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DNova posted:One month's rent pet deposit, no additional pet rent has been my policy so far. Officially, no pets are allowed. Having more than 1.5 months of rent held in deposit is illegal in my area, so I make up for it by charging more each month.
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May 12, 2015 02:16
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Maybe this is tangentially related to rental property, if at all but my tenant's most recent check did not show up. It is an auto mailed check from his bank, he did some digging as it was mailed on time. Someone called his bank claiming to be me, and had it sent to a new address. They were able to get the bank to do this and so I never got the check. I am assuming that either my tenant or my identity has been compromised, but as the check has been mailed for a week now, it seems weird it has not been cashed. FWIW, the new address is in my county, so not Nigeria or anything. Anyone else seen this? What is the angle, are they going to cash the check as me? The check has been cancelled at least.
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Jun 12, 2015 01:25
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Mercury Ballistic posted:Maybe this is tangentially related to rental property, if at all but my tenant's most recent check did not show up. It is an auto mailed check from his bank, he did some digging as it was mailed on time. Someone called his bank claiming to be me, and had it sent to a new address. They were able to get the bank to do this and so I never got the check. I am assuming that either my tenant or my identity has been compromised, but as the check has been mailed for a week now, it seems weird it has not been cashed. FWIW, the new address is in my county, so not Nigeria or anything. Maybe to get the account numbers off the check and do a wire transfer as the tenant? Did they pretend to be you specifically or a more general landlord? Or your tenant was going to be late and freaked out and did this, but wed need to know more about your situation.
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Jun 12, 2015 12:50
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I trust my tenant. A new check is coming So I am fairly sure it is him being level with me. The bank says the caller claimed to be me, which is disconcerting.
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Jun 12, 2015 13:11
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Hello thread. I currently own a condo in California. I will be moving into a larger rental house with my girlfriend later this summer (while we save to possibly buy) and I am trying to figure out what to do with my current home. Some details: Purchase date: 2008. I used the first time home buyers credit. The stupid one where you have to pay it back over the next 15 years at tax time. I have been making the $AMOUNT / 15 payments on my taxes each year. From what I gather, if this home is no longer my primary residence, I have to pay the balance back in full, which is around $3k or something at this point. Purchase price: $283k Current value estimate on Zillow: $280k Loan type: FHA I re-financed in 2011 to go from 5.75% down to 4% for a 30-year. Not knowing much about mortgages and poo poo, I re-fied into another FHA, which increased my PMI and also reset the 5-year timer on it. Current outstanding balance: $230k Breakdown of current payments (~$1750): - Principal: $425 - Interest: $765 - Escrow ($560) breakdown: -- Homeowners insurance: $48 (~$570 yearly) -- PMI: $212 (will drop off in ~18 months) -- Property taxes: $300 (~$3600 yearly) I currently pay weekly, so there's a few months a year where I am paying ~$2400, but that extra payment goes towards principal. Over the year, it averages out to a little over $1900/month. My HOA is $230/month (there's a pool and poo poo), so my average monthly expenses are $1900 + $230 = $2130. I've put next to $0 in maintenance since I've lived here since it was built in 2004. Nothing huge has blown up and the roof is covered with my HOA payment. The only thing I could see crapping out anytime soon is the HVAC. It runs just fine now, but that's the first thing I could see going. According to Zillow, they estimate I could get ~$1600/month if I rent it out. Of course those are just wild estimates, but one thing I'm not positive on, is if estimates like that are including the HOA? If that figure is supposed to cover HOA, then I'm obviously running a pretty large net monthly loss. Still running one even if it doesn't. Even more-so since I'd probably want to hire a management company. We have 3 kids, so my spare time is already pretty limited. The only reason I'd like to hang onto this property is to build equity. I originally bought the home as the price was falling (original owner bought it for $330k) and only in the past year it has recovered. If I sold now, I'd be breaking even with my buy price. Is it dumb to rent this place? My income is high enough to where I could easily absorb eating a couple hundred/month. If I rent it out, my mortgage guy told me that it would be advisable to refi into a conventional loan beforehand since doing it after converting it to a rental property has other rules and implications. That's if I wanted to at all. But since I'm already at 4%, I don't think it would be worth it, not to mention my PMI will be dropping off next year.
