All Forum Posts by: Peter Fokas

there was signed contract for just the original work. We paid him the full amount of 2500 and told him he did not have to finish the job. There was nothing in writing in terms of the work that was considered outside the scope.

It does sound like my best course of action is to get legal advice.

The work that was actually completed and that you can consider outside the scope of the contract was trivial. Definitely not worth more than the unfinished portion of the original contract. We did verbally say we were ok with doing some of the additional work bu6t no price was ever given.

Hired a contractor to some improvements to rec room in basement for 2500. Gave him deposit of 1000 to start. He kept asking for weekly payments even though we agreed to pay balance when project finished. We had some issues with him so felt better to end this working relationship. We still paid him the full amount of 2500 as agreed and told him he did not have to finish the job. Now he comes back saying he wants another 2700 for work he did that was outside the scope of original contract. Any recommendations on how to handle this?

Bill,

Thanks for the feedback. Will try that out. Electrical is working fine but not sure how old it is. So wanted to at least identify the potential costs.

contract everything.

I have a 6 unit multi-family in Newark NJ and now looking at long term goals. Some of the units are in real need of updates. So figure as a tenant leaves will then update apartments Trying to assess costs of renovations.
1. new kitchen

2. new bathroom

3. new flooring- thinking of putting tiles with new plywood underneath

4. potentially new electric wiring

5. paint job

These are approx 500 to 600 sq foot apartments.

How much do you think improvements like this will cost me?

Not planning on doing anything with walls (at least all of them seem ok other than painting).

Was thinking of offering an apartment to handyman type and offer him discount in exchange for being an on-site super for handling any "handyman" type of jobs (i.e. painting, install carpet). What sort of % discount makes sense? Any rule of thumb? Utilities are included in rent so at least it has to cover the cost of utilities.

So recently purchased a 6 family building. 3 tenants have existing leases and 3 are MTM. What is standard operating procedure in getting new leases with them. Are current leases with old owner null and void? Can I immediately raise rents? I do not want to "rock the boat" but just want to know what I can and cannot do and to be aware of anything that has certain restrictions.

I have a 6 unit multi-family that has the heat separate (tenants pay heat). The 6 boilers are 25 years old and the 6 hot water heaters range in age (5 to 20 years). NJ is offering some financial incentives to update so contacted a contractor and got a quote.
Here are the details:
35k - to replace 6 hot water heaters and 6 boilers

5.5k to insulate attic

40k - total

6k in NJ rebates

so net 34k in total.

Since the tentants pay for heat this proposal does not seem feasible to go and be proactive about replacing heating system. Wanted to get other people's thoughts and see what others have done in the past. The heating system is working so I am under the opinion to leave as is until something breaks.

I used Home depot. Was thinking of buying discounted gift cards to use to buy appliances to get more discount on the items.