All Forum Posts by: Roy Lam

I have a tenant who has been living in this single house for 7 years.  During these years, he was always pay rent late and refused to pay late fee.  This month, he has not pay and did not even the reason.  Back in march, 2023  I filed an eviction against him.  the biggest mistake was i didn't hire an attorney.  I met a processor server and he said it would be a simple eviction.  At the trial, the tenant claimed the house was inhabitable due to damages thru out the house.  but those were damages which hedid and sometimes he miight ask me to fix.  Other damages I  didn't even know about.  So at the trial, the judge asked me if I did any of those repairs.  But I told her thetenant caused all the damages and he refuses  to pay for the materials.  Needless to say, I lost.  The judge deducted  5% of the rent for each items , total five. A month later,  I went back to the court, I told the judge I fixed everything but the wall furnace.  I bought the wrong part and I did not know where to order it.  Even the tenant say it's ok not repaor it  since this summer mow.  Plus we did other repairs in adition of what was needed.  Nope, one 5%left will still be deducted.  Now this is all over.  Seems to me that we hhave to go through this again.

He still hasn't paid July rent yet.  He called one time whilw I was in the doctors office.  My question is, off course I will get an attorney, is wether I should repair all the damages already in the house before I staet the eviction.  Or just do it now?

In the lease, she is supposed to pay 1/3 of the water, gas, and electric.  In the past, I only charged her 1/4 of the total since she works and only come home late at night.  I never thought she would turn on the A/C before going to work and leave it on all day. This time since I caught her having the A/C on all day, I charged her the full 1/3 which amouints to $100.56.  She got furious and refuse to pay it.  But it states in the lease so I don"t worry about it too much.

Since I don't plan to renew the lease with her, when do you think is a good time to let her know?  The lease expires end of February,2020.

I have a duplex  that my two tenants share the utilities charges.  One tenant with the larger unit pays 2/3 of electric, gas and water.  The other tenant pays the 1/3,  During the summer, the electric bill was almost $200. because the bills are under my name and I have to let them know what their shares are. I thought it was the tenant in the larger unit that uses more electricity because they have a couple of kids. A couple of weeks ago, I passed by the smaller unit and heard the air conditioner was running, so I asked another tenant about it. Another tenant told me the air conditioner was always on while this tenant is at work. She denied it was on all the time except for the one day that I found out.  She is a habitual liar, I found it out earlier when I try to collect rent from her. Excuse after excuse. She is always late with the rent.

This month when I went to collect the rent, she refused to pay the utilities saying it's too high.  So I took the rent anyway but no utilities.  I know I can't evict her for not paying utilities, i will deduct it from security deposit.

My question is, what can I do if I catch her leaving the air condition or any other appliance on while she is working? Her lease ends February 28, 2020 next year.

Correction:  I meant I have a tenant , not I am

I am a tenant who has been living here for seven months now.  Out of the seven months, she was late in four months, the September month was even worse, she gave six different excuse when she promised to pay onthat day,then she would come up another excuse for not having the money.  When she finally paid early this month, she refused to pay her share of utilities.  Another reason that I don't want to renew with her was she turned on the air condition on while she went to work. We accidentally found out when we had to do repair at another tenant's.  The tenant then told me it is always on everyday. So the electric bill was almost $200 each month during the summer.  But she denies(she is a good liar) it.

My question is, if I give her a non-renewal letter and terminate the agreement, it expires at the end of February, 2020, with the new rent control law that will be in effect next January, do I need a just cause to get rid of her?  We have a lease agreement not month to month.  I just want to get rid of her.

Thanks Ryan and Michael,  I appreciate your opinion.  Escalating the late fee sounds very good.  I will do that every time when I have to renew or sign new rental agreement. I plan to give her a 3 day notice on the 1st if she doesn't have all the past and current rent.

Her rent is $900 a month, and she paid $500 in the middle of the month.  This month she had already used six excuses when I texted her regarding the rent.  Yesterday morning she even said she can pay $100 and the in the afternoon, she asked if she can pay everything she owes plus next month's rent on the 1st. I plan to give her a 3 day notice if she doesn't have the money on the 1st. Would it be good idea?

I have a tenant who has been late on rent payments twice in five months, this month she still hasn't pay all of the rent for September.  I charge her $50.00 late fee after five days.  So she rather pay the late fee and be late for so long.  I would like to amend the rental agreement and raise the late fee so high that she would pay on time.  My question is, can I change the contents in the rental agreement while it doesn't expire until February 2020?  If so, what is the maximum I can charge for late fee?

Last month I had a one bedroom apartment vacated, so we started getting it ready to rent it out as soon as possible.  We found out there is a HIP program which seems to be very good, with bonus such as signup bonus, holding fees, etc.  So I spoke to a representative, she told me all these good things, so we started to giving out applications to people with section vouchers.  Some of them came with organization who helps them to find homes.  Three weeks passed, we chose one lady to be our future tenants, she is also in the HIP program with section 8 voucher.  She turned in the paper works, then two weeks later after two failed inspections.  I received an e-mail from the housing adviser offering $1325.00 instead of $1500.00 that I was asking .  I thought that is kind of low blow,  offering less after waiting all this time.  If I was told from the beginning that the rent I am asking would not be the rent I will receive, then I wouldn't even consider it. They got the nerve to call it Homeless Incentive Program. 

My question is , should I take their offer or just rent it out to regular people,  The rent in the area is around $1450.00 

Thank you for your valuable advice, I had a few homeless persons and regular section 8 people came, the section 8 people don't want it because they have the one bedroom voucher, and they don't want studio apartment. Then the homeless ones didn't impress me. Some of them smokes, turning on appliances and air condition. They acted like they had already rented the place. I just didn't like their manners. I rented to someone who is a regular tenant.