My tenants are working parents with kids and have been living there for over three years. They always pay rent late and currently owe about $5,000. There's a late fee clause in the lease, but I never enforce it. Plus, the rent is $200 lower than the market rate. They usually owe me around $5,000—sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more. They're pretty nice people who appreciate my flexibility, follow HOA rules, and even take care of small repairs themselves.

I like it this way because the townhome is getting old. The carpet is worn, the walls could use a fresh paint, and the bathroom might need an upgrade—all of which could run about $15k. Since I live out of state, the longer they stay, the longer I can delay making those expensive fixes. Also their finances are probably limiting them from finding a place who would be ok with late payment, which sucks but I always welcome long-term tenants. I know most posts here are against being lenient with late payments, but in my case, it works pretty well.

My tenant paid November 2024 rent, communicated with me via text regarding repairs needed at the home. On December 3, 2024 she filed a false fraud claim with her bank resulting in November rent paying being reversed. I’ve seen evicted the tenant as she didn’t pay December or January’s rent payment. I used Zillow rental manager to collect payments. I submitted all evidence with Zillow (who submitted to the tenants bank) after 8 weeks my dispute was denied. I am considering disputing directly with the bank for failure to properly investigate. Any suggestions?

Hi, there was a fire in the building where my tenant lives and a partial evacuation was issued, his apartment was NOT on the list of apartments to evacuate. Obviously in the days right after the incident, the air, pollution and debris are a problem but the situation is being taken care in the best way possible. Also the water was shut down for 2/3 days to handle some maintenance and repairs.

The lease will end in some months but the tenant declared that for health reason he cannot stay in the apartment anymore, and wants to break early for uninhabitable condition.

I know it's not an ideal situation, but the apartment doesn't have an order of evacuation and management is working hard to clean-up and rebuild.

I'm willing to work with the tenant to find someone else to take the lease as soon as possible but I don't think he can just walk away from keep paying the rest of the lease.

Any suggestion? thank you

Hello everyone

I am having a situation with my landlord. last month my car slipped and I hit the garage door of my Bulding .The insurance company refuse to pay as my coverage don't include collision, The land lord asking me for about 5000$ , as he claim they replace the door but from my perspective the hit was minor only scratch the outer part and it get out of frame, they fixed on the same night.

What is my option in such a situation

Thank you all

Hello,

I had a tenant in southern AZ with a one year lease, and he called me to let me know he was moved out of the house. I had no notice at all prior to this.

In the lease it says if someone were to break a lease, the security deposit is forfeit, and nothing further. However, that was written with the intent that I would be given at least a month's notice, not a day before February rent is due.

Would I be legally in the clear to take this person to small claims court? I can try getting someone else in there immediately, but the law as I understand it would mean he is on the hook for February as if I received the notice he was leaving right now.

So.. I Used a broker to help rent out my first floor apartment about 6 years ago. We have a great tenant (couple no kids) respectful, quiet keeps to themselves. This year the wife asked about getting a esa because her psych recommended it. I explicitly stated no pets when posting ad years ago and reminded tenant. Now the husband states since they signed the lease and paid a brokers fee they are covered under HUD. I'm confused. It's a 2FH, we live on first floor tenants on second

Our tenant gave us written notice via email that they would be leaving on Jan 1. They did not move out, have not paid rent, and will not respond to emails or texts.

Can we commence eviction proceedings based on their giving notice, or do we have to give our own 90 day notice?

(Not in PA actually in CO)

I need advice. A few months ago, the property manager of the apartments I live in hired an "unlicensed" plumber to do gas work on another unit. Ultimately, the unlicenced work was done horribly, and there ended up being a gas leak, so I had to call the gas company and have them come out to check, and it was found that there was a leak. It has now been 4 days since the gas leak was found (Friday), and I still have no gas (this includes no hot water, no oven or stove). I was just informed that I wouldn't have gas through the weekend, so a total of a week with no hot water or cooking, and some tenants have no heat (except space heaters). my food is going bad because i cant cook it and the only support i got from the property manager was her offering hot showers at the local rec center. What should I do? i feel like some compensation is required or am i wrong.

