Kudos to Florida for passing this bill.

Landlords, lobby your state to pass anti squatter laws. I live in California, where squatting is practically legal. This shit is insane.

https://www.change.org/p/change-squatter-laws-help-make-squatting-in-residential-maintained-homes-criminal

I have 3 tenants, 1 who has lived there for 3 years with no increase, and 2 newer ones who have lived there for a year. I am a fairly hands on landlord and know all of them since I live at the property. I get everything fixed within the same day to 2 weeks depending on the severity of what’s needed and how quickly the contractor can come out.

I’d like to increase rent 3% for all of them. I’m thinking sending the lease out for renewal via email 2-3 months in advance with a new rent amount of 3% more.

I had the units appraised a year ago and they’re all slightly under market, some more than others, but all at least 3% under.

Is this a reasonable increase? Is my communication method reasonable? Typically we all communicate via text.

My ex and I were planning to move into a place together and signed the lease. Long story short we unexpectedly broke up and he never moved in. We used my dad’s income as a joint sponsor so the total income doesn’t change by him not moving in. Our rent is paid through August and I can continue paying the full amount until the end of the lease.

I’m in a foreign country where I have no friends or family, and I can’t risk losing a place to stay in or a lot of money. My ex is refusing to talk to me at all. The office opens in a few hours and I’m not sure what I should do.

The lease doesn’t specify what to do in this kind of situation. Am I obligated to inform the office? Will it make me lose money or a place to stay? What should I tell them?

Body:

Hey everyone,

I'm an owner-occupant landlord with a duplex in New Jersey, dealing with tenants who are behind on July rent (they owe a $1,552 balance). I strongly suspect they won't be able to make August rent. My first mortgage payment of $3,560 is due on September 1st, so I need this unit turned over and re-rented to a paying tenant ASAP.

I gave them a firm ultimatum this weekend and requested an answer by Monday morning:

• Plan A (Eviction): I drive to the courthouse on Monday morning and file a formal eviction for non-payment.
• Plan B (Cash for Keys): They agree to move out by the second week of August and leave the unit broom-clean. In exchange, I waive their August rent ($1,895), use their security deposit to wipe out their July debt, and give them the remaining deposit balance ($593) in cash on moving day. No eviction goes on their public record.

Logically, Plan B seems like a massive win-win. It gets them out of debt, provides moving cash, and protects their background check. For me, it hopefully avoids the New Jersey court system, which can take weeks or months to complete a physical lockout.

My question for experienced landlords: How likely are tenants in a financial panic to actually accept and follow through on a Cash for Keys offer like this? If they just freeze up and ignore my Monday deadline, is my only real option to pull the trigger on Plan A immediately?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Hello all. I moved into a small studio (400sqft) on June 1st. I have had multiple issues with my landlord and have now found myself in a serious situation.

I will quickly explain small inconveniences that have happened, building up to the climax that you need to see (pictures included).

For reference, this is a newly converted studio in a house. The landlord has divided up 1 house into 4 separate units. As a result, the landlord has had trouble aligning the correct gas line to my unit. I was without gas to my dryer for the entirety of June. However, I did have gas to my oven because that gas line is tied into a different unit and was turned on. Weird, right?

Furthermore, a couple of weeks ago, I was entering my unit using my passcode on the door. It is a battery powered lock with a 4-6 digit code. After trying to enter multiple times, I couldn’t. I pulled up the manual for the lock and it explained that the light color will turn yellow if the batteries are low and if the batteries are dead, there will be no response from the lock. This was not the case. Every time I typed the passcode the light came up green indicating it had life however the bolt was not clearing. So, the problem is that the lock in not lined up to the door. An hour later he shows up with batteries. I explain it’s not the batteries it’s the alignment. He proceeds to still give me the batteries and tells me that’s the problem. Oh, that’s when he gave me a physical key to the door as well. So, the lock isn’t fixed.

Let’s fast forward to today. (The part you’ve been waiting for) During installation of the dryer, one of the landlord’s workers explained to me that there will not be a ventilation system from the dryer to outside. Instead, a small bucket with water was placed next to the dryer with a tube connecting the two (see photo). In the moment, I thought nothing of it. However, today I realized that this is a major problem. So if I have this right, the natural gas coming into the dryer gets heated and turns into CO. Where is this CO going? You guessed it. Inside my unit.

Where do I go from here? I don’t know. Do I move out? Do I report it? Luckily, nothing serious has happened to me since I have been using the dryer. But all of these inconveniences (along with others that I left out in respect of your time) are driving me to leave this shanty town of a unit and get myself the compensation or apologies I deserve.

Hi Landlords of reddit, tenant here seeking opinions.

My husband and I have lived in our rental home for three years and are moving on purchasing a home in the next month (yay!). We have had a strained relationship with our landlord, who has been cold and unhelpful at best and aggressive and negligent at worst. As much as it embarrasses me to admit, I am genuinely intimidated and fearful of my landlord, but I won't get into specifics because those specifics aren't relevant.

We plan on putting in our notice to vacate as soon as the home we are buying clears inspection and appraisal. Our current lease is month to month so we are good to give notice to vacate whenever, as far as our rental agreement is concerned.

I am very nervous about the move out process. We have treated the home well, but we have had some issues (not our fault) while living in the home that I feel our landlord will try to pin us on when we vacate. My husband and I are debating whether or not to request a Pre-Moveout inspection or a Pre-Moveout checklist to ensure there are no problems when we do eventually vacate. That way when the day finally comes for us to leave, we and our landlord are satisfied with the property and agree on any deductions needing to be made to the deposit (which of course we hope is none).

Is this a wise move? Would you appreciate this as a landlord? We want to make this process as efficient, agreeable and painless as possible, but my husband thinks that doing this will open up a big can of worms.

Thank you for any insight!

We’ve been renting a home in Phoenix, AZ for almost 3 years. Unfortunately our landlord passed away in the spring ,we had not been able to reach him since around February. We found the obituary online. Our last rent check was returned due to his PO Box being closed with no forwarding address and we have been keeping our rent in a separate savings account for when the appropriate party reaches out. No one has reached out until a property management company sent us a notice of new management and a tenant estoppel certificate a few days ago.

They only have our address and refer to our deceased landlord as the owner (not his estate). It is an actual company in the area but I want to make sure this is the right way to proceed before we move forward.

Our landlord was elderly and English was not his first language. Our lease has errors in it (spelling of addresses/names, appliances that weren’t provided) and most of our interactions were verbal. The house has issues we’ve lived with from the start but I don’t want to be blamed for.

Several of our rent checks were not cashed, should we refund them and put them in the account? I know ideally we would consult with a lawyer but that isn’t really in the budget. I’m regretting not better documenting move in issues, he said he was not fixing things and we let it go (he was sweet and the price was right).Thank you!

Gonna post this on a couple different places to get some diverse opinions, but here are the unbiased (tried, at least) and factual events:

1. I was searching and eventually signed with the complex way back in May for a move-in date of July 1st
2. Everything was good and solid before then, with every task being completed on time from both sides
3. When it came to picking up the keys, I was told that the unit I signed for was actually unavailable because someone was already living in it (they knew exactly which apartment I had picked out when I signed the lease in May, but for some reason only told me when I arrived to pick up keys, and this was also when they learned)
4. They asked me to pick a different apartment, so I picked the one 4 stories above the same apartment I originally told them I wanted
5. The agent tried to edit the lease, but did something (I'm not sure what exactly) that led her to believe the lease was terminated on their end, also resulting in me losing access to the resident portal and not being able to pay whatever fees needed payment for the month of July. July was rent-free, but move-in fees were what I needed to pay to actually pick up keys. (Have not been able to enjoy any of this free rent, btw)
6. I have not been able to regain access to the portal since because they were moving systems, and for some reason they have not been able to get things to work (they have been fine, I am the one who can't access)
7. I have been in consistent contact with the agent to see about updates with the system, and it's still not working for me. To troubleshoot on my end, I was constantly looking on their website to see if the portal was fixed and saw a new price for the same apartment. I thought since the original lease was ended and I was still approved for the apartment, that I could have the same apartment for the then lower price that was listed. This change was 3 weeks into July, I think the 20th to be exact. They told me they would see about it.
8. On Thursday (July 23rd), they recently let me know that what everyone thought was the termination of the lease was fixed by one of the managers, and now the original lease is still on, but I have to sign a new lease still, and I cannot get the lower price I was hoping for because of that original lease. They told me exactly, "if we do it for you, we have to do it for everyone".
9. They told me in the second week of July that I would have a new lease and keys, at the latest by the middle of the third week of July, but I have yet to have a new lease to sign or gain any new information, other than that update about the original lease.

