Once upon a time, I owned a house. Well, it was actually TWO houses: A big one in the front, and a little one in the back. I rented out the back one to help with paying my mortgage. When I bought it, I inherited a tenant family (a mother and her three kids, and sometimes her weirdo boyfriend/husband person) who had been back there for a few years. These were not the smartest people around. Here are some things I got to experience:
I had a new stove put in, since the old one was decrepit and kept breaking. The installer showed them how it worked, and reported to me that all was well. The next morning at 6 AM I got a call: "The new stove is broke!" I went over there. The woman said, "I turn the knob, but nothing happens! The fire doesn't start!" She was turning the knob all the way up. I turned it to the "light" position and heard the telltale click click click whoosh of the automatic ignition. The flame ignited. My tenant was completely baffled. (Please note: This was exactly how the OLD STOVE worked, too.)
In the spring I got an irate phone message about how selfish I was for cutting all the flowers in the yard, how "other people" deserved to enjoy them, how I wasn't the only person living on this property, and how dare I. I looked out the window into the backyard. The tulips and irises *I* had planted in the fall had bloomed, and as most flowers like that do, had faded, the heads withering or falling off. I called her back and explained that while they were MY flowers, I hadn't cut them; they die after a while. Her response? "Oh."
One month, my water bill for both houses was $800. (It was usually about $70-$130.) I freaked out, thinking that there was some crazy leak somewhere; I called the water company, who started checking their equipment for leaks, I called a plumber and made an appointment for him to come inspect both houses for any problems. The next day, I was out in my front yard chatting with a neighbor who lived across the street and mentioned my huge bill. She said, "Oh, that's because [tenant] has been taking in laundry for the whole neighborhood! I see people going in and out of there with huge laundry bags every day while you're at work!" I cancelled the plumber and had a few words with my tenant. The next month the bill was normal.
I got a call at ten o'clock at night once. There was screaming in the background. "Is everything all right? What's going on?!?" There was a roach in the kitchen and my tenant wanted me to come over and kill it.
One night at eleven pm, I got a knock on my door. It was the tenant's teenage daughter. They had tripped the electric breaker, and my tenant wanted me to come over and fix it. I told the daughter that the breaker box was in the tiny basement, right next to the stairs, and that they should flip the switch back, and the lights would come back on. Her response? "My mom wants you to come and do it, cause my dad [the tenant's boyfriend] isn't here and she doesn't like to go in the basement." I handed her a flashlight and said, "good luck!"
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7 comments:
What kind of trouble do you think they will start with the flashlight?
These people are not safe with a gas stove, running water, or electricity.
Perhaps you should encourage them to join a cult.
If you think nursing is fraught with peril, try being a landlord........at least in the ER, they usually go home.
For the benefit of your readers who may wish to become landlords, let me give a few tips that would prevent a lot of this nonsense.
It's all in the rental agreement. First, put in there that for any repair or other visit that is requested by the tenant, the tenant will have to pay $50 upfront. If you walk over there to turn on the stove for them because they claimed it's broken, they pay you $50 for that. They'll start working a little harder to fix things themselves.
Second, all rental agreements should state that the landlord will be responsible for changing all of the air filters, and will do that once a month, at no charge to the tenant. That gives you a regular reason to go over there and go in the place monthly, which you have a right to do, anyway, but having a repair-oriented pretext makes it a lot easier. You will get a feel for what is going on there by actually seeing the inside.
Third, bills that can be traced to excessive use by tenants have to be dealt with in the agreement somehow. I'm not sure how, but that's clearly got to be covered.
How to deal with the flowers--maybe you can add "answering complaints" to the $50 rule.
As a former tennant, I don't necessarily agree with all of your rules Teresa. There are legitimate reasons that a tennant would need repairs done. Say the washing machine breaks, or the air conditioner breaks or the roof leaks. Those type of things need to be addressed by the landlord, and is it really the tennant's responsibility if the 30 year old air conditioner breaks? I think $50 dollars is pretty harsh.
As a former tenant myself, it took me a moment or two, as well, to get over the $50 charge for needed repairs. I think you just have to see it in the larger context. The landlord may want to lease at a below market rate, especially if the property is older, because of the repair charge. The charge is not about passing off the cost of the repair to the tenant, which is how I suspect you are viewing it. The charge is designed to 1) prevent stupid calls like those described, and 2) motivate in the tenant a desire to take better care of things SO THEY DON'T BREAK on the tenant's watch. If the washing machine breaks, the tenant doesn't have to pay to replace the washer, just the first $50. But you can bet that a tenant having to pay the first $50 will not be doing commercial laundry at home.
Here's another tip I forgot to mention. Give tenants who pay by the first of the month a discount. For a few days after that, no discount, then start charging a late fee. It works better for some strange reason than just the stick.
P.S. If the roof/washer/AC is old, and the landlord knows it's about to go out through normal wear, I see no reason why that particular item couldn't be excluded in the rental agreement. However, I personally would NOT make any exclusions, unless I really felt like there were several that could domino right away.
The roof I might exclude, anyway, since there is hardly any way a tenant can cause that to get worse faster.
It's like buying appliance/electronics warranties. It's mostly a very stupid thing to do because on average, you aren't going to need many of the warranties. Same thing with the tenant--on average, most years will be about the same, so most tenants will get about the same deal as other tenants got.
Wow. Ungrateful much? They're lucky you didn't evict them when you bought the house. I think that is legal to do. I live in an apartment. My manager doesn't own them. I feel bad putting in a work request for a leaking pipe. I would NEVER ask her to come over and switch the braker or unclog my bathtub or kill a roach! Some people are just born ignorant & there is NO helping them!
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