landscaping requirement) with just 2 units addition.

@Tyler Clark

@Timur Galimzyanov

@Dallon Schultz

Could you please share feedback on your experiences with the city

I am in the same boat, trying to look into the options on adding couple of units to my property near 40th St & Thomas Rd in Phoenix.

It’s a legal non conformant property

Current zoning is R1-6, but has 2 SFH & a duplex on it. It was legal when it was built. City plans show all the 4 units.

Built in 1950

It’s on 0.4 Acre lot

Has enough room to add 2 units (but adding it will make it commercial)

Had preliminary meeting with city. They were talking about Rezoning to R-3 & Variance for setback exceptions (R-3 needs Civil engineering & Drain requirements needing excavations, landscaping)

Wanted to see if there is any way of adding the units while keeping it in R1-6 legal non-conformation and just getting a variance ?

Thanks,

Ravi

@Victor Delgado Velez

I recently did a rehab of a 4-plex (one unit was already vacant) while remaining 3 tenants were in place. By the end of rehab I only had one existing tenant (with slightly updated rent & lease), but with minimal rehab. I did full rehab of the other units and common areas. I would always choose full property being vacant during the rehab, due to ease of rehab management.

From my experience the longer the tenant has been there, the more problematic it gets. They are used to live in a certain way on the property, which they don’t like us changing.

1) Best Case: All units vacant and rehab. Easy to manage rehab, but Financial pinch during the rehab.

2) Staggered: Make one unit vacant at a time, rehab and rent at higher rates. Tenant Management is a challenge, Cashflow shouldn’t be impacted a lot

3) Improve common areas and exterior. Wait for the leases to expire and vacate them to do full rehab. Contractor management is a challenge here. Cashflow would be intact.

@John Underwood

Thanks John

My concern is whether this is going to be an issue going forward and I would rather have the seller fix the thing while the property is his.

Also wondering whether this is a minor issue or something major ?

I am in a Assignment contract (I am the buyer) to purchase a property in Phoenix (through a wholesaler)

The property APN has multiple addresses

County records/Tax records/ Utility bills/Tax bills show that APN is for XXX Property Address

While City of Phoenix/Monsoon/MLS maps the same APN to YYY Property Address. Even historical maps of the City of Phoenix shows YYY Property Address

When I lookup these addresses on the google maps - they point to multiple locations on the same lot. Though google is not a standard, just wanted to let you know

Legal descriptions b the deeds are okay, but this address discrepancy is causing a headache to me.

Wondering if this is considered a Title issue (due to public records). Would I be able to back out of the deal until the seller gets this fixed, before closing ?

Please advise