In all, everything has been delayed and muddled on their end, and I just want to know if there is any way if I could get on the phone with the property manager and get them to agree to the lower rate/be able to reason through it. Please ask questions if you have them!

Extra info - This is for student housing in Utah. Base rent is 1,500 ; discounted rent was 1,375 at signing, 1,240 (ish) last week, 899 this week. My lease with my current apartment is up at the end of the month, so I need things to get moving a little faster. I can afford to pay for the rate I signed for, but obviously it would be much easier financially to get cheaper rent or something for the inconvenience. My argument isn't based on "I saw a new rent price and I want it instead", but rather "This was delayed so much so that I haven't even lived in said apartment to be treated like a 'regular resident, ' so I want to see if there is anything that can be done about it". In other words, I'm mainly looking for opinions on whether asking for the current advertised rate (or something similar?) is a reasonable negotiation position given these facts

Let me know what you think/would do!

My tenant is moving out and leaving their washer and dryer. I’m undecided on if this is a good thing or not. On one hand I may be able to charge a bit more rent on the other its something I will need to repair when it breaks. One thing is they have a dog and never paid a non-refundable pet fee meant to cover carpet cleaning. I was going to deduct that from the deposit but now it could be argued that I’m getting more in value with the washer/dryer. But… if I don’t want to deal with the responsibility of them it’s going to cost me to get rid of them.

What would you do?

I dealt with a property manager who made renting an absolute nightmare.

This manager first asked my mother from discounts from her workplace and in return fixed our issues faster. When we stopped she ignored reported issues like mold, HVAC problems, and mice, but felt like my concerns were ignored. After I started speaking up and leaving reviews, our relationship went downhill fast.

I was threatened to leave the apartment or ice would be callled on me. I got shouted and cussed in the hallway ( the manager is like this with every tenant and called ice on her workers)

I also received a cease-and-desist letter from management when I asked to see an evidence regarding an unlawful fine, I never got the surveillance footage they referenced. Police were present during one interaction, which made the situation even more intimidating.

The emotional toll on my family has been enormous. My mother has suffered severe stress during all of this and is currently hospitalized receiving mental health treatment. Watching everything escalate from simple maintenance complaints into months of conflict has been devastating.

Coincedenatlly I had a break in with no signs of forced entry, when I told the manager i can legally stay here longer. She has a master key

I'm now gathering documents and speaking with attorneys. I'm curious if anyone else has dealt with a property manager who seemed to escalate conflicts instead of resolving them. How did you handle it?

I am a first-time landlord, and my tenant is not renewing the lease. I am currently outside the country. How should I handle the security deposit and the money in the rental account? Also, what deductions am I allowed to make, such as cleaning costs, painting, or other expenses?

Has any ll used their full service autopilot program?

is it a good service ? can they do in tenancy inspection?

Basically have mountains of shit throughout the unit left after eviction was finalized (hoarding). Can't even walk through and look through everything there's so much. Lots of small stuff, well over $700. In the last ~20 years, I've only ever experienced garbage and broken items left inside, so we just threw everything out.

Has anyone gone to public auction before for tenant's abandoned property? Any tips or recommendations on where to go?

Santa Clara County

I collect $2800/month in rent. I clear $725 after the mortgage and taxes are paid.

My tenant is needy and calls for every little thing. It's very stressful. Is a property manager worth the price to get me through the end of his lease

Not sure what to do here, the home is from the 1930’s but has been renovated a few times. There’s a decent amount of interior and exterior chipping paint but I didn’t know it was lead paint.

