All Forum Posts by: Nick Jensen

We followed your advice and had a talk with Staying Guy. We said either you find another housemate to meet the conditions of a new rental agreement or you move out. He understood his situation and agreed to comply. He'll likely move out. It's a bummer because he was a good tenant. 

Thanks for your advice.

Thanks everyone. We plan to talk to him tomorrow to lay out the terms. I'll let you know how it goes.

We (wife and I) have two single guys renting a house from us. They are on a month-to-month on the same agreement. One of the guys is moving out and gave us notice at the beginning of the month that he'd have his stuff out by the end of the month. The other guy wants to stay. He's been trying to find a housemate but not having any luck. 

Staying Guy is aware that he'll be responsible for the entire rent next month regardless if he can find a housemate. He's also aware that we'll be requiring a new agreement starting March 1.

Today Staying Guy asked us to help him find a housemate. We don't feel it's our duty to play matchmaker for him. Is it time to have The Conversation with him that if he can't pay rent he'll have to move out by the end of the month?

Background:

We've been renting our main house and living in a separate in-law unit in the backyard for the past year. Everything has gone smoothly. The tenants have always had a month-to-month agreement. They pay rent via Chase QuickPay.

Plan:

We plan to be out of the country for six months this year. For piece of mind, we just asked them to sign a lease to cover the time period we're gone. We may also rent out the in-law unit to help cover travel expenses.

Question:

Should we hire a property management company to look after things while we're gone?

It's a great question. From what I understand, PG&E pays you annually if you've provided more electricity to the grid than used. The hitch is that the rate they pay you is far less than the rate they charge. You'd likely have to install a ton of panels to come out even in the long run. But I haven't done the math. Perhaps it can pencil out. 

Thanks Dick. Our application stipulated that applicants need to earn at minimum 3 times the rent, so that shouldn't be a surprise. When I send the denial to the person who would need to find another roommate, I imagine it's appropriate and legal to at least let that person know why I denied the original roommate. 

We're about to rent a 2bd house. Two people applied as roommates. After running background checks via SmartMove, we feel that one person is qualified but the other isn't. We plan to send a denial letter (is email okay for this?) to the unqualified person, but what about the qualified person? Do we deny that person too because without the other roommate the rent would be too high for that one qualified person? Or do we accept the qualified person on the condition that they find another roommate, who we also must approve? 

Thanks for your time.

Nick

Thanks for the advice. I called the county court to get the info. This applicant was caught driving without car registration in 2011. 

I figured I'd ask the applicant to explain herself just to hear her side of the story. There could be a simple explanation. 

What do you guys think? Based on very minor offenses, would you rent to this person?

We just used SmartMove for two potential tenants who would be sharing the house we're renting. This is our first time screening tenants. The process was very easy and the applicants were able to complete the process without a hitch. Now we have reports for each applicant, but we're not sure how to interpret/investigate one of the "red flags".

- One of the tenants has a criminal background. There are links to 6 different cases with case numbers but no information about the cases themselves. All we know is that these reports were from California. Where does one go to look up the case numbers with more detailed info about the crime?

@Elizabeth C. That's an idea that we considered but thought wouldn't fly. If it's more common these days, then I think it's the best solution for our situation.

@Troy Sheets Well, the cottage is permitted as an accessory structure, not a dwelling. So the structure itself is legal. We'll just be using it as a dwelling. But because of this we can't install a separate meter. Too bad, because that would be the best solution.

@Rob K. I love my wife. We've been married for 7 years. In our main house we're either cooking together, eating together, sitting on the couch together, or in bed together. Most of the main house is just wasted space.

The benefit of doing what we're doing is that we can retire in our early 30s, even while living in a very expensive part of the country. Living in a tiny space has its benefits!