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photomikey posted:You are living in my $500k investment where you could, in a half hour, do $100k in damage, and the deposit I have collected from you is $1k. What kind of destruction on that level could I possibly do where my deposit is still as important as the monster insurance claim you will be filing?
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Oct 30, 2016 16:06
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GORDON posted:"Just be chill" is good advice for everybody. It's extremely obnoxious when someone way better off than you glibly insists you shouldn't stress about money because hey, life's too short.
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Oct 30, 2016 16:41
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Human Tornada posted:It's extremely obnoxious when someone way better off than you glibly insists you shouldn't stress about money because hey, life's too short. Don't be so offended by people who don't matter to you. Chill out.
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Oct 30, 2016 16:49
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Oxxidation posted:I rent this place with my brother. He makes good money; I save good money. His credit's probably decent; mine is bulletproof. We keep the place clean, only had to make one repair request in the last twelve months (backed up pipes) and five days out of the week it's quiet as a mausoleum in here. Hopefully that'll factor into any future rent increases, because the location of this place for someone like me (no car, not much social life, little need to eat out) is in "too good to be true" territory. To provide a counterpoint to all the jerk landlord stories, I was also a good tenant (rent on time, no damage, quiet) and my landlord didn't increase my rent at all after I went month-to-month, for almost two years. When I finally moved, he seemed relieved because that neighborhood's average rent had gone up something like 20% in that time, but he was gracious about it. I think a lot of landlords would rather keep a good tenant at a lower rent than have a lot of turnover.
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Oct 30, 2016 16:56
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vonnegutt posted:To provide a counterpoint to all the jerk landlord stories, I was also a good tenant (rent on time, no damage, quiet) and my landlord didn't increase my rent at all after I went month-to-month, for almost two years. When I finally moved, he seemed relieved because that neighborhood's average rent had gone up something like 20% in that time, but he was gracious about it. We're buying a house now, but our current place has maintained our rent about 30% below market rate for five years. I'm sure they will be glad to have more money, but they were also happy to have tenants that never made a peep.
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Oct 30, 2016 20:53
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Depends a lot on what the landlord is doing. Our landlord only raises the rent about every two years, and we're pretty far behind the current market. But he's had this place for almost twenty years, and both him and his wife have their own jobs. So he's not relying on the income stream to do more than cover the remaining mortgage (assuming there still is one) and his expenses. There are times that one of the other units (it has three) went vacant and it took him months to fill it apparently just because he wasn't hurried. In that situation, yea, he is really way more interested in having stable tenants he doesn't have to worry about then getting the absolute max rent. But if your landlord has his buildings has his primary or significant income, or he's running the whole thing really close to his expenses, he's probably going to be much more aggressive about making sure he's getting the market rate. This is why you should rent from old chill people.
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Oct 31, 2016 01:45
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Ashcans posted:This is why you should rent from old chill people. Hell yeah My landlord owns and gives me fresh vegetables from his garden in the summer.
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Oct 31, 2016 02:55
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My landlord does it professionally, but he's just a dude who owns like four buildings and said he was never really into office jobs. I like him and he's chill. We aren't super quiet (two dogs, sorry), but we don't have parties and we pay our rent on time and don't bitch about other people in the building.
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Oct 31, 2016 05:57
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The dogs are a known variable. They're on the lease, everybody knew what was up and came in unencumbered, they don't count against you. Don't have parties / rent on time / and a fourth one you missed, which is an appropriate amount of maintenance calls (you don't call when you have a burnt out light bulb, you do call when there is a water leak) will make you a really priceless tenant to many small landlords. "Don't bitch" is overrated. Bitching is like maintenance. I want you to bitch when the neighboring tenant has a party and 40 people over at 2am. I want you to not bitch when the neighbor flushes his toilet at 8pm.
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Oct 31, 2016 07:01
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When we first moved in, there was a spat of people getting up in arms about whether or not the back gate was being closed at an appropriate volume. Some people thought it was too loud. One woman chose this hill to die on and posted several hand-written signs on the gate instructing people on how to close the gate. This led to other people complaining about the signs and having someone come out and yell at them if they let the gate slam. No one has had any crazy parties. After my last landlord situation, I'd have a hard time renting from a big leasing company though. They ended up taking three of the city's $500/day fines over calling someone to fix our heat. On Christmas. In Chicago. Our Super also could see into our bathroom through a hole that the leasing manager told us was "a total lie." Oh, and the raw sewage in the stairwell, which prompted a "oh, gently caress, man" from the 311 guy when he came to inspect. I'll be bummed when we move out of this city because I know the tenant laws so well now.