The last update I got was," Hi, tenants, Still no gas through the weekend. The state will be here on Monday to finish the approval process, as they don't work weekends. so use te extra space heaters, shower or even relax, workout or play at the rec center on me and we will update you on Monday." [I live in Durango, Colorado USA so laws accordingly]

If you value safety don’t live here. My mailbox has been compromised multiple times. Cars get broken into often and my apartment just got broken into on Christmas day. Smashed my patio door and ransacked the place. Just grateful to be getting out of here. Looking forward to sleeping at night without people knocking on my door in the middle of the night or constantly worrying my car is going to get broken into.

After the break-in I requested to move apartments due to no longer feeling safe in that space. They graciously agreed to accommodate me, but failed to mention (until days later when I toured) that the apartment they had offered to me reeked of cigarettes due to a heavy smoker living downstairs. They were going to fumigate but couldn’t agree to any ongoing mitigation for the smell. Basically I would have been paying the same rent for a smaller apartment and a side of lung cancer lol.

They did let me out of my lease and waived the 30 days notice which was good on them. But they took 10 days to replace my back door, leaving it boarded up. My apartment felt unsafe and very cold. I asked for a reduction of rent for the period of time where the apartment was uninhabitable and was told since they did “everything in their power to fix the door” I wasn’t entitled to rent reduction. Though the folks who came to fix the door did indicate that they didn’t receive a call until 5 days after the break in and then struggled to contact anyone at the office. But they could’ve been wrong who knows.

I was frustrated but was grateful for the 30 days waived and getting out of my lease with no ramifications. But come Jan 8th I got a nice little note on my door charging me two fees. One return of payment, which was fair ($25) and one late rent fee ($50). And the need to pay my rent in cashiers checks. My auto-payment for rent didn’t go through since I had to change all my bank accounts after the break in. When I requested they waive the late fee and the need for the cashiers check after paying rent on-time for over a year they told me to “refer to the lease I had signed”.

Most houses near JHU are rented to 5-6 people. Does that comply with city code for max occupancy with unrelated people? Is there an exception for properties grandfathered in or in a specific campus zone?

My 83 yo father owns a 3 family property and it’s nothing but headaches anymore. I keep telling him to sell it but he won’t listen.

Anyway, he has a tenant who’s been struggling with mental health issues for the last few years. She’s nasty to the other tenants and has harassed them before for certain. She also threatens other neighbors on the street for getting too close to her car. Recently we found out the police were holding her in a cruiser outside the house for disorderly conduct.

Recently my dad had the heating system in her apartment replaced. It’s gas. She’s been complaining that there is a smell with the unit which I think has to do with the fact that it’s new from the factory. We’ve had service people there a few times to investigate and appease her concerns. Nothing is wrong with the heater.

She keeps threatening to call the fire department because of the smell. She even did that during one of the service calls. My dad told her to go right ahead and do it. Now she’s threatening not to pay the rent until we ‘get it fixed’.

It’s not the first time she’s done crazy shit. Another time she complained that there was too much steam in the bathroom after a shower, so my dad hired a handy man to put in a proper fan in the bathroom. Halfway through the install she got angry and said she didn’t want it. She threatened to call the police if they didn’t take out the fan and fix the hole.

She constantly calls my dad with grievances and threats. It’s endless with this woman. I think my dad should just evict her but he just won’t. How can I convince him or what else can I do to make this situation better?

I am but a simple, 1 property landlord so please be gentle.

I thought I set my rent price on the average of comparable properties, as there are several in the neighborhood waiting to be rented. I am overwhelmed at the amount of interest being shown and I am afraid I really low balled myself. Is it frowned upon to increase the price based on interest?

So, I've been living in this in-law unit for the last 15 months. Originally, the landlord rented the main house upstairs as separate rooms. In November, he texted the upstairs tenants to let them know he was planning on selling the house and told them not to tell us. Obviously, they did... cause why wouldn't they? All tenants moved out of the upstairs by the first week of January. Landlord sends a text to me about how he is going to sell, but says he encourages us to stay because potential buyers may still want to rent the downstairs unit, but that he has no control over that.

I need to stay on this month-to-month lease until I know where I have to relocate for graduate school. I'm not sure how to react to this seemingly unstable housing situation. I don't want to get roped into another lease, as I may need to relocate by the Fall, but I am also kind of worried about possible evictions and rent increases as the upstairs being vacant makes the spot a single-family home which changes things like rent control status, buyouts, etc.

