All Forum Posts by: Shaun C.

I can send a payment through Venmo in about 20-30 seconds. I would hardly call that work. If your tenants can't seem to remember to log in and send a payment once a month; I'm sure you have bigger things to worry about. I use Venmo as my demographics are younger people and all of them have it already. Works great, and I get the money in my account the next day unlike cozy.

I would definitely let this guy go in with his bad evidence and let him get charged with contempt for bringing in forged documents. Some judges, I would hope all, should take that very seriously. Combined with all the other dirt you've found on him I don't think you will have a hard time in court.

Never give keys until the money has already cleared your bank, or is in cash. Too late for that but you can ask for it to now be given to you in cash or else you can move to evict. I hope your lease says that it is null and void in the case of any prepaid funds being insufficient. Either way, you're in California so you're probably stuck going the legal route.

FHA doesn't drive by your house and knock on the door on the 31st day to check and see that you are living there. I wouldn't normally say to commit mortgage fraud, but I would have a hard time believing that they call your loan due if you are truly evicting a tenant in order to move in and claim residency there. I would not do cash for keys. Let the guy play his cards and continue with the eviction process.

I would be wary due to not being able to collect from a minor (assuming they are minors and not 18 or 19).

My first property was a top/down duplex in which I was the lower unit. I really, REALLY wanted to punch the previous owner who added the 2nd floor in the face for not putting in ANY kind of insulation or isolation clips on the 1st floor ceiling after living there for 3 years. These problems will keep coming up, and the only real way to deal with it is to fix it.

I am an architect and a builder, so through my research the best thing to do would be to blow in cellulose into the ceiling cavity, and then install sound isolation clips and install another layer of 5/8" drywall. A large project if you ask me, with little to no gains in rent produced. You can also forgo the clips and just do the blown in with another layer of 5/8" drywall with green glue sandwiched in between and that would be my recommendation. In your area, you could probably get the project done for about $3-4k when all is said and done. But again, with minimal increase in rent. It will keep tenants longer however.

What the OP mentioned as 'methane', I'm sure is really just sewer gas coming up from a dried out P-trap. Nothing that out of the ordinary about it and it's definitely on the tenant to foot the bill for mistaking a sewer smell for a gas leak. It's not fun to put the learning curve on them but I've already paid my fair share of learning mistakes; no reason for me to pay for another that isn't mine.

They would be footing the bill for this incident, as well as the whole water bill a few months ago.

50 gal for 6 units is definitely not enough. I would go for at least 150 gallons.

Personally, I would never want to share a residence with people that can't foot the bill themselves. The area you are in might warrant it, but if you can; I would try and rent the unit to someone that can pay rent on their own and you might (and probably) will avoid situations like this in the future.