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Oct 31, 2016 07:15
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I could use some advice, if anyone else has been in this situation. Last month I re-upped my lease because I like the place and it's close to work. Rent went up a few bucks but nothing huge. However they also changed the utilities distribution - now in addition to my base rent I get a postcard with water, sewer, trash, pest control... and something called CAM CHARGES. CAM charges is 50% of my bill (total for the month was about 62 bucks, so 31 in CAM). Turns out, that's "Common Area Maintenance". To my mind, that's not a freaking utility, that's a fee associated purely with living there. I'm annoyed because at no point was this disclosed in advance. In fact, over the course of a month and half (since early September) and maybe a dozen in-person visits and phonecalls I basically had no info on the utilities situation until this card arrived over the weekend. No one in the office could/would give me any inkling on what I'd be paying, just that it's calculated based on my "usage" (i.e. solo occupant vs. large family) as a percentage of the entire bill for the complex. I even called the billing agency on the advice of the office, they gave me an estimate that turned out to be fairly close, but later the office says I shouldn't have been given that information? That's not unusual, unfortunately. My question, goons: has anyone run into this kind of maintenance fee, especially when it's included as a utility? I do not want to pay it. It's not going to break me but frankly the front office has been a nightmare since I moved in (just ignorant of basic info, messing up details repeatedly, giving inaccurate info) and I wish that I hadn't re-upped but I'm stuck now. I'm hoping to speak to the property manager today so anything I can take in with me would help.
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Oct 31, 2016 16:46
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Check with local laws. I know a company here that tried that with tenants and it is illegal. You can bake that fee into the rent, but you can't charge utilities based on occupancy rather than actual usage. Basically, unless you have a meter hooked up to your unit monitoring this activity, charging a family of four who barely use lights more than the single person who has a hydroponic indoor garden for electricity is not fair.
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Oct 31, 2016 17:08
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Ah, I should say this is in Sacramento CA. I believe each apartment has an individual meter for water, and my electric is a separate bill. I'm really only concerned with the CAM charges since it dwarfs the other items on the bill.
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Oct 31, 2016 17:16
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What did the lease say? If the lease mentions it and you signed it, I can't think of a CA law against it. Hotels charge resort fees. It's bullshit. But there's no arguing that will get you out of it. I always make it a point to leave a two-star review telling how nice the amenities are and it's a shame that the shady resort fees were there otherwise it'd be a 5* property. It does seem like the tide is turning there. Perhaps it will turn on apartments before it really takes hold. Edit: if the lease doesn't mention it, start making noise. I would start by paying the utilities minus the CAM fee. If you are in a community of 500, you should know that 480 will pay the fee and say nothing, 15 will bitch and acquiesce, you are one of 5 who will make a stand. Assuming it shakes out like this, your chances of overcoming it are not great. photomikey fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Oct 31, 2016 |
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Oct 31, 2016 18:37
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I've only ever heard of CAM fees for shopping centers and the like, never for multifamily residential. Utilities billed per occupant/bedroom/square foot falls under what is called RUBS which is Ratio Utility Billing System. Every state has different laws concerning it and whether or not it's legal. I have no idea about legality in California, just that it's a legitimate way to assign utility charges where legal. As with a lot of these questions, the first place you need to start is your lease. If it is included in the lease somewhere, then maybe contact a renter's rights group and see if they can tell you if it's legal or not. Personally, as a landlord, it sounds like bullshit to me, but that doesn't necessarily means it's illegal. Your landlord may just be a dick.
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Oct 31, 2016 19:28
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I'm probably up a creek - I did sign the lease, and now I'm shocked that this one fee is so much higher than anyone indicated it would be. I spoke to the PM earlier, she said she's requested clarification from the billing agency and will call me back before close of business. The actual language on the lease is very vague, I presume by design. Here's the relevant bit: Resident shall pay for Common Area Maintenance fees as prorated on a monthly base as described in below. Formula for calculating service: [Total bill for property divided by the number of units and then split according to unit square footage and occupancy.] In theory I don't object to paying some portion of communal maintenance , but the numbers just don't seem to line up. I pressed the PM pretty hard about what they're including but all I could get was "mainly landscaping and water for the grounds" - maybe I've been missing the hedge maze and topiary garden all this time, but otherwise I don't see how they could be spending that much.
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Oct 31, 2016 19:51
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I would think you could ask for proof and do some division and find out what your share is. My gut feel is that they are probably padding it a little. At the same time, you'd be surprised what it costs to get the guy with the weed wacker and the guy with the leaf blower to come by once a week on a big property.
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Oct 31, 2016 20:15
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What's a good furniture layout program? Sketchup? I haven't touched a non-pcb CAD program in 5 years so I have no idea what's out there now. Also, are little rubber pads worth a drat for keeping furniture from sliding around? I have no wall to put the couch against and the felt pads to save the laminate aren't helping.
