Stolen Stove
What shall I do? Here is the scoop. Teanant signed a lease for 1yr on 10-5-07 to move into a 2br 1bath. She went to go get the lights turned on but did not take the lease with her even though she had a receipt she paid for rent by Check for $ 500.00. ( Check is bad & I should of request money order instead).
Due to the fact that I have tried twice to see if the money was in her bank account which it is not.
So I request key back and told her I was not going to rent to her because the funds are not there.
I had been calling her all week but no answer. She finally leaves key in mailbox.
I go back the next day to get key and find that the front door is wide open. The Stove is missing, back window is broken. Other window screens are damaged.
I called her and asked her what happen & of course she does not know what happen & had nothing to do with that.
I called police to report a burglary, police said since she signed the lease, I would have to evict her & then if the stove does not show up, I could call the Police and press criminal charges against her.
What shall I do, I want the stove back, rent & damage incurred?
Did you sign the lease? Give her a copy?
Did she give you any monetary amount? The lease might not hold if there was no consideration exchanged.
If there was any money exchanged, you need to give her the late notice asap and go file papers for judgement and eviction process. Read you tenant/landlord laws for your locale.
Good luck.
1st thing to do is secure your apartment - fix the window and make sure you can lock the doors.
Does she have any belongings in the apartment? If not, in my leases it would be considered abandoned and I would take possession and be done with the problem - check your lease for that. Change the locks and take pics for evidence.
If your lease does not specify call a lawyer for definition of abandonment in your state. Do not change the locks until it qualifies.
Forget about the stove and rent - long gone now. Just pre screen people before you give them the keys to your property.
I did sign the lease & so did she & her cousin. She gave me a check for $500.00 dollar, 1st months rent + Security deposit. This check is bad I have verified twice at the bank.
She did not have anything in the house. I told her the lights & power had to be on before she could move into the house.
One of my friends in Denver was looking to rent her very nice house while she is employed out of state.
One of the prospective property managers indicated that he has a number of houses that are designated as non-smoking. You are not likely to have any real difficulties with this.
and you can smell a smoker a mile away.
First, approve the color and the sheen. Make them buy the paint and all supplies. And realize that they could make a mess with their painting. If they seem responsible then let them give it a try. You might want to get them to sign something that says they painted the room and will be responsible for painting it back at a charge of $XX.XX. I usually do not paint it back but do deduct the money from the security deposit.
Only YOU can really answer that. Have you considered increasing your liability umbrella policy (assuming it covers these)?
There are many commercial insurers that will insure properties in LLCs and other "non-personal" entities. You need to first determine that your asset-protection strategy is "proper", then fit the insurance program to the strategy. Find (if you can), an agent that is versed in REI. They should have the companies that will provide the correct policies/contracts for your strategy...
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Best regards,
Tim[ Edited by norrist on Date 11/13/2007 ]
Keep in mind that since you are a CA resident you will need to file a tax return for each LLC and pay the annual franchise tax of $800 to CA. If receipts from your LLC surpass 250k annually (probably unlikely), you would also need to pay an LLC fee annually.
I would price personal umbrella policies of $1-2 million to see if that is a direction you want to consider.
I can only tell you my experience. It may not be the same everywhere. In one of the counties where I accept Sec 8, the maximum allowed for a 3 bedroom house is $917. My tenants qualified for a voucher for $699 because of their income and number of children. So I RAISED the rent to $699. Recently that amount was reduced because the husband was working more after surgery. Now they pay the difference. So not everyone qualifies for the maximum allowed and not many want to pay the difference out of their own pocket to get better housing.
You also have to prove to the HUD people that you unit is worth the maximum allowed when they do the inspection of your unit.
Have you rented to section 8 before....know what you are getting into. I could not stand it and got rid of them as soon as possible.
You about to get a real management education. Section 8 is in a different universe.
cmiller:
What did you find to be so objectionable?
We are currently working on a feature on PropBot that will show you citywide averages of listing rents.
Below is a sample of NC statewide averages.
I am a section 8 landlord. Have about 18 rental, maybe three are section 8 right now. I have not noticed any trends of section 8 vs non-section 8 tenants.
I have had pretty similiar experiences as LAROCK. Bottomline, