All Forum Posts by: Masta Purba

My business partners and I acquired the property at Trustee's Sale and evicted the previous owner yesterday.  On the day of the eviction, the police had to force him to move out of the house and tasered him.  He had a gun and we found a full bag of ammunition after we secured the property.  They brought him to the hospital because of his injury (tasered) and his high blood pressure.

Today, the constable office called me and told me that he run away from the hospital and we need to be extra cautious to enter the property.

Can the police actually chase him and arrest him?  He doesn't have criminal background.  But yesterday when he was forced to move out, he threatened the police saying "force will be met by force".  I definitely think that he was psychology affected because of the divorce and losing the house.  He has nothing to lose and could do anything.

Any BP has previous experience like this before and can shed the light how to proceed and to protect our safety when we enter the property and while doing rehab?  Thanks!

 Thank you for your response Michael.  Before I went to the house myself, I actually asked the third party (contractor) to come to the house and quote me for tile repairs (tile bulging). However, he gave me the quote for $1800.  I couldn't believe what I heard, it's $1800 for just a tile repair?  So I called a second contractor to come to the house and get me a second quote, and he quoted me for about $900 only labor but I had to pay for the material.  I accepted the $900 one and would buy the material for him.  However, few days later he called me saying he couldn't do the work because he's tight up with other job in Boca Raton, another city.  The third contractor that I called, told me that it's too far for him to come to the house.  Wanting to be a responsible landlord and didn't want my tenants to wait for a long time, (the tenant covered the area where tiles bulged since they didn't want to make tile even worse, so they couldn't use the area), I decided to check the situation myself.  When I saw the tiles myself, it was not as bad as what the contractor told me.  So, I went to the local tile supplier myself to find the matching tiles for the tiles repair and asked them for a recommendation for the tile contractor.  He recommended me one tile contractor and I called them and he went to the house to see the problem and charged me only for $400 (I was there with him).  I did find myself the matching tiles to fix the tile repair.  If I were to ask the contractor to find me the matching tiles, it would have costed me more.  So, I did save quite a lot of money by going there to the house myself to find a contractor and the matching tiles.

Thank you all for your comments and inputs. I really appreciate your time and effort. I will take them into consideration. 

I just wanted to clarify something here.  I probably confused a little bit about the one month security deposit that I planned to cover tenant's rent.  I didn't change the contract yet allowing them to use their one month security deposit to cover their rent. I just sent them an email saying I am willing to negotiate with them by giving them one month of their security deposit to be used for last month's rent (but not for March's rent).  Because they never responded to my email, call & text messages.

This is what I told them in the email:

....."Please be advised, as explained in my previous email, I will only keep 1 month security deposit, instead of 2 months as per lease agreement. You still need to make a rent payment for March but you don't need to pay last month (April) rent.".....

However, since they didn't pay their March's rent until today, I was then thinking to send them an email saying that I would apply the one month security deposit to cover March's rent instead of last month's rent.  But I haven't sent the email yet to them regarding changing the month to cover, March's rent instead of last month's. I don't know if there is any difference in changing which one month to cover by security deposit, last month or the month before.

I arrived with a decision of giving them their one month security deposit to cover their rent also because I had a discussion with a friend of mine who's also an investor and told me he only keeps 1 month deposit, never 2 months deposit.

So after thinking it through, since they have been good tenants for 4 years, it's probably not a bad idea if I negotiated with them that I would allow them to use their one month security deposit to pay for their last month's rent (not for March's rent).

Yes, I am really thinking how this cost the least to me.  The reason why I didn't really want to go with the eviction, especially when they have been exceptionally good for 4 years, it's because the time, the cost and the risk involved. According to the RE agent I spoke with when I was talking to him about the possibility of selling the house and mentioned my problem with the tenant, he said that it could cost me around $1,400 for eviction, which is equal to my one month rental income. The tenant might get upset because of the eviction and might destroy the house. I don't really know if they would do it, but there is a possibility. I know there's always a risk involved, but I want to minimize the risk as much as I could.

 Thank you for your response Jeff.

 Thank you for your response Daniel.  I just checked that in Florida, it is not legal to use the security deposit to cover the rent.  I hold 2 months of security deposits.  But, I had emailed them that I would let them use 1 month security deposit to pay for their one month rent because I was not aware that according to Florida law, I can't use the security deposit to pay for the rent.  I just wanted to work something out with her and not having to do an eviction. Since they didn't pay the March's rent, should I file the quit or pay notice now or wait until April 1? 

 Thank you for your response Colleen. I held 2 months of rent as security deposits because at that time, their income was not that OK but their credit score was good.  I actually didn't agree to this before March rent was paid.  But then I discussed it with my other investor's friend and he told me that he usually only keeps 1 month rent as a security deposit. That's why I came to a decision to give the tenant their 1 month security deposit to cover their March rent and continue to keep another month rent as a security deposit. I will try to remind them that they need my reference, but unfortunately my tenant just got married and she would move with her husband, so she won't need my reference to find the next rental. Her mother would move with her. 

Hello, this is my first post eventhough I am always actively following and reading Biggerpockets. I have a question regarding a rental property I currently own in Miami, FL.  I am a long distance landlord and I live in TX.  I currently have a tenant who is renting the property.  They have been renting the property for 4 years now.  They are good tenants and always paid their rent on time (even long before the due dates).  I recently flew to Miami and stopped by at the house to do some repairs. I saw the house was cleaned and well maintained.  

Recently, 2 months before their lease ends, they told me that they won't extend the lease because they wanted to move to another city for a job. They mentioned that since I already saw how good they took care of the house and what a good tenant they have been (never late in rent payment for 4 years, cleaned the house very well, repaired little things that needed to be repaired by themselves without bothering me), they wanted to use their 2 months security deposits that I held to pay for their last 2 months of rent (March and April). They promised me that they would take care of the house and leave the house as the way I saw them when I was there recently.

I thanked them for being a good tenant, but I told them that they couldn't use their 2 months security deposits for paying the last 2 months rents and they needed to continue to pay the rents.  However, they didn't accept my explanation and got irritated because it seemed that I didn't 'trust' them, by the way I have a good relationship with them.  I explained again to them that as per lease agreement, I needed to hold the 2 months security deposit until they move out.  They didn't response to my explanation, I believe because they were upset.  After thinking it through, I finally came to a decision to give them their 1 month security deposit to pay for their 1 month rent.  So, I sent them an email saying that they could use their 1 month security deposit to pay for their 1 month rent but they have to pay for the other month rent.  They never responded to my email, I think because they still wanted me to give them their 2 months security deposit to pay for their last 2 months rent.  Now, they didn't respond to any of my correspondences if I talked about rent payment.

They were supposed to pay for this month rent (March) but they didn't, so I took the 1 month security deposit and applied it to this month rent as I promised to them.  Now, I am confused.  If they didn't pay the next month rent, which I believe they won't, should I give them a 3 day notice and evict them?  I don't really want to do an eviction process because it will cause me time and money and also there will be a risk of them destroying the house if I evict them.  I really want to work something out with them, but they didn't want to respond to me regarding rent payment.  The funny thing is when I told them I wanted to sell the house and the RE agent might need to look at the property to take some pictures, they responded and they told me to let them know ahead of time so they could prepare the house at its best for the picture taking.

So, I am not sure what I should do.  Does anyone here have a similar experience?

Comments and input would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Masta

Irving, Texas