All Forum Posts by: Richard Ma

When you say, 'landlord insurance' what are you seeking - property coverage or liability? If property insurance, it should already be covered by your insurance company and you can ask them to add loss of rental coverage. Meaning that if tragedy happened and the unit was unusable, they'd cover market rent. If you need liability coverage only, you can get a personal umbrella insurance policy from most carriers, likely your current property insurance company would be the one I'd start with.

~ Lindsey

I used Steven Adair MacDonald for other stuff but not specifically for ellis act. They seemed competent for what i needed. Can try reaching out to see if they do ellis act. Good luck

@Richard Ma

1. Comply with the order from the City, or you are likely to face fines

2. You cannot kick them out; cities have reasonable standards for issuing citations, so you have a problem

3. Sounds like you may need a new fridge - the city isn't issuing a citation because the tenants are dirty, they are issuing a citation because they suspect there is an underlying material cause beyond use

4. Get a pest control company out & make sure they are licensed, otherwise, the city won't back down

If you attempt to kick them out now, you are likely to look retaliatory, which is always a problem.

Tackle the issues and be more active on site for the balance of their tenancy; the more they see you, the fewer problems you are likely to have. Last, issue a written non renewal notice 60 - 90 days before the end of their term and provide a legitimate reason. Call them after you issue the notice and let them know that you appreciated their stay, but that for a variety of factors that are cited in the notice you need to move in a different direction.

None of this is personal for you, this is just about your asset; act accordingly.

What was their credit scores? I think will be extremely difficult for then to get money out of you but may be easy to get a free stay and claim any eviction attempts are retaliatory. 

Look up your local laws and see what it says about lease renewal.  Get rid of them ASAP.

I'd talk to the city and ask them politely how you are to get rid of the smell from the fridge when it is filled with the tenant's food which is causing the smell.  As for the rodents, call a company and have them come out and deal with it...take photos before and after so if the tenant does something (ie puts out more rice), you can show that the tenant is deliberately doing things to attract rodents.

Is this in california? Talk to an attorney ASAP. This tenant probably trying to not pay and stay as long as can.