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Jun 16, 2015 23:19
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Hello thread. I currently own a condo in California. I will be moving into a larger rental house with my girlfriend later this summer (while we save to possibly buy) and I am trying to figure out what to do with my current home. When renting a condo out, the landlord pays HOA. And you price accordingly. What are other units actually renting at? You may consider selling it now and eating the loss all at once vs monthly.
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Jun 17, 2015 00:18
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Do your research with comparable listings and figure out what you think you can really rent it for rather than what zillow says. You'd be getting eaten alive at $1600/mo.
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Jun 17, 2015 04:55
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If you do rent it out, you are going to be responsible for whatever you do not include in the monthly payment in the lease agreement. Chances are that is going to mean you pay the HOA yourself. Certainly try and see what other homes might be rented for in your project, as zillow doesn't really set the market for things like that. If you can get a conventional loan on a refi, you could probably improve the terms quite a bit, either by going back out to a 30 (which you may not love if you are trying to build equity) or even on a 25 or a 20, which would probably have payments somewhat similar to what you pay now (but with all of the money you normally spend on PMI going straight to principal). Editing out some stuff about the refi element, read the op wrong and thought you had a higher rate. gtkor fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Jun 17, 2015 |
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Jun 17, 2015 05:00
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I want to know why you can't just live in the condo. Given the numbers you're outlining you should sell the place. If a rental isn't cash flowing it's not worth it.
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Jun 17, 2015 05:08
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SiGmA_X posted:What's your equity at? If you refi and have at least 20% equity, you could save PMI. My loan is currently at $230k from the original $283k, so ~19%. BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:Do your research with comparable listings and figure out what you think you can really rent it for rather than what zillow says. You'd be getting eaten alive at $1600/mo. Hence my dilema. A rental actually just popped up a few hours ago in my neighborhood that is very comparable to my condo and it's going for $1750. It's listed as owner pays HOA, so that kind of sucks. gtkor posted:If you can get a conventional loan on a refi, you could probably improve the terms quite a bit, either by going back out to a 30 (which you may not love if you are trying to build equity) or even on a 25 or a 20, which would probably have payments somewhat similar to what you pay now (but with all of the money you normally spend on PMI going straight to principal) With about 18 months left of PMI in my FHA, it'd save me in the ballpark of $3800 if I refi'ed to a conventional today, all other things being equal. Thinking about it that way, it would probably offset the closing costs of the refi. I actually didn't realize 20/25s were an option. That would actually make a lot of sense. I'll have to talk to my mortgage guy to run some numbers. n8r posted:I want to know why you can't just live in the condo. Given the numbers you're outlining you should sell the place. If a rental isn't cash flowing it's not worth it. - Girlfriend (she has the 3 kids) and I are currently not living together. My condo is only 2 bed, so moving 3 kids in the spare bedroom in here isn't really an option. - It's also pretty important to keep her special needs son in the same school due to the specialized services he receives there. - The kids babysitter lives close by the area we are moving to. She is amazing with the kids and dirt cheap. - It would push her commute from 45 minutes out to a minimum of 90 minutes. It will only increase my commute from 10 minutes to 25. TLDR: space, kids, day care, and commutes.
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Jun 17, 2015 05:47
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So your absolute best case scenario is $0 cash flow on a self managed rental after your PMI falls off in 2 years and you're on the hook out of pocket for all maintenance and expenses in addition to vacancy. Standard management company fees will eat about $300-$350/month of your gross rental receipts. You will lose the tax deduction for your mortgage interest and still owe taxes on part of your rental income (even if you're cash negative). Sell ASAP if you aren't going to live there.
