All Forum Posts by: Travis Campbell

Hi all!

We just opened a LLC for our rental property. I have a quick question regarding the LLC bank account. Of course this is where I keep the security deposit from my tenants. I use Venmo to collect rent. Do I need to run the rent money through my LLC bank account before I transfer it to my personal account or can I transfer straight from Venmo to my personal without it ever touching the LLC bank account?

Thanks for your help!

The lease says she must return the property to me in the condition in which I gave it to her, of course. And I know that all this should have been taken care of before she left, but since she still had a friend living there and we have had absolutely no problems from them in the past year and a half, I decided to be a little lenient. Next time, I probably wont make the same decision.

that being said, I went over for the inspection last night after they finished... the townhome was spotless. they cleaned everything from the baseboards to the microwave to the toilets. Everything. they had someone come repair the floor as well. I am happy with the way this turned out but it was more stressful for myself than it should have been but that's ok, I'll know next time.

Thanks for all the advice! I am sure I will have many more questions for yall

@Mindy Jensen Yes ma'am. I have pictures of everything along with a check in sheet. I think the mother is just trying to flex. Once she gets over there tonight she will see why we are charging a fee. She is trying to argue that since I did not have any turnover and no loss of income and still have a tenant living in the townhome, I can not charge a cleaning fee and can not have the place cleaned when I have an active tenant. If she gives me any slack tonight I will politely ask her to never contact me again and if her daughter wishes to take me to court then I will see her there.

the only issue with that is tenant 1 and 2 are friends and 2 is in a current lease. (remember only tenant 1 is moving out). so I told them if tenant 2 wants to let them back in to clean and they can get it clean up to my wifes standards, so be it. we will call it a done deal and walk away from it. thank yall for all the advice. I am learning as I go and learning a ton from you experts.

I will report back tonight and let yall know how the inspection goes. after talking to yall and a couple of landlord friends I have, I don't believe I will settle and eat the cleaning costs. If they want to go to court then so be it. (and I am with yall and don't think that will happen.)

My percentages were simply to show yall how much I was taking for each item. Of course the percentages coincide with what the repairs and cleaning actually cost me. I did not just say "Humm, I think I'll charge 16% for that.". I got a new deposit because it was a brand new lease. Not an extension. Deposit amount did change (went up). I am not planning on splitting up the amount back to each tenant. They paid me with one deposit check so I plan on supplying them with one refund check and it is up to them to determine who gets what. This is the first problem I have ever had with them in the past year and a half. Also, the problem is wI think tenant 1, who is the one moving out. Tenant 2 who is staying seems to understand the cleaning fee and has no problem paying it from what I can tell. 

I know now I should not talk to the parent but like I said, these are our first tenants in our first rental and I am trying to learn as I go without getting sued in the process. 

The mother and tenant 1 are supposed to come clean and make repairs tonight and I am to go inspect afterward. My biggest concern now is if it is not clean to my (aka my wifes) standards and we still have to charge a cleaning fee. At this point, for such a small amount of money, if that happens we might just eat it and pay it ourselves. We make enough on the rental to cover that no problem and I don't believe it is worth a half day off work dealing with court.

So I have a two BR townhouse and for the past year I have had two great tenants with absolutely no issues. These are the first tenants I have ever had. We will call them 1 and 2. Well, 1 decides she wants to move out at the end of their lease (May 31st). 2 wants to stay. Great! So I signed a new lease with tenant 2 and collected a new security deposit. I did a walkthrough just to find out the condition of the house and determine how much security they would receive back from the first lease. Well, 1's bathroom was filthy. They hadn't cleaned it at all. The first floor (All common area, kitchen, Living room, 1/2 bath, and dining room) was worse. Mold in bath, on window seals, and baseboards. Crumbs and food everywhere! they haven't cleaned the microwave once in the past year nor the oven. The stove and outside of the oven has a thick layer of grease on it. There was food splashed on the walls. it was pretty bad. So I decide I will charge a small cleaning fee to get the townhouse back to where it was when I first rented it to them. (16% of their total security deposit). Also, there is a pretty large gash/scrape in the laminate floors on the first floor. I decide to charge a fee to get that fixed as well. (5% of total security). So, now for the interesting part, the mother of tenant 1 calls me. She threatens me with small claims court and tells me all this is normal wear and tear and "how can I expect not to find hair on the toilet after someone has lived there a year".

How would yall handle this? I honestly don't know what to do. I really don't want to go to court over less than $300. Is this normal?