All Forum Posts by: Amanda Thompson

UPDATE: I emailed (paper trail!) and told them maintenance had seen 3 animals, only 2 are allowed, "can you help me understand the situation?"

She wrote back that they are temporarily pet sitting for his daughter (raise your hand if you've heard that one!). I replied with:

"Oh great, that is an easy fix! Only pets listed on the pet addendum are allowed on the property. Please have his daughter make other arrangements for her kitty to avoid the lease violation.

Thanks for explaining the situation!"

I love all your answers! So much to think about. I am going to address it, but I'm not sure how yet. I am not going to evict... we just had to go through a nasty eviction/ bankruptcy with terrible tenants our last Property Manager put in. SO MUCH STRESS. And so many lawyer bills.

Thank you all for your opinions and expertise!

@Karla Simmons good point, having a paper trail in case we have to do extensive repairs afterwards!

@Marcus Auerbach totally. In my opinion, it's just a cat. On the other hand, it shows lack of character for sneaking it in, which is a bigger issue. I don't want them to walk all over me in the future, but I really don't think I'm willing to kick them out just for this. I liked your comment about the future of our relationship is dependent on my reaction. Plus, they just moved in and have a 12-month lease.

@Greg Weik I have Minimum Qualification Standards that say the credit score must be over 600. They passed all my standards and seem like very nice people. Both veterans.

@Jerry Lucker ugh that's what I'm worried about! So, lease termination??

I have brand new tenants who apparently snuck in an extra cat. I was clear when we met that we have a 2 pet maximum. It's also stated more than once in the lease, and they have a pet addendum. My maintenance guy told me he saw 2 cats and a dog.

My fault: I didn't add a fine or fee for violating this specific rule. I guess it just falls under violating the lease... which means termination of lease. That seems excessive for a cat... but they did break the rules. Like, right away.

What are my options? I know I should follow the lease but can I do something else? I was thinking about telling them they either get rid of a pet or pay $50/mo for it. Our current pet rent is $50/mo for dogs and $25/mo for cats.

We have renters in a house who were on a month to month lease. We have since really upped our landlording game and have new procedures and leases. I sent them the new lease (they're well aware) to sign on the 1st. It's now the 6th and they haven't signed it, despite multiple reminders. They just say, "Ok" and then don't sign it.

Now what? I guess their old month to month lease is still in place? The government paid their rent through the end of the year...

@Joe Splitrock thank you so much for the reply. It seems ridiculous that WE owe them anything. But this is their career. Rent a place, don't pay rent, file a bankruptcy so they don't owe. I don't think we can give them a deduction for $15,000 because it happened over the past year and their bankruptcy was filed in July...

Our NIGHTMARE tenants finally moved out. They owed us over $15,000 in back rent and fees and then filed bankruptcy. (This is the 3rd time they've done this... one major reason we fired our Property Manager. Seriously, did he even do a background check??)

They are mean and aggressive and threatening. Now they've sent us a demand for their security deposit back. They said it's part of their "bankruptcy estate". I don't know much about bankruptcy law. I know the deposit needs to be returned within 21 days per Idaho code.

Is there any way we can keep this deposit to offset a tiny bit of the mountain they owe us? Can we remove some of the deposit for the MULTIPLE stains their pets left on our brand new carpet? Or the scratches in the wall? Paint peeled off everywhere they'd put up a Command strip?