Maintaining & repairing

Landlords misbehave in other countries too!

Hello Canada.

Wow. Superfink is extremely upset about the current behavior of her Canadian Landlord. He’s showing her crib about to new prospective renters, even though he pushed to have her and her roommate leave so he could renovate. And he’s apparently a fan of the no-tell unit showing! He just shows up with a crew of potential renters, oh, whenever!

Actually, I (in a round-about sort of way) understand the Landlord’s desire to get some renovating done, and the need to get the current Tenants out before it begins. Two reasons:

1. The renovation project I’m looking at will require some serious effort, and will likely demand the repeated cutting off of electricity and water. Some issues, such as a bathroom re-tile, will take a couple of days to complete. There’s only one place to bathe in the unit. So how’s a Landlord supposed to get that accomplished without a severe hindrance to the current Tenant? Sure, there are ways. But those ways usually get trumped by the second issue.

2. It’s difficult to upsell a unit that’s currently inhabited, even if you do extensive remodeling/renovating. Fact is, they rented X place for X dollars a month. You deciding to take the interior and appliances to X+100 will likely not translate to X+100 dollars in new rent within the mind of the Tenant. And why should it? Seriously. Contracts simply don’t work that way, and for good reason. Long story short: it’s difficult to convince a current Tenant that a newer looking sink and a dishwasher should fetch an additional $50 in rent per month.

But a new Tenant might not mind!

However, I suspect that Superfink’s Landlord was trying to lever them out before their actual Lease was up. Which is indicative of a rather low moral character, and sorta brings us all down in the process. Even in calm realm of Canada.

Here’s a pretty standard issue with the average end-of-lease scenario: (from Curbed) Tenant in NYC wonders what they’re actually liable for paying on some damage resulting from an incident earlier in their residency (they want to know how they can get out with paying the least amount of money, none if at all possible). Of course it’s about more than just what the Tenant feels is reasonable to pay. It’s also about the timely cost-estimation and handling of such necessary repairs.

Based solely upon the account of the soon-to-be ex-Tenant in the post, there are a couple of things that the Landlord should have done.

1. TIMELY REPAIR. Sure, it’s New York City, so contractors are difficult, schedules are hurried, life is complicated, and blah-blah I don’t wanna wah-wah-wah. Six months to repair over $2,000 in damage? Come on. Many LEASES are six months in length. If you can’t get your repairs done quicker than that, perhaps Landlording isn’t the right business to be in.

2. REMOVAL OF PADDED EXPENSES. Who knows whether the “call box� or any other miscellaneous “repairs� should have been involved in this particular bill. Maybe there really was damage that the Tenant wasn't aware of. Maybe not. What IS known is that Landlords have been known to trump-up repair fees JUST to keep deposits. Not all business owners have scruples, and Landlords are not immune to the temptations involved. Having rented in a college town, I know this from experience. And even though I’m on the other side of the fence now, and I can see how those Landlords felt some weird, relativistic justification for it, it still wasn’t proper. Karma, my friends. Karma.

Then there’s the way that the Tenant went on to deal with the issue, which as a Landlord, I must say kinda sucks. From my point of view, I don’t care who my Tenants hire to do things (as long as they’re insured), I will hold the Tenant responsible for any damage their moving crew may inflict on my property. And by the grace of that responsibility, I do not feel that simply waiting on an estimate is enough to warrant skipping out on the bill entirely.

If you read into the comments, you’ll see a good deal of advice that revolves around simply NOT paying the last month’s rent to recoup the potentially usurious cost of repairs. While I understand the motivation to do this, it would be wholly unfair. The Tenant DID damage the property, and therefore owes restitution. If they needed that estimate sooner, then they should have made that contractually plain to avoid any potential confusion. The fact that the moving company is no longer willing to cover the cost due to the length of time lapsed has nothing to do with whether the Tenant owes money to repair the damage they did to the property. That’s between the Tenant and their chosen Moving Company.

Is there any real legitimate reason why the Landlord should even be involved in this dispute? Beyond a re-estimation of repair costs?

Anesia Springborn over at The Landlord Blog has a great write-up on the loss of a long term Tenant (8 years!) who pretty much destroyed the place. It will need an ENTIRE remodel as soon as this Tenant vacates the premises. And of course, they were a month-to-month renter, so 30 days is all she had in order to inspect for, estimate, and conclude what will likely be a complete interior rehab project.