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Jun 17, 2015 12:47
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The house can't be rented for enough for it to make sense. It sounds like you've got enough equity to make a little money if you sell the house. You can't time the market, so I think you should sell and use the funds as a down payment. It looks like you may have bought near the height of the market in 2008, so worrying about 'making your money back' is a silly motivation. I think you made a mistake with the re-fi was getting rid of the PMI. I would make drat sure whatever you buy in the future has no PMI. That's money that is totally down the drain. Get yourself to 20% down before you buy another house.
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Jun 17, 2015 16:25
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I've been renting out a townhouse to a tenant for the past 4.5 years - same tenant and only one that has been in there. They just moved out and we're looking to sell the property. My question is regarding damage while the tenant was in the property. We also rent out a condo and have gone through a few tenants, but have never had to deal with damage and withholding security deposit. There is a burn mark roughly the size of a nickel on some of the flooring (engineered wood). A guy that refinishes floors said it probably can't be salvaged as the veneer layer is likely too thin to refinish. It looks like it may have burned all the way through that anyway. So does that warrant withholding the entire security deposit since it would cost more than that to replace the floors? It's not normal wear and tear, but they had been there a while.
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Jul 7, 2015 16:35
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When I lived in an apartment with carpet, my landlord told me this (or maybe it was when my mom worked for a housing authority, I don't remember which) about the carpet they use: It's budgeted to be replaced every 5 years. If you live in an apartment with new carpet for 5 years, and when you leave the carpet is trashed, no problem, it was gonna get replaced anyway. If you live in an apartment for 3 years with new carpet and it gets trashed, you're on the hook for 2 years extra worth of damage, or 40%. So I guess think about how long that floor was supposed to last and not what it costs wholesale to replace, but what portion of the remaining lifespan they removed.
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Jul 7, 2015 19:32
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zerofunk posted:I've been renting out a townhouse to a tenant for the past 4.5 years - same tenant and only one that has been in there. They just moved out and we're looking to sell the property. My question is regarding damage while the tenant was in the property. We also rent out a condo and have gone through a few tenants, but have never had to deal with damage and withholding security deposit. There is a burn mark roughly the size of a nickel on some of the flooring (engineered wood). A guy that refinishes floors said it probably can't be salvaged as the veneer layer is likely too thin to refinish. It looks like it may have burned all the way through that anyway. That'd probably be a hugely dick move, because one piece of damage doesn't merit replacing all of the floors. If you wanted to look into having a single board replaced and charging for that I guess you could do it. That being said if you've had a good tenant for nearly 5 years and that's the only damage you should probably just consider it the cost of doing business.
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Jul 7, 2015 23:24
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zerofunk posted:I've been renting out a townhouse to a tenant for the past 4.5 years - same tenant and only one that has been in there. They just moved out and we're looking to sell the property. My question is regarding damage while the tenant was in the property. We also rent out a condo and have gone through a few tenants, but have never had to deal with damage and withholding security deposit. There is a burn mark roughly the size of a nickel on some of the flooring (engineered wood). A guy that refinishes floors said it probably can't be salvaged as the veneer layer is likely too thin to refinish. It looks like it may have burned all the way through that anyway.