Does anyone have experience in a situation like this? I am in contact with the tenants union and have been reading SF Rent Board publicly available literature over the last month, but just wanted to survey this community for possible insights. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: While I'm happy to keep having conversations below about how awful of a landlord I am, I'd really appreciate even a little bit of help with my actual question here about how to avoid my tenants' heat being shut off.

Context: in MA, If you are poor/broke (ish) then your utilities used for heat can't be shut off during the winter.

I'm in a less common situation... I have two tenants who haven't paid rent in almost a year and I'm responsible for the utilities in their building (which is on the same property next to the house I live in). They are using about $2000/mo in gas and $600/mo in electricity right now. This is in a building that recently had extra insulation added by a state funded program. I'm behind on some utility bills and have started getting short notices of shutoffs, including currently a 72 hour notice for electricity. I lost my job and am working on qualifying for winter utility protection for myself, but I'm being told that the moratorium doesn't cover the other building since it has a separate meter.

It seems like what's about to happen is the heat will get shut off, the tenants will report me to the board of health, an inspector will confirm the heat is off, I'll get an order to turn it back on, I'll fail, then...??

Anyone have tips on how to avoid heat getting shut off for them? Or how to speed up whatever process comes after the above, to get their heat back on sooner?

I'm already 7-10 months into the processes of evicting them. They are ignoring multiple court orders to pay thousands of dollars. Yes I'm trying to find a new job. I already spent all my savings and used all my available credit dealing with earlier parts of this situation.

This is partially a copy of https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonhousing/comments/1ic3juv/winter_utility_shutoff_moratorium_for_landlord/

The landlord is telling us we are responsible for an $800 repainting fee if we break out lease early (by 3 months). We've been in the unit for less than one year, and the unit is brand new (new construction, we're the first tenant)

This is not excessive wear and tear. Is this typical?

Update: it’s in the lease, so we’ll pay it.

“Should the Tenant terminate this Lease prior to the expiration date, Tenant agrees to pay Landlord in addition to rent owed under this Lease, the costs of painting, and repairs if required plus a re-rental fee of $250.00. Such sums if not paid by Tenant, will be deducted from the security deposit in accordance with Paragraph 11. Tenant shall be liable for all costs incurred, including attorneys' fees, in connection with the collection of any monies due Landlord, including, unpaid rent, which becomes due during or after the termination of the tenancy. Tenant shall remain liable for all unpaid rent through the lease term.”

Hello, so tenant entered into a 6 month lease, that converted after into a month to month. I provided notice in December that lease will end in February and they will need to leave. Now tenant is refusing to pay rent (normally a bank transfer) because they are unhappy with rent receipts previously provided. They want to now mail a check (I live out of state). I do not want to deal with mailing a check because I do not trust that it will ever arrive. Can I refuse their offer of mailing a check and just begin the eviction process, since they are due to leave next month anyway? Until this point they have paid, at times late but once I notified them of the end of the lease agreement it has been one thing after another.

I’ve recently put one of my properties into an LLC. I have a last month check coming to me. Is it allowed for them to make the check out to my personal name or does it absolutely have to be made out to the LLC?

We have a property long story short had a small leak under the kitchen facet that the tenants didnt tell us for 2 years. We came to the agreement with the tenant to split the cost after getting an estimate from the mold company and a different reconstructor who gave his estimate based on if only the sink cabinet had to be replaced with flexiblity depending on what parts can be salvage. We have a management company handle all this.

After the mold mediation was finished, we get pictures and the entire side of the wall is gone. I try finding out more but the mold mediation company said that it was standard procedure and they had to remove 2 feet around the mold. But during the entire process, we did not get a single update or any relevant information about the scope of deconstruction, we also didnt get any discussions before hand about the degree of deconstruction, when I ask the property management company, they said the mold company had no choice and it was our fault for not finding out the scope of work. I told them that if they had at least told me before we signed I wouldve work with the reconstructor to get a proper estimate and he was willing to salvage parts of the cabinets and fix them.

Is this standard procedure and I'm the one being unreasonable? Is it my fault for not going through the 30 page contract and expecting our property management company to have our best interest?

I feel extremely blindsided because I was given information to make a judgement, and the information I was given from all parties were not accurate and now they can just wipe their hands and leave the mess to us.

Now the reconstructor is estimating 10k instead of 2k, i dont know what to do. This repair was done without insurance and we do not have the funds to fix this.