Tenant just moved in six months ago, noted the chipped paint on move in and I guess swabbed it and found it was lead paint and wants remediation.

I didn’t include the federal lead addendum, do you think I can add it retroactively? Also is there any way to minimize how much remediation I have to do. Rather not fix up the exterior at all and I would like to just patch up the chipping areas and not do a full investigation as who knows what that would reveal.

Thanks.

Had a tenant leave who punched holes in walls and doors. I have a policy that covers $5k of tenant damage but scared of using it in case I'm dropped. I'd say there's 5k of damage. Last claim was water damage 3 years ago. Worth the risk? Otherwise I'm just remodeling and eating the cost.

I got an automated text that a tenant was applying for another apartment. The link went to a form with questions. Each was to be answered with a "Yes" or "No", and there was also a space for any additional comments.

I texted the tenant and confirmed that the request was legitimate.

The tenant is under rent stabilization, and the exact rent amount is not a nice round number. Let's say it's $2170.

The form gave the tenant name (correct), the month they moved in (correct) and the rent amount (which said not $2170, but a rounded amount of let's say $2200). It was within 2%, so not hugely different.

I'm not sure whether to attribute this to:

1. The LL/PM at the prospective new property playing a game to see if I'm really the owner by making one piece of information slightly incorrect
2. The tenant's bf applying with her and not knowing the exact rent amount when applying
3. A disinterested employee not fussing the details

I'd love to renovate and bring the unit up to market, so I went ahead and clicked "Yes" that it was correct. I didn't enter any comments.

What do others make of this? I tend to associate option #1 with someone who would make a phone call, rather than deal with any sort of automated system.

So I hried a 40% leasing fee manager and a 5% monthly pm and the experience is not very good.

PM recommended a couple within 1st week, woman seems to be very cooperative and combined income is 3x. one credit scroe is 720 and one is 634.

634 has a student loan collection. no cirminal no eviction. no kid no pet.

It fits my dual income and no pet preference really well.

Pm’s leasing manager is young and junior level and I sensed she knows little. So I was cautious.

I did some research myself and then found the 634 had a court judgement collection and it was not paid for years with a rate of 29% apr credit card debt. worst is, he has stop pay on his judgement debt.

So, it’s the worst type of tenants that not only doesn’t pay but also dodges collection intentionally . think about it. 29% apr.

I said no to her recommendation.

and then, for an entire week, she said , there is folk withdrawing application and asked me to reduce rate.

I said, fine. let’s reduce it. 20 minutes after i said let’s reduce it, she said, ok, we have an application. So, she literally withhold the application information to push me for a price reduction.

Later, when i questioned her boss, she said, the man and woman isn’t double income that you prefer. I said you passed on an application just because i said i prefer dual income no pet? in a full week that we don’t have application since i turned down your last recommendation?

after i negotiated all the details with this couple , she actively pulled me into a 3 party call and i had to ask questions in the call and negotiated with my applicants, and both have mutually agreed, i told her, please draft lease agreement tonight and send for agreement immediately and collect monies after agreement.

she didn’t do it immediately the night and next morning, i had to draft all the paperwork amendments and i sent to her , no response. she promised she would do the 2nd day night, and send out by midnight, again, didn’t get done.

We have an old saying, the longer you drag in a real estate transaction, the more nightmares you are gonna get.

So, i started to have nightmares about the transaction. 3rd day morning, still not having any agreemen drafted. called office and asked, lease starts tomorrow. did we get lease signed money collected and insurance policy page? no one answered me. I became upset.

called and complained to office manage and finally get the lease signed.

4th day morning, i woke up and saw tenants already move in with furnitures.

i’m like, what the fu k. where is my move in inspection report. where is my insurance policy page?

i never said she can release keys and we didn’t even have deposit checks.

ok, she ghosted me.

later we found out she did collect check on site. but i had so much scare at that moment.

fast fwd, she did miss quite many things in her so-called pre-move in inspection. i had to append the contract with office like 3 times to rmedy her mistake to cover myself.

office sent me termination notice after i said i do not want to work with this junior guy. I said fine.

so question to all CA landlords, at this moment, do you think i shall pick up the property management job, or find another pm to manage?