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Jul 7, 2015 23:39
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Dik Hz posted:I'd consider a single nickel-sized damaged spot to an entire floor normal wear-and-tear for 4.5 years. There's got to be a way of fixing it short of ripping out the whole floor. I would not ever consider a burn in laminate flooring normal wear and tear, and my lease specifies things that are by definition not wear and tear on flooring, such as rips, burns, pet stains, etc., to prospectively eliminate any debate about it after the fact. edit: and of course this ignores the fact that there's probably a 99% chance that a burn mark in the floor was caused by smoking in the unit, which surely is against your lease and cause for withholding security deposit as well BEHOLD: MY CAPE fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Jul 8, 2015 |
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Jul 8, 2015 02:26
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n8r posted:That being said if you've had a good tenant for nearly 5 years and that's the only damage you should probably just consider it the cost of doing business. "Good tenant" is somewhat debatable although I won't get into that. She did always pay rent on time and there's not too much damage other than that burn. The carpet upstairs is in pretty bad shape and that was expected. I wouldn't withhold anything for that. I'm just torn on the engineered wood downstairs. Personally, I wouldn't expect to get a deposit back if I had done the same thing. Aside from the burn though, it isn't in the best shape at this point, so it's probably best to just replace it. We may have been able to get away with not doing it prior to selling though if the burn wasn't there. And I doubt they were smoking in there. Not sure what it would have come from, but it's in the dining area and not too far from the kitchen. Possibly a handle or something hot from the kitchen. I do need to go back and check the lease to see what it says. Something to keep in mind for future leases at the other property.
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Jul 8, 2015 10:52
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So my brother in law and his wife are planning on buying a new house and renting their old house to the wife's mom. Said mom does not have enough money (due to being retired and not good at saving) to afford a market rate on the house, so they are going to be renting to her for below market rates. I just found out yesterday that in addition, they plan on having her "gift" them rent every month, to avoid the rent being extra income. Overall it seems like a bad idea to me, but I don't know why specifically gifting rent suddenly makes it not income. Is that sort of arrangement legal? How would the IRS find out, and what are the chances they would, and if they did what would the consequence be? I'd like to convince him that it's a bad idea, but I'd need specifics if I was going to have a decent shot at doing so.
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Jul 8, 2015 13:04
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AbsenceVsThinAir posted:So my brother in law and his wife are planning on buying a new house and renting their old house to the wife's mom. Said mom does not have enough money (due to being retired and not good at saving) to afford a market rate on the house, so they are going to be renting to her for below market rates. I just found out yesterday that in addition, they plan on having her "gift" them rent every month, to avoid the rent being extra income. Overall it seems like a bad idea to me, but I don't know why specifically gifting rent suddenly makes it not income. Is that sort of arrangement legal? How would the IRS find out, and what are the chances they would, and if they did what would the consequence be? I'd like to convince him that it's a bad idea, but I'd need specifics if I was going to have a decent shot at doing so. Wrong thread for IRS questions, but there are some CPA landlords. They each (husband + wife) can gift the wife's mom 14k a year. I don't see how this is a problem if they can comfortably afford it. Maybe it would be a better use of their money for her to get a smaller apartment that she can afford, but charity isn't a bad thing per say.
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Jul 8, 2015 14:19
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AbsenceVsThinAir's post says that the mom will be the one gifting money. I don't see how it's any different than the mom moving in with the kids and then gifting them $10k a year. Obviously the kids can't take any rental deductions or anything because there's no renting going on.
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Jul 8, 2015 18:47
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Mandalay posted:AbsenceVsThinAir's post says that the mom will be the one gifting money. I don't see how it's any different than the mom moving in with the kids and then gifting them $10k a year. Right. So if she's not technically renting but she's getting the value of housing, wouldn't she technically need to pay taxes on the value she's receiving? Unless that's also a gift and exempt.
