All Forum Posts by: Steve Babiak

@Kevin M. - when you combine rent control with the limited rent increases along with the crazy jumps in fees paid for things such as property taxes, trash, and now lead paint inspection (for those like me who have units without young children that is a big jump from zero to whatever), that is the problem that rent control leads to.

And imagine you do a real nice rehab to a rental expecting to get a boost in rent, only to discover that rent control might limit that.

And I am one to limit increases to existing tenants to be a modest amount; with rent control I would have to take the MAXIMUM legal rent increase every time or else risk falling behind what can be charged as rent down the road. This is another facet that those who believe in rent control tend to not understand - my tenants might actually get bigger increases in rent once rent control is imposed.

Natural gas in Philadelphia is also liensble unless you are enrolled in the PGW Landlord Cooperation Program.

Best to do so if you have tenants who pay their own gas in Philadelphia. You also want to have some lease clause(s) that cover the PGW LCP.

 And that is all that is required per IRS code - notice must be sent to US Attorney.

In foreclosure and tax sales, as long as the plaintiff in those sales properly notified the IRS at the US Attorney’s office, there will only be redemption rights after the sale. And those redemption rights do expire; 120 days is what is commonly tossed out by some “experts”, but the redemption rights for the IRS are actually the greater of 120 days or whatever redemption rights other parties with interests in the property have. In certain sales in PA, there are redemption rights that can be as long as nine months from the date that the sheriff’s deed is recorded - that can be close to or even more than 12 months in total time to redeem - the IRS would get that much time. I say “even more than” because I saw one case where the sheriff’s sale was challenged in court, and the challenge lasted almost a full year - then add nine months plus deed recording time for the IRS to redeem.

But those IRS liens do eventually expire (assuming proper notice was given).

@Greg H. and @David Krulac - a few years ago I bought an REO that had a reverse mortgage that was foreclosed; and it had a title issue where there was a missing satisfaction of the mortgage before the reverse mortgage, and that lender closed its doors. I did track down who took over their business, and sent that to my title agent; rather than try to get the satisfaction piece, they tracked down the title company that did the settlement on the reverse mortgage who assured the funds were sent to the defunct lender, and they issued an indemnity letter to my title company.

When I put the property up for sale, I insisted on having the contract read that seller gets to choose the title company, rather than the more customary buyer choosing title company. I didn’t want the delay headache of that title issue cropping up ...

Moral of the story: Title issues have more than one way of being resolved.

The DIG events are all online for the time being, so you can be at home for those. Can’t get closer than that ;)

I think you mean “foreign load”.

A foreign load is one where a meter is registering use but that use is not within the unit that is paying for the meter billing. Typically arises when a landlord has a building with a common area that has lighting, such as a foyer or hallway, but the wiring for that lighting is connected to a tenant’s electric panel and meter; it can also be something that consumes even more energy such as a laundry area that is available for all tenants in a building but the wiring goes to a single tenant’s electric panel and meter.

That is why when utilities get separated in a building that the owner needs to realize that an extra panel and meter must be installed for the common areas, with billing for that common area meter going to the landlord.

Some BP links that discuss this a bit more:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/84/topics/75044-installing-common-area-electric-in-a-3-4-unit

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/107306-triplex-without-seperate-utilities

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/72185-water-sewer-bill---what-to-do-with-it?page=1#p412876

 For those using the workaround mentioned in the quoted post, you have to have two separate lights in those common areas, with the switch for each only accessible within the one unit. So if the tenant leaves that common area light on when they go out, the light can't be switched off until somebody inside the unit does that (could be that must wait until when the tenant returns unless there are multiple persons residing in that one unit).

@Yuriy Skripnichenko - good post there.

The only point I would make is that if the duplex has common areas and tenants are paying the electric, then you should have a separate electric meter for the common areas that is billed to the landlord / owner. That avoids any “foreign load” issues.

 You can’t compare the suburbs to the city when it comes to bills.

I believe that the following website for Philadelphia will have the trash bill explained a bit. There is a link to an information letter there.

https://www.phila.gov/documents/refuse-exemption-forms/