Landlords With Bad Reps
I'm in the process of showing a new rental property and it seems EVERYONE has some kind of horror story about their previous landlords! They are telling me MAJOR stuff...like huge holes in ceilings, mold growing on walls, electrical fixtures hanging loose, etc...a few have said they reported their landlords to Section 8, and even then, the repairs still went undone (and the rent checks stopped...for MONTHS) Am I just dealing with some super-slick and experienced renters who are just "working me" or am I really getting true statements from renters who are victims of...and I hate to say it...slumlords...You guys all seem pretty decent and conscientious to me...what's the deal?
As a member of various landlord clubs, I have to say that there are many slumlords or slow-to-respond landlords out there. (Generally not in our clubs, of course) But, we hear the stories all the time, sadly.
You may get the other side of the story when you call those previous landlords as part of your tenant screening.
Hey,
There are two sides to every story!
I don't think I ever had a person rent a house from me that was not the victim of some form of landlord abuse. Well...at least in their opinion.
The most common seems to be failure to return security deposits.
But whenever someone starts in on their horror story, take the opportunity to turn it in to a postive.
"Gosh, that old landlord not returning your deposit was a horrible thing. To make sure something like that never happens to you, we are going to fill out this Inspection Form right now. And then when you move out we will do another one. We promise to have your Security Deposit back to you in less than 30 days (it is the law, but they dont know that), minus any damages or fees."
Everybody feels good then.
Another question....do you find more damage is caused by younger kids (under 8 lets say) or older kids/teens? Just curious.
Thanks!
~D~
dawizzy it is the parents that control the kids. I have had parents with young kids and you would have never known that any kids lived in the house.
Hey,
Vern is 100% right!
But your question poses its own dilemma, as it is creeping in to the arena of illegal discrimination.
Be very, very, very careful.
I gotcha...thanks for the advice. Ages of children would fall under "familial discrimination" and that is a no no, as is any kind of discrimination. (unless you are a condo association and you get away with it-no firm laws regarding them...yet)
One recent story comes to mind....
A tenant (not mine) was being evicted. He claimed that he was leaving the property in better shape than he got it, that he was leaving a new refrigerator, that he had been harrassed by the landlord through frequent (2) inspections, that he wasn't respected, and that he had taken such abuse that he was going to sue.....
The other side of the story....
He hadn't paid his rent in over 3 months, and what he did pay initially came from an ecclesiastical leader. He was selling drugs, people were in and out of his appartment all the time, day and night (buyers), his wife was in the hospital because he beat her, he would stomp on the floor to annoy the tenants below him (at 3am) He changed the phone number on the "for rent" sign, changed his lock, he'd yell at the other tenants, he put signs up blaming the other tenants for EVERYTHING that was wrong, he put up surveylance cameras all over to monitor the property (for cops), he never changed the electricity to his name and incurred enormous bills, etc. By the time he had left he owed over $2000 in rents and another $500 in electricity plus legal fees and had caused a fair amount of damage to the apartment through his "improvements". One of the neighbors had to be given half a months free rent because he nearly drove them out.
In this world there are a lot of unethical people. Some are landlords, some are tenants. Do good, thorough background checks (credit, criminal, reference, employment, current landlord, previous landlord) and you should be able to weed out most of the bad ones before they move in.
It's better to have an empty apartment than a bad tenant.