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Jul 8, 2015 22:14
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Mandalay posted:AbsenceVsThinAir's post says that the mom will be the one gifting money. I don't see how it's any different than the mom moving in with the kids and then gifting them $10k a year. AbsenceVsThinAir posted:Right. So if she's not technically renting but she's getting the value of housing, wouldn't she technically need to pay taxes on the value she's receiving? Unless that's also a gift and exempt. Consult a CPA about this, but all rent received must be considered income. If you are renting below fair market value you can deduct your rental expenses on the property to zero but not below that and you may not carry forward losses. The IRS in general frowns on ostensible gifts with valuable strings attached in arrangements that create a significant tax advantage, and in this case there is a guideline that specifically applies: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc415.html
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Jul 8, 2015 22:39
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Hey all, I'm in the process of selling my rental house that the previous tenants just left. I have some questions about how to handle charges against the security deposit. I know it can be very state specific (I'm in Michigan) so I will try to cite the relevant law (or NOLO summary) where necessary in hopes that someone else in my state (or if it's universally standard) can help clarify some points. I have a lot of charges that I intend to put against their security deposit as they were very rough on the house and neglectful in many areas. - In Michigan, after the tenant moves out they have four days to provide the forwarding address or I do not have to provide a notice of damages. (provided the original Security Deposit notice signed at the beginning included very specific language about this, which it did) The notice of damages must include specific language about having 7 days to respond, and in the event that they disagree and we cannot come to a settlement I must sue them and go to court for the balance. NOLO posted:Within (30) days after you move out your (former) landlord either has to return your deposit or send you a list of the things that she claims as damages (a “notice of damages”). If the landlord does not do this, the law says that she gives up any right to keep your security deposit. But, if you did not give your landlord your forwarding address within 4 days after moving out (assuming your landlord told you in writing of this responsibility), your landlord does not have to give you a notice of damages. (see sections 9 & 10 of the act and Sample letter #2, p. 15) My tenants did NOT provide me with their forwarding address and it is August 5th, with a move out of July 31st. I know that this does not mean that I can go hog-wild with the deposit and keep it all (there are mentions about the tenant still having rights against abuses) but I do believe that the tenants have given up a good amount of their rights to challenge the charges I will make against their deposit. Does this mean that I can simply send them the balance of their deposit with a note on general charges put against them and they do not have the right to force me to sue them for disagreements? Have the tables turned where they must sue me versus my suing them? All of my googling/research is not very clear on what happens at this point other than that the tenants REALLY SHOULD have responded in those four days. How would you interpret / handle that? - How have you handled neglect to grass and landscaping in your rental properties? My lease says: TraderStav's amazing generic lease template posted:Yard Maintenance: The tenants let the (rather nice) landscaping overgrow and did not ever add mulch. There are lots of weeds and have not watered this entire year. The grass in the back is nearly dead and the front yard is not looking great as well. There is crab grass everywhere. I did not get to the house often as it is quite distant from where I live. Did I miss my opportunity to force them to comply with the lease prior to them leaving (as they were mistreating/not maintaining) or can I capture some of the costs to bring back to a standard in the security deposit? - Lastly, anyone here with a keen eye on roofs and what type of return you can get on them for a sale? The roof is old (~40 years) but had a second layer put on at some point. Several of the roofing quotes I received said that I had a good 2-5 years left on it. Question is, will a buyer discount the value of the house at this level and it would be worthwhile to invest the $3100 (my lowest, insane quote) to do a tear-off and put a new one on. That's where I'm struggling as I'm running pretty tight above breakeven on the sale. Every corner I can cut will help since I'm putting in about $13K already (new bathroom, new floors throughout, etc) and starting to wear some risk of losing that money. Here is an imgur album if anyone is able to provide any general advice on this. http://imgur.com/a/uqsBh The reason I'm selling is that the house was not purchased with the intent of being a rental property as it was my former residence before moving away for a new job. The margins were decent, but far from ideal for a viable continuing property to own. ($1189 PITI currently, was getting $1450. After renovations could arguably get $1600-1800) With the roof and siding needing work in the very near future I thought this strong market we're having in SE Michigan would be a good opportunity to off-load it and re-evaluate more ideal rental properties down the line. Appreciate any feedback! Thanks! edit: Found this little snippet in a handbook published by the State of Michigan (http://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/tenantlandlord.pdf) quote:Without a forwarding address, the landlord has no duty to make arrangements for returning the deposit. If the forwarding address is provided within the 4 days, the landlord has 30 days from moveout to respond. That is interesting... TraderStav fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 17:48
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So you really have no way of getting ahold of the tenants? No cell numbers?
