All Forum Posts by: Steven Mitchell

I'm a landlord in Colorado and in my lease there is a clause that covers this I believe.  If I were you, I'd make sure you have written communication (emails, not texts!) to the landlord to confirm they 1) agree this is an existing issue and 2) they agree to resolve the issue prior to move in (be specific) and 3) if it arises again while you're a tenant, you won't be held accountable as the "cause" of the infestation.  My lease states that any infestation issue after 10 days or so is the responsibility of the tenant.  

Here's the text in my leases: Pest control, after the first ten (10) days of the Term of this Lease, shall be the sole responsibility of the Tenant, including, without limitation, prevention and remediation. Tenant shall keep the Premises free of all pests, including without limitation, rodents, fleas, bed bugs, ants, cockroaches, gnats, flies, and beetles. Tenant shall pay for all costs associated with remediating pests from the Premises and shall inform Landlord at first sighting of any pests in order to avoid any infestation of pests. In signing this Lease, Tenant agrees that Tenant has examined the Premises and certifies that it has not observed any pests in the Premises.

Did your lease have anything similar?  Did you already sign stating that you did not observe any pests?  These might be factors but I'm not a lawyer, so I can't advise.

Otherwise, you might seek legal advice/support or refuse to move in or pay rent until the issue is resolved. If the landlord doesn't address the issue, you might be able to seek what's called constructive eviction (basically you evict yourself and terminate the lease) if the landlord fails to perform per the terms of the lease. 

Good luck!  And please update here with how everything shakes out.

Hi Jason - Great question!  

I haven't run into this scenario myself, but I am asking my team to see if anyone there has a solid suggestion. I'm not sure if you've searched some of the previous posts on BP but I found this one.  https://www.biggerpockets.com/..

Personally I'd also suggest looking for a single family home that is essentially duplexed (even if not formally).  I am currently house hacking in Westminster CO and have a house where the basement has a 1,000 sq ft basement "mother-in-law" suite that has a lockable, entry door in the basement utility room. The basement tenants share the main entrance of the house but we only see each other maybe 30 seconds a couple days a week. Otherwise, they pay a larger utility fee each month and they share the basement utility room (laundry, storage, and bikes).  But they have their own living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, office - it's a completely separate space in practice. And it pays over half my mortgage each month!

I know this set up is not always common in all states, but I've seen this quite a bit here in CO.  Otherwise, you can look for a property that has an unfinished basement with the proper hookups that could allow you to put in a kitchenette, bathroom, etc. I realize the appeal of a traditional duplex but there are other options and ways to approach the situation if you're interested.

Hope this helps!

Thank, Nicky - yeah, I was copying and pasting my description from a Word document and that seemed to be causing some sort of issue.  I just typed the whole thing out by hand and somehow that was acceptable.  Who knows?  In any case, issue now resolved and I look forward to having my FB Messenger blow up for the next couple weeks :-). 

Cheers,

Steve

Hi there - I'm trying to post my condo rental on Facebook Marketplace using my personal profile, but my post keeps getting flagged by FB, saying, "This Listing Goes Against Our Rules for Selling on Facebook We reviewed your listing and found that it didn't follow our Commerce Policies. We have these policies to help people buy and sell with confidence."

I'm just filling in the description and attributes and uploading photos, so not sure what I'm doing wrong?  Anyone else run into this issue when trying to post a rental?  I see a ton of other rentals listed on FBMP, so I don't think the category is the issue. 

Thanks! 

-Steve in Denver