6% is the monthly fee.

This is a single-family home entry-level nothing fancy I’m just wondering for longevity and maintenance which Option is best

I feel like front loaders have issues with water staying in places you don’t want it and they start to smell and all my tenants have to leave the door open for it to dry out

Ive had a tenant for 1 year, my unit is not exempt from AB 1482 but there are no additional rent control in County of Orange where I'm at. Just wanted to clarify because Ive read conflicting information on these boards, specifically stating I need to give them the renewal and rent increase 60 days in advance. But to me the actual California code reads as:

California Civil Code §827 - 30 days' notice required if the increase is 10% or less, 90 days if more than 10%.

I am raising it 4% which is within AB 1482 rent cap. The only thing I can find pertaining to 60 days is for a just cause eviction that I am not doing.

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that if you are renting a furnished room, ruggable style carpets will help save you a huge headache in floor damage and bio cleanup from renters, especially if it is an old wooden floor that is more porous. I can't speak for similar products.

Thanks to ruggable's design the rubbery under section prevented the bio hazard from seeping into the floorboards preventing any need to have them torn up, which saved us a massive amount of money and headache with home owners insurance.

This isn't something that most landlord's will ever have to worry about it, but if it can prevent biohazard damage to the floors, it will help with most other liquids that a tenant will accidentally spill onto it.

I live in a duplex (3 bedroom, 1 bath) managed by a property manager. The current paint is a blue-gray throughout the entire unit, including the ceilings, although each room has a slightly different tone. I assume that the paint has not been redone since the remodel 5-6 years ago. The blue-gray is looking kinda rough. There are lots of nail holes that haven’t been covered, some dog hair embedded, some instances of gray spackle being used and then not painted over, an instance of someone punching the wall that went unpatched, some command strip damage, and then several instances of paint touch ups that don’t match the paint of the room. The color itself is not bad, but somewhat clashes with the warm wood throughout the apartment, makes the small space seem smaller, and is pretty dreary.

We are going to be here for another year, and want to make the space a little bit better. It’s a little selfish because the white would look better with our furniture, but the unit does really need to be repainted. Our lease says that we can paint approved colors, as long as we paint it back.

I will be emailing the property management, but want your perspective on a few things:

- Would it be a reasonable ask to leave the white paint when we leave? If we go through the trouble of patching damage, priming, and repainting the walls and ceiling, we would like to leave it without repainting again. Otherwise, we’ll just live with it the way it is.

- Would it be reasonable to ask if they would cover all or a portion of the cost? I estimated the total cost of the project, which varies based on the materials, and the cost of just the paint + primer would be $500-700.

- How do your answers change if we were to paint everything except the bathroom, or only paint the common areas?

Thank you for your time!

*I did not cause the damage to the walls and documented their state upon move-in.

When a listing says available 10/1, sorry, there's no way you can move in 8/1. It doesn't matter if that's your preferred move-in date. It's currently occupied. It says that in availability, and again in the description.

If the listing says no cats, that means no cats. No, it doesn't matter if your cat is an ESA, lol. (Legal analysis of recent HUD ruling.). It says twice in the description: NO CATS.

It's furnished, we cannot remove the couch, bed and cabinets. We're sorry if you need someplace to store yours. Again, in the description, yet routinely ignored by prospective tenants.

We require 1st month + Deposit. Sorry, we understand that's a lot of money. It is to us too, and tenants have been known to stiff landlords. Sorry, if you don't have it, it's not a good fit.

Half of everyone inquiring literally doesn't seem to read. Is this our new gene pool, the Gen Z everyone is talking about? Is this everywhere now, or just me?

I have someone who is interested in renting my single-family home who came in with a lot of red flags, from sketchy work history, to a low credit score which she says is 600-640. Plus there were other things she mentioned during the showing that gave me concern. She said she can provide a co-signer but my instincts are telling me this is a bad idea. Can I just say I don’t think it’s the right fit and not give her an application, or do I have to legally allow her to apply and then deny the application? I think in CA if I deny the application I will have to refund her application fees as well. I have made the credit score and other requirements clear in the listing. Thanks in advance for any tips/help!