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Aug 5, 2015 21:07
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n8r posted:So you really have no way of getting ahold of the tenants? No cell numbers? No, that's not what I'm asking. I have a way of getting a hold of them. I'm asking what is the interpretation of the legal requirement in this case for those with experience/knowledge on it. But as landlords, it's in our best interest to make sure we (ethically and legally) optimize for the most efficient way to collect and keep legitimate costs against the security deposit. I've done a lot of researching and still cannot find any mention of what occurs if the tenant does not provide a written forwarding address in the appropriate timeline other than that they lose a significant amount of their rights to the deposit. I am unclear on what actions I need to take in this case in order to minimize the chance of going to court and if so, be as defensible as possible. After posting this I went and compiled the termination of occupancy inventory checklist and I'm fairly certain that this list is greater than their security deposit. I'm just waiting on a few quotes back from my handyman but they were very rough on the place. In that event, I think I will still send the itemized list (with photos) so that they can see that I am legitimately holding their deposit and not just running off with it. Should also help in the event they try to sue for the deposit.
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Aug 5, 2015 21:12
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I would say that what is pretty fine print with regard to giving a forwarding address is pretty small vs. a bunch of documentation with regard to damage to the property. Moving is always a pain in the nuts and something small like forgetting to give your landlord your forwarding address is something that can happen. Just document the repairs needed and notify them per the rules in the contract.
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Aug 5, 2015 22:04
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If you think that they have really neglected and damaged your property to a value greater than their security deposit, you should have no problem documenting your losses with receipts from the handyman/other professionals you paid to repair them. It always looks better both from a tenant relations perspective and if push comes to shove in court if you made a good faith effort to document and communicate. As far as the roof is concerned you should just replace it; $3100 is a cheap roof and "new roof!" is a strong selling point while a lovely roof at the end of life is potentially a buyer financing problem.
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Aug 6, 2015 00:53
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:As far as the roof is concerned you should just replace it; $3100 is a cheap roof and "new roof!" is a strong selling point while a lovely roof at the end of life is potentially a buyer financing problem.
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Aug 6, 2015 04:01
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Many types of loans are contingent on the roof passing inspection. I would hold off on doing the roof until it fails said inspect.
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Aug 6, 2015 14:13
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Thanks for the feedback. That's the direction that I'm heading toward. Anecdotally, people are telling me that we have an irrational housing market in my city currently. It's probably best to use that money as a potential concession rather than anything else. I'll pull together as much documentation as I can for the damages, and that should not be difficult. Question is, for work that I am doing, what would be a fair labor rate to charge? Obviously I value my time at $2,000/hr but that would never hold up in court. Is there a rule of thumb in these cases?
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Aug 6, 2015 15:21
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TraderStav posted:Thanks for the feedback. That's the direction that I'm heading toward. Anecdotally, people are telling me that we have an irrational housing market in my city currently. It's probably best to use that money as a potential concession rather than anything else. Unless you are a skilled professional in whatever you are doing I would just pay somebody to do the repairs. Your time is hard to value in small claims without a clear and compelling market rate for it, but a receipt for payment to a tradesman is an indisputable expense.
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Aug 6, 2015 19:37
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No offense TraderStav - it seems like you've decided you want to keep their deposit and are now coming up with justifications for it. I'm glad I've never had a landlord try to gently caress me over, but just think if you were in the reverse situation.
