All Forum Posts by: Scott J.

Thanks Robert. Do we have to do anything to look inside the walls or just fix the leak and leave it at that?

I've had a long-term tenant that keeps my single family rental in immaculate shape. Sometimes she sends requests that are aesthetic only and aren't really necessary, but that's because she is so keen on keeping the place looking great. Otherwise her requests are all reasonable. 

She recently texted me a handful of requests, one of which has me concerned. She said it looks like there's a leak in the wall near the roof and sent the photo below. 

We called our licensed contractor who said the leak is coming from the roof, which he doesn't do, and the moisture doesn't appear to be in the wall. He said we should have him power wash the stucco and call a roofer to fix the leak. 

We call a roofer, who gave us a quote of $900 and said he'll come out and patch the roof in two weeks. After one day with minimal rain, the tenant texted me again and said she sees new signs of water damage inside the loft (interior of what you see above). These are her photos. 

I can't really make out what's in the photos, but am taking this seriously due to moisture. What are the right steps from here to protect myself and get this taken care of appropriately for the tenant? Who to call to fix? What to tell the tenant? Should I pay the contractor to power wash the stucco? 

Typo: I said our other cinder block wall was JUST built. It wasn't... that was built 10+ years ago. 

I own a historical 1920s home that qualifies for the Mills Act, which reduces my property tax by about 40%. There are over hundreds of homes like this in my area.

Because this is an older home, there is some wacky zoning. One of our neighbors is a beautiful two-story Victorian home (maybe worth $700k) and our other neighbor is a six-unit apartment complex. 

There is a 8-ft. tall cinder block wall with vines between our home and the Victorian home. It's sturdy and offers plenty of privacy. Unfortunately, there is just a rickety 6-ft. tall wood fence between us and the apartment complex. Our home is also elevated a few feet, so there's no privacy between our home and the apartment complex. They can literally see us walk in/out of the bathroom unless we have the curtains drawn, but then there's no natural light in the living room.

We would like to build an 8-ft tall cinder block wall (similar to our one with the other neighbor) between us and the apartments. The owner of the apartments has agreed to split the cost too.

The issue is that the city is a nightmare to deal with because we have a historic home. My wife called the Mills Act people and they already said we can't build a fence unless it's wood and 6-ft. or less. 

It's possible the existing fence is on the apartments side of the property. I know their owner built it on his own. How can I find out? 

What would you do if you were me?

• Don't build the fence and risk losing the historic home property discount. (I think the risk of that is low because our other cinder block wall was just built, without checking with the city. The risk is there though, which makes my wife nervous!)
• Check to see if the fence is on the apartment's land and then build the cinder block wall. (If I do this, should we check with the city or just do it? Our city is notorious for always saying, "no".)
• Build the wall and bank on the city not noticing. 
• Any other options?

Thank you everyone for your responses. I always learn a lot here. 

Many of you have renewed my interest in keeping these tenants. They are perfect tenants in every way other than the late payments (which have always been paid, so far).

Based on your advice I'm going to sit down with them and have a dialogue to see what's going on. That's so obvious to do I'm embarrassed I haven't done it already.

Their lease is up in August. If they want to stay I'm going to make your brilliant suggestion of auto-withdrawals coming out of each of their checks. 

Thanks.

I have a SF rental with tenants that have been there for about a year and a half. It is a very nice family who takes absolutely immaculate care of the property. The carpet still looks brand new! 

The problem is that it's more rent than they can afford. They always pay, but it is a week or two late every single time. They said changing the due date from the first to the 15th would help, which we did... but nope, still always late. 

I've made it clear this isn't okay, but the fact is they're living paycheck to paycheck and it's hard for them to pay on time--whenever that may be. 

They rented their previous place for five years and I love the opportunity for a long-term tenant, but I'm tired of the stress of never knowing when we'll get paid. Their lease is up in August and I'm thinking of increasing their rent from $1,850 to $1,900 (the market rate) and calling and nudging them toward something more affordable elsewhere. Then I could dangle the carrot of giving them their deposit back promptly, bla bla. 

It's great having clean renters that may stay for years but always getting rent late sucks. More importantly, moving them out now may avoid an eviction situation later if they just can't pay at some point. 

How would you handle this?

Thank you everyone for your comments on the late fees.

That aside, how would you handle a tenant that takes great care of a property but is often late paying rent?

Looks like California law is very vague on late fees, stating that they must be "reasonable". Apparently CA courts "generally" uphold charges of late fees that do not exceed 5-10% of a month's rent. For this property that would be between $92.50 - $185.

I'm glad this came up and will make sure to keep the late fees within or below that threshold.

I didn't realize $30/day was so high. Thanks for mentioning that.

The rent is $1,850 per month, so I set it to 50% of the "rent per day". If it was much lower I think they would take advantage of it every month. Good to know though.

I have a tenant that takes immaculate care of my property. They are a good family that fell on hard times in the recession. They have great long-term rental history as well.

Unfortunately, they have been late on their rent the last two months. We had a bounced check once about a year ago as well. Those are the only issues we've had. The ALWAYS pays though. And they always include the late fee or bounced check fee without being asked, which is nice.

The last two months they've paid their rent five days late (on the 10th) and included the late fee of $30/day. While this is profitable for me, clearly they are tight on money and I'm afraid by starting this cycle of paying us on the 10th that they won't be able to pay us on time at the beginning of the following month.

What do you recommend? Here are a few options I can think of:

1. Let them pay late and keep collecting the extra $30/day. If they don't pay by the 15th they get an eviction notice.

2. Tell them that rent is due on the 5th and late payments are not okay.

3. It sounds like they get paid on the 10th. Can I work out a way where they always pay us on the 10th rather than the 5th? This could make our mortgage payments a burden though if they are late on these payments.