All Forum Posts by: Marie Kyle

Thanks @Steve Babiak - I have quite a few typos there - thanks for catching that! I was posting in a rush. Will def contact a moderator to get those fixed.

I've gone through multiple evictions on tenants in philly over the past 7 years and I would strongly suggest not waiting to see what the tenant will do. In the future, always prepare for the worst and hope for the best. In the case of evictions - that means moving forward with the sheriff lockout after you receive a judgement.

If you have an attorney, ask them to move forward with the writ and alias writ. 

If you don't have an attorney and are doing it yourself - I would IMMEDIETLY contact the Landlord Tenant Office to find out how to start the process for your specific situation. NOTE: The Philadelphis Sheriff's office does not handle the paperwork to start the lockout process for landlord tenant cases, so you have to contact the Landlord Tenant Office instead.

For all my previous evictions in Philadelphia County, I had to wait 10 days after the judgement to file for a "praecipe for writ of possession" and a "writ of possession". Then I had to wait another 10 days to file for a "praecipe for alis writ" and an "alis writ - before I could get in the list to be scheduled for a lockout. There are fees associated with all of these filings as well as paperwork that you need to provide before the filings can be completed, so contacting their office ahead of time will save you a ton of headaches.

On your lockout date, the sheriff will come to the property, post the eviction notice, allow you to change the locks, and facilitate the physical removal of the tenant if that is needed. 

Hope this helps. If there are other landlords reading this post looking for info on philly evictions, and you're going through the process on your own - don't just wait and see what happens! Especially now, where the wait times on lockouts in some cases are months away. Once you get that judgement, contact the Landlord Tenant Office to find out the soonest possible date you can start the sheriff lockout paperwork.

Good luck Kenneth!

@Chris K. - Normally, that's how we handle things with our residential properties - disputes between tenants/subtenants must be handled amongst themselves unless leased property is damaged, or there is a non-payment issue. I think we have a clause in the lease about indemnification against loss...but not by subtenant - so  we'll def. get something signed by the tenant. Thanks for the advise!  

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@Joe P.

@Joe P. - tenant now reveals the issue has been going on for 3-4 months. the tenant had subtenants (roommates) in the past that we knew about, but to our knowledge those subtenants moved out months ago with no issues. we have several properties where tenants have frequent overnight guests - and we had made the assumption that this person (the roommate who was locked out) was simply a frequent guest, not an actual subtenant....if that makes any sense. 

As far as changed locks - you're correct it's an alteration of the lease and we can probably end the tenants lease based on the breach but that's a separate issue from the unleased subtenant. 

You make some valid points. I have an appointment with an eviction lawyer tomorrow....it was just such a bizarre situation, wanted to hear perspective of others who may have gone through something similar.  

Thanks so much to taking the time to post a reply! Appreciate it!

Hello BP family, here's the situation:

I have a tenant renting a single family property and a roomate who is not on the lease. Subletting is allowed by the tenants lease, but tenant never went through property steps with landlord to bring in a roommate (application, approval, etc). 

 The tenant claimed he lost the keys to his the property, got a locksmith to change locks and provided owner with a set of keys.  The issue? The true reason for the lock change was to lockout the roomate. Apparently the tenant recently had some issues with the roomate, including multiple month of non-payment of rent, so the tenant decided to "lockout" the roomate by putting the roomates items on the porch and not providing the roomate with a new set of keys. 

My understanding is that the roomate never signed a sublet lease with the tenant or a normal lease with the owner. My question is - could this lockout cause issues for the owner in anyway?

I've been using Dwolla to collection rent payments on 21 units for about 4 years, and I have never - not once had an issue with security, payments being collected on time. And if that is something that you are worried about, you can always setup automatic withdraws so that all payments collected immediately get transferred to your bank of choice. I can't speak highly enough about dwolla! They used to charge 25 cents per transaction back in the day, and now it's free. 

This is one of the things that makes tenantCloud attractive to me - unlike many of the other PM platforms out there - they have dwolla payments integrated into their product. 

Super late to this convo, but hopefully this helps someone along the way. 

I manage several buy and holds and work directly with tenants so Postlets was my saving grace. I was in complete shock when it was quietly shutdown by Zillow and I lost all of my saved posts. I think I didn't talk for 2 whole days, I could not believe it. So much data just gone, smh. 

These days I'm listing on 4 different sites for syndication:

• Zillow Rental Manager (which auto syndicates to Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads), Cost - free
• Zumper Pro (which auto syncs to Zumper, Paddmapper, Realtor, and Walkscore), Cost - free
• Craigslist.com, Cost - free
• Livelovely.com

Postlets had it's issues, but it was free and it kept all my data in one place (well, at least before it shut down). Looking back on what happened with that site, I think I'll stick with posting to these sites for now. It's way less syndication than what was offered via Postlets but I'm ok with that since it's free, not much extra to manage, and I am able to still get units seen on the more popular sites in my area. Also, another nice thing is once I've posted my ads these sites, I don't have to login again until I'm ready to take the posts down - since all of these sites auto-forward replies to your email (or by text - if you provide your number as a form of contact).