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Aug 6, 2015 20:39
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In Oregon, the law specifies a 'reasonable rate'. No direct amount, just that it must be reasonable. Repairs do not have to be done to be collected from the tenant either (eg they screw up your drywall but you knock the wall out and do a remodel vs replace drywall, you still can recover costs.) I'd get a handyman/contractor quote and use that if you DIY. n8r posted:No offense TraderStav - it seems like you've decided you want to keep their deposit and are now coming up with justifications for it. I'm glad I've never had a landlord try to gently caress me over, but just think if you were in the reverse situation. My landlord tried to hold back the entire deposit for the prior tenant (a friend) because the porcelain in the tub needed refinishing. News flash, it's fiberglass and it's in mint (never used, just cleaned) shape. They dropped that once the prior tenant disputed it and she received 100% of her deposit back. I think the landlord felt they deserved the money just because. I know some do that. SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 20:44
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n8r posted:No offense TraderStav - it seems like you've decided you want to keep their deposit and are now coming up with justifications for it. I'm glad I've never had a landlord try to gently caress me over, but just think if you were in the reverse situation. I can see how you can read that, but it's not the situation at all. Here is the list of damages done to the place and estimates (where I have them) from my Handyman: Insulated Unit Replacement (Window) (237) (Broken window, probably soccer ball) Kicked-in Door Jamb Repair (145) (claimed the mother with dementia was locked in room, door does not have lock) Shed Partial Repl. (door ripped off) (200) (New one is $400-500, was not brand new when moved in) Punched wall repair (35) Unauthorized deck modification removal (25) (for some reason but a board up on my deck to keep flies away, forgetting they can fly) Missing Crown molding repair (100) (Just gone on top of kitchen cabinets) Doorwall Handle Replacement (100) (flat out broke it) Doorwall Lock Replacement (50) (kicked apart, no longer working) Smoke Detector Replacement (35) ($15 for detector, figured $20 for labor, just smashed on the ceiling) Broken Wall Light by Bathroom (58) ($33 for light, $25 labor, hanging by the wire with glass cover missing) Broken spindle on deck fence (100) (looked like it was kicked, they tried to mend it with SCOTCH tape) Broken latch on deck fence (50) Bent/Broke Siding air vent (50) Bathroom light replacement - upstairs (75) (estimated, fixture + labor) Grass Seed (44) Grass Repair (100) (this is estimated labor for my time to rake all the dead grass and re-seed) Landscaping maintenance (100) (this is estimated labor for my time to weed and trim back the insanely overgrown landscaping, and re-mulch) Exterior door (handle and plunger) (200) Water Bill (133) (courtesy payment of final water bill, not a damage) That total comes to $1,837 out of a $2,175 security deposit. They beat the poo poo out of my house. Just rough people and apparently lots of family and friends over all the time. The only subjective numbers on there are the shed and landscaping work. Of which I am not including any mulch cost as I would be doing that regardless. The work hasn't been completed (or items purchased) on any of that list so the actuals may come in higher or lower. But you can now see that I'm looking at the level where the possibility of a full capture may be in play. I'm not a dick, the first set of tenants got all of their deposit back. But they also repaired any damages and/or were generally respectful to the condition of the house. The tenants just left also did a bunch of damage to the carpets but since I already had planned to replace them I did not charge them for any of that either. TraderStav fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 20:50
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I quickly threw together just a few of the damages I have pictures for on hand. I'm not being petty. http://imgur.com/a/A5baT (bonus picture of painting I was hoping they'd leave behind)
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Aug 6, 2015 21:06
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You look to be pretty justified there. Being you're actually going to do the work, I see no problem with charging everything out. Maybe get a neighbors landscape person to swing by and write a quick estimate when they're cutting the neighbors grass? I bet your self-labor costs are low but IDK.
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Aug 6, 2015 21:35
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Is the tenant typically responsible for the landscaping? I've never heard of this; it seems like a recipe for a dead lawn. I see that it was in your lease but has anyone ever had a tenant ever keep the lawn and garden looking nice? Other than that, everything seems reasonable to me, the layman.
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Aug 7, 2015 01:05
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I'm a tenant that takes care of the lawn. I'm also not a jerk so who knows.
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Aug 7, 2015 03:57
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That lawn doesn't look bad at all - looks to me like it needs some water. Do you expect a renter to keep golf course quality grass? Some of that interior damage looks pretty legit, but that fence work looks rotten as hell and ready to break. The tenant should have notified you regarding that exterior fence/deck work, but expecting that stuff to hold up doesn't look all that reasonable. If I were the tenant I'd fight you on a bunch of that stuff, especially the yard.
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Aug 7, 2015 16:35
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