1st time landlord here. My tenants moved out 10 days ago. I just got around to doing a walk through and believe the repairs will exceed their $2000 security deposit. I'm super busy with work at the moment and won't have time to get it all repaired in the next 20 days. Tenant is asking for an itemization of deductions. I am sending him my notes from the inventory and conditions form. He also violated his lease while living there (more than the allowed amount of cars parked on the street overnight and had people stay there longer than the allowed 6 days without my permission). Will my notes be enough to hold up in court if he fights me on the return of his security deposit?

Our current tenants have asked to break their lease. They say they are getting divorced. We agreed on the condition a replacement tenant is found.

We posted the place $150 more than we are currently renting it for because "on paper" that's what it looks like it should be.

It's a unique property verses what's out there in the town. More square footage, 2 car garage, fenced yard. The increase in square footage is due to larger bedrooms and dining room and mud/laundry room. Cons would be no central AC, smaller living room, attic 4th bedroom has no heat or available type of windows for ac unit. Everyone has used this room successfully as a 4th bedroom previously, it's actually a cool space. We listed it as a 3 bedroom due to the issues with heating and cooling.

Square footage wise we are actually in the middle range.

We have gotten maybe 10 tours in 2 weeks. We've gotten no follow ups after showing it.

I'm not sure if we priced too high or if it's just the time of year? Also this is the first time we've listed it while tenants were living there. It is cluttered and I don't feel the way they positioned the furniture really shows off the place. To me the lower floor screams"there is not enough room here". The main bathroom is also very cluttered and "lived in" dirty when we tour.

I want to be fair, but don't want to sacrifice ourselves for our current tenants either. Not sure what to do?

I just wanted to share my experience yesterday. We successfully evicted a tenant for nonpayment of rent. The police had to forcibly remove her and her animals (she never told us she had any at move in). She was drunk at 2 pm. Pic is of the 2nd bedroom. Yes, that is dog feces. Time to rebuild!

Now you call it broken hand shower or a#@ shower I don't care but it's pretty frustrating to see it broken down while I was about to use the toilet. Even more so, the LL said it was my fault that I didn't scrutinize the property properly before walking in. Now it's anyways not gonna cost me a fortune but what if I find something more damages later on? I mean who the heck checks the hand shower? What to do in case I face bigger issues? Whom to report?

Originally posted r/leaselords

Hello all, I'm a new-ish landlord, I'm curious how to price this unique rental property I just finished, it's a literal brand new home, on the high end with every amenity, as l'm a carpenter who built the place from the foundation up all new, I'm doing my clean up and clean out this weekend and attempting to write the ad to post on Monday, howevor I can not seem to find a "comparable" property to base this home off of, as I don't believe new homes tend to be common to rent, does anyone have any suggestions or input on how i could price this appropriately? Thank you for any helpful input you may have!

Hey friends,

My tenant is asking if a Tesla charger can be installed. I think probably many of you have received similar request. My question is about the permit. I believe it is too risky to install without a permit, right? Since I will be liable to any accidents related to the charger and I am worried the landlord insurance may decline any claims on this.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

-- Alex

This is in the state of Florida. I have two old tenants who I had to go to court with to try to collect money from. One of them owed me two months of rent and when she left the condo it was destroyed, had garbage, furniture, and fleas and dog feces and urine on the floor. The other also owed two months of rent and left furniture and personal belongings in the condo. I went to court with both tenants and received a judgement from both of them. My question is how do I go about getting the money from them or am I never going to see the money?

We’re beginning the eviction process against a tenant and have to serve a five day notice directly to them. We have no idea what the tenant’s schedule is. Is it better to just show up hoping the tenant will be there, or is it better to contact the tenant first and just not say why we’re asking when they’ll be home? This is the first time we’ve had to evict someone.

Hey y’all, I’m trying to terminate my contract with a property management team that has been unresponsive to my tenants and has left several ongoing issues unresolved despite several of my tenant’s attempts to request maintenance therein.

Is there any specific way in which I should format my email notice of request for termination?

Should I include text messages between my tenant and the agent correspondent? Or is it enough to simply state my reasonings (found a cheaper option that is proven more prompt and responsive already in doing a little covert test run with them).

What do i do? Gf was cooking and we usually just use one stovetop burner and we used this one and it shorted itself or something and jumped an arc to the ground. No one was hurt but it spooked the cat.