Hey Jeffrey!

Definitely listen to Debra Regan's advice about adding "jointly and severally" to the lease. I have multiple rentals with co-leasees that either don't know each other or know each other and are co-habitating. Anytime you have more than one person's name on the lease, especially if they are younger people - things can go awry very quickly and a solid lease can help you nip arguments in the bud. In general, the best way I've found to cut down on the co-tenant shenanigans is to have them sign separate leases (if they don't know each other), OR have them sign a joint lease (if they do know each other), but allow them pay separately. This has worked beautifully for me over the years. So from a rent collection perspective, if I have tenants on a joint lease - I "treat" each person as if they have their own lease, but with 50% of the liability. This is also true for couples - never make the mistake of assuming that a couple (especially if they are not married) is on the same page, financially. 

So how would this work, you ask?  Let's say rent is $1200, the late fee is 10%, and there are 2 tenants on a joint lease. I charge tenant #1 $600, plus $60 for late fees. And the same for tenant #2. Luckily for me, I use Dwolla to accept payments, so I just have the tenants set up their own accounts and that usually works out pretty well. 

Now, there will be situations beyond rent that will require cooperation from both tenants, and you can treat payment and communication between the tenants the same way. 

Example 1 - fines for tenants on a joint lease: 

Say you get fined by the city for recycling incorrectly. I will normally charge the tenant a fee in the amount of the fine. In the case with tenants on a joint lease, I would invoice them separtely, but cite the full amount on both invoices, always naming both tenants in the citation as being jointly liable for the charge. 

Example 2 - evictions for tenants on a joint lease: 

Lets' say you have one tenant who hasn't paid in 2 months, but the other tenant is. Unfortunately, you will need to evict BOTH tenants as per laws in most states. In situations like this, its unfortunate for the paying tenant, but there are things you can do make the situation suck less. One thing I've done in the past is let the paying tenant back in under the stipulation that they must have a qualified co-tenant available to sign a new lease OR they can sign a new lease for the full rent amount. 

Example 3 - breaking the lease for joint tenants: 

Let's say your tenants have gotten to the point where they simply do not get along. Arguments and fights ensue, your neighbors are complaining, and now you are getting calls from one tenant complaining about the other. The solutions might be to give the tenants the option of doing a a lease reassignment. This only works out well of one tenant want to leave and the other wants to stay (which is normally the case). Lease re-assignments can be stressful, but there are ways to take much of the stress off your hands as a landlord. What I usually do is put the responsibility in the tenant that wants to leave. She/he must find a qualified tenant (who will accept to pay the partial security deposit and an application fee). Then once they have found someone, I do my due diligence, make sure the new person has met the current roommate, and have them sign the necessary paperwork. It's always imperative to let the tenants know that until a reassignment is finalized, they are still liable according to the current lease for  all rent and monies due. 

TLDR; Only do joint leases for tenants that have had a relationship prior to lease signing, and always allow tenants on a joint lease to pay separately, even couples. 

Hope this helps in some small way!

Rhondalette, 

First of all congrats on your first rental, life for you is about to get very interesting :) -- now on to your questions. 

Q1: Steve M.  hit the nail on the head - the reason a person files for bankruptcy is important and will give you an important piece of the puzzle in regards to evaluating them as a potential tenant. I have had success renting to tenant that had a bankruptcy - and from what you've said about your tenant, it sounds like a similar situation (they made more than enough to cover my rent, but apparently way less than they needed to avoid filing for bankruptcy). At the end of the day, landlording is all about risk mitigation, so do your due diligence. Run those background checks, to make this determination easier. Not only will you get an idea of whether not the person is honest (i.e. does the report you pulled reflect what they told you during pre-screening?), you will also be able to get a better sense of their financial history (i.e. do they have a history of paying their bills on time, do they have a steady job, etc).

Q2: You need to do an application and run background checks on anyone applying to become a tenant. This really could be the difference in you having a great tenant, and a tenant from hell. To avoid people getting upset about "loosing" out on the application, just be honest with everyone about your process. The way I do it is: 

• I tell all applicants that the application is $45, and is non-refundable for all processed applications. 
• I make it known that the fee actually goes towards completing a background check which includes sex offender check, criminal background, credit check, and employment verification. 
• Once the background check has been completed, and the application has been approved, the applicant must pay the deposit in order to hold the rental. Once the rental is on hold, I will no longer show it, and all other applications in progress will be stopped.   
• Lastly I tell them that in the rare event that an application is not processed (due to the rental is taken by another person), the application fee will be refunded. 

Q3: A $50 application is more than reasonable. I actually charge $45 per adult that will be moving into the property. Some people may think that $50 is high (because of your area maybe?), but you have  to remember - you are weeding out tons of undesirables by having an application fee at all.  PLUS your application fee should be covering the cost of your background checks. And if you are only charging $50, for a family with 2 adults, will that cover the cost of the fees? If yes, then you are good to go. If not, you may need to rethink that price and raise it, or charge it, per adult. 

Hope this helps, and again, congrats on the new rental. I look forward to hearing more about your adventure!