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Nov 1, 2016 00:31
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Jyrraeth posted:What's a good furniture layout program? Sketchup? I haven't touched a non-pcb CAD program in 5 years so I have no idea what's out there now. The rubber cups work great!
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Nov 1, 2016 00:42
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My landlord is a sweet little 90 year old woman who gives me fresh baked cookies on the first of the month when I pay my rent. Also she charges me $700 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment that would cost $1500-$2000 if anyone else owned it.
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Nov 1, 2016 19:27
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Renting apartments from a single landlord sounds like such a weird and different experience. I just have a corporate owner (Parkway Townhomes) and there's no real negotiation or even personality there. In fact I don't think I've ever seen apartments that weren't like that. Is having a single landlord an eastern USA thing or something? I'm in Nevada, guess it might just be different out here.
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Nov 1, 2016 20:44
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I dunno, I have never rented from a company (although they certainly exist here, they aren't exclusive). I rented three places in Atlanta from private landlords, and four places in Boston from them. Boston has a huge amount of triple-decker housing (basically a single building with three floors, each a separate apartment, usually 2-3 beds) and I think a lot of people end up buying them as live-in landlords and then just keep the building as a rental when they move out? A lot of private landlords come to it in different ways, one of mine was a contractor who bought the house as a project and rented it to students while he was slowly fixing it up. My current landlord is actually a real estate/insurance agent who I think picked the building up when he saw a good deal. Private landlords aren't going to have a website or anything, you find them either by looking on craigslist or physical postings/signs. In Boston tons of the rental industry is handled through agents, who work for many landlords. Private landlords can be really great, but they can also be really really terrible. A company usually maintains a kind of unremarkable mediocrity, whereas with a private landlord you might get someone who is great, but you can also get someone who is a horrible person/insane/etc and end up in a nightmare. One of my previous landlords turned out to be legitimately insane and we had a horrible time. She's currently serving time for physically assaulting one of her subsequent tenants 
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Nov 1, 2016 21:32
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I rent half of a duplex from an old hippie who owns three houses. Maintenance is his old burnout buddy but besides that it's great! I'm in the east bay of San Francisco.
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Nov 1, 2016 21:34
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Ashcans posted:Private landlords can be really great, but they can also be really really terrible. A company usually maintains a kind of unremarkable mediocrity, whereas with a private landlord you might get someone who is great, but you can also get someone who is a horrible person/insane/etc and end up in a nightmare. That's been my experience with corporate landlords, yeah. Competent but unexceptional (and badly overworked besides) maintenance teams, consistent lease-end rent raises that are grumble-worthy but not outrageous, and really irritating pet fees and rules. $300 non-refundable plus $25 more a month for a second cat, blarg (yes I know pets can be terrible for e.g. carpets but my apartment is laminate floored, for goodness' sake). At least mine are amazingly diligent about grounds-keeping, refurbishment and such, though I pay slightly higher than citywide average rent so I guess it evens out in the wash. Ciaphas fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Nov 1, 2016 |
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Nov 1, 2016 21:45
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I rented from a private landlord in Texas, it was just one little old lady and her husband who owned a bunch of duplexes around town. Apart from her blatant abuse of the caps lock key in emails she was pretty great.
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Nov 1, 2016 21:45
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Seriously Hope is so lonely I want a second cat for her to be friends with 
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Nov 1, 2016 21:46
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Update on CAM fees situation: talked to an agent in the office who talked to the billing agency and what the agency says they're charging is completely different from what's on my lease. Also, not everyone in the complex is paying this fee, based on when their renewal was. lol i guess  Mocking Bird posted:I rent half of a duplex from an old hippie who owns three houses. Maintenance is his old burnout buddy but besides that it's great! I'm in the east bay of San Francisco. So, uh, not that I'd surreptitiously take your place and identity or anything, but uh, what's your address?
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Nov 2, 2016 03:37
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Ciaphas posted:Seriously Hope is so lonely I want a second cat for her to be friends with Buy a cat that looks exactly like her. No one will know
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Nov 2, 2016 03:49
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Chard posted:So, uh, not that I'd surreptitiously take your place and identity or anything, but uh, what's your address? I stole this lease from someone who moved in back in 2007 and I have their rent control God bless hippies and hippie cities When I am dead it will pass to the hands of the one that vanquished me
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Nov 2, 2016 03:55
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Mocking Bird posted:I stole this lease from someone who moved in back in 2007 and I have their rent control I cast my gauntlet down
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Nov 2, 2016 04:03
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I've only ever lived at places with single landlords. It's super common in the eastern US. I hate dealing with bureaucracy and would rather just talk to a person. That said, there's definitely room for some weirdness. - Older guy renting a historic building, was super weird about maintenance. Insisted on replacing light bulbs himself because "the light fixtures are hard to remove without breaking them". Often came home to find him in my apartment, changing light bulbs. (How did he know they were out?). The one time I called him for maintenance, he was in Portugal. - Middle-aged gay guy who was super nice, very helpful, and did all the maintenance himself (except electric & plumbing). Exclusively referred to my cat as a pussy, ie, "I'm having the maintenance guy come over to look at your leaky faucet, can you make sure your pussy won't get out?"