I cannot put enough stress on the need to do periodic inspections of your properties. No need to be overbearing, but a twice-yearly walk-through based on any circumstance available, or simply stated in the lease (unless it violates state law, which I can't imagine that being the case, but one never knows), can do wonders to avoid rehab disasters like these.

This is especially germane to one of my properties because I have a 10+ tenant on a month-to-month who has had some interesting issues during my ownership of the unit. Fortunately those issues afforded me the opportunity to check up on the unit itself. I simply did some cursory peaks at the rooms, while the plumber fixed the toilet or what-have-you, as the Tenant stood watch. No big deal. But it gave me a good basis for figuring out what exactly I’m going to need to save up for once the Tenant chooses to move on.

Most of the issues are the same as they were when I purchased the place, but have understandably deteriorated since then. Bathroom issues, kitchen horrors, ceiling problems, and all sorts of creative landscaping corrections all need to be addressed. Little by little, I am fixing what the Tenant allows, but only because I am able to get in there periodically and check the environment for future hazards that I can head off early (such as the leaky gas stove I replaced a few months back).

Planning ahead, I started a small fund, and have been adding to it ever since I purchased the place, expecting that rehab to hit me like a ton of bricks at any given moment. The lost rent during the rehab process, whenever it occurs? Well, I’m just hoping it won’t take too long. Whatever it is, it’ll just be sunk.

The main point of being a Landlord is to profit from sound, practical investment. This is understandable fact. It is understandable because it is the capitalist backbone of our entire system of freemarket ownership for things with speculative rates of appreciation. Namely: real estate. But there are other important, and arguably more socially responsible facets of being the proprietor of where other people sleep. Where they raise their children. Where they celebrate holidays. Where they experience life.

In that context, there are other responsibilities that need to be lived up to by Landlords. And some appear too cold-hearted to understand that. This is most unfortunate.

It’s yet another installment of “Don’t Be That Landlord�.

Apparently, and this should really come as no surprise to anyone, tenants do not approve of unsolicited sexual advances. Who would have known! Seems to me that a pool of people who you depend on for money would be a PRIME set of folks to risk royally PISSING off by way of creepy requests for sexual favors!

Some people simply shouldn’t be in a position of authority. Spiffle’s Landlord is amongst that group of people.

And then there’s the oh-so-typical issue of mold in the unit. For the love of pete, this should not be a problem in modern times. Leaks are more than a mold problem for a Landlord. Leaks ruin foundations, destroy ceilings, wear away at expensive bathroom tiling, stain or warp valuable flooring, and cause endless damage to the sticks that build up a unit. But the mold is what will likely cause a Tenant to mount a legal offensive. It is also what will cause a potential Tenant to pass, or a current Tenant (who pays on time and causes no other problems) to vacate. Make routine checks, and reassure your Tenants that it is in their benefit to report leaks to you as soon as they notice them.

Because really, it’s in your benefit too.

Finding Tenants is an arduous process. Full of potential legal pitfalls, and pre-screening failures. Criminals, practicing addicts, deadbeats and con artists. They all need somewhere to live, and there’s a chance that they’ll slip right through your defenses and end up with their name on one of your mailboxes.

If it happens, take solace in knowing you are far from alone in your tragedy. There are others who have suffered too.

It’s yet another installment of Lose Those Bad Tenants Already.

Property Grunt sifted through Teri Karush’s NY Times article on some of New York’s most disturbed tenants. Makes me feel fantastic about Landlording elsewhere. Obviously, in Gotham, it’s much more difficult to oust nasty tenants. In fact, having lived there for a spell, it should be known that nasty tenants are the norm.

Anywhere else? Dish the warning letters and prep for an eviction, ‘cause those people described in the article are big bags of CRAZY.

Bryc3 in Washington DC just recently took over an interesting apartment situation. Some fascinating porn involved, which should fall under personal preference rather than a reason to pressure a tenant, but interesting to run across nonetheless. Mainly, the issue with the previous tenant was apparently financial.

And they got the proper boot. Hopefully their lives aren’t in complete shambles. Regardless, it’s a funny read.

And if you don’t get the paperwork rolling on deadbeat tenants with a quickness, you’ll get stuck holding the bag. Quite literally. Which_chick has definitely endured a doozey of a tenant set. And now that the eviction has been properly served, there’s a whole unit full of garbage that must be STORED, and cannot be sold, pretty much until the delinquent ex-tenants show up to claim it.

I feel for you which_chick. I really do.