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Nov 2, 2016 14:20
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vonnegutt posted:I've only ever lived at places with single landlords. It's super common in the eastern US. I hate dealing with bureaucracy and would rather just talk to a person. That said, there's definitely room for some weirdness. Obviously he walks into your flat every day and checks. Any place where the owner enters into a place is the most hostile living environment I can possibly think of and I'd put a stop to it immediately. Luckily no one besides me even has keys to my place like it should be.
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Nov 2, 2016 14:34
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I have a single-landlrod now, and she gave me a free month because I've stayed for 3 years. Every so often she gets a bug about me signing a new lease, but she never sends it to me so I've been month-to-month after the first year. However, anything involving the condo association sucks. They are slow and have stupid rules. Took 6 months for them to clear payment to repair damage from a roof leak.
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Nov 2, 2016 16:22
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SEKCobra posted:Obviously he walks into your flat every day and checks. Any place where the owner enters into a place is the most hostile living environment I can possibly think of and I'd put a stop to it immediately. Luckily no one besides me even has keys to my place like it should be. Yes, I was very young at the time and did not know how inappropriate this was.
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Nov 2, 2016 16:42
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Ha! Double ha!quote:Hi Chard- Take that, leasing office that can't find its rear end with both hands and never fixes common areas to begin with.
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Nov 2, 2016 18:28
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I have a few questions regarding a short term vacation lease I'm looking at. I'm going to be renting a beach house in January with a bunch of friends to hang out and play board games for a weekend. I contacted the landlord via vrbo and they made my reservation then sent over the lease. First, is payment via PayPal a normal way of doing this and if so is there anything I should be careful of? Second there's apparently an angry tenant in the upstairs condo that has been mentioned multiple times in reviews. Normally I don't mind dealing with someone like this, but there's a clause in the lease specifying a 500 dollar fee every time the cops are called. Is that normal? I'm want to ask them to remove it, but get the feeling that it's there because of crazy party groups in the past. Any thoughts?
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Nov 3, 2016 21:49
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I don't know if you've read the last page or two about small-time indy landlords, but VRBO operators are basically small-time indy landlords who have decided to expand into the hotel business. It's like amateur night squared. Whatever lovely contract they sent you, line through the objectionable parts, initial it, sign it, and send it back. If they don't raise a fuss, you're golden. If they raise a fuss, lay it out there that you're a nerd not a partier, you don't intend to cause a ruckus, you've read the reviews about the upstairs neighbor and you have some hesitation that every time he decides to pick up the phone you're on the hook for $500 and that's a deal breaker for you. Like anything real estate related (or even anything contract related), it comes down to put up or shut up. If they stand their ground over this questionable fee, your options are either suck it up and sign or tell them off and find a different house to rent. I rented a 12 bedroom house on the beach this summer to the tune of $2500/night, it came with an amateur contract, I lined through probably a quarter of it and either the lady never noticed or never objected.
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Nov 3, 2016 22:01
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This thread is also furniture/furnishings, yes? Looks like mostly rentals discussion, but I can't find any other place to ask... Anyway, I need a stupidity check. -Have print. It's exactly 50 x 40cm -Buy 50 x 40 frame. -Print does not fit in frame, the fittable area inside (the size of the backing) is actually 49.25 x 39.25 Is it normal for prints to be slightly smaller (ie this print, which was a custom, is wrong), or is this frame brand wrong?
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Nov 5, 2016 16:55
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Nosre posted:This thread is also furniture/furnishings, yes? Looks like mostly rentals discussion, but I can't find any other place to ask... What kind of frame is it? Thick? Wide? Just a backing and clamped in front? Metal, plastic or wood? Will the print literally not come into the back of the frame after removing the backing? Consider if you would be better off mounting the print in a larger frame with a matting (passe-partout) around. When I buy regular discount frames they often come with a mat that fits a "one size smaller" print. E.g. a 60x50 cm frame may come with a 50x40 cm mat. Also, interior decoration and furniture shopping are definitely also topics in this thread.
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Nov 5, 2016 17:29
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I've had frames before that claimed to be both 8x10" and 20x25cm (which aren't the exact same). Naturally my 8x10" prints needed to be razorbladed before they went in. Cheap frames suck, but getting stuff framed properly is an expensive business.
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Nov 5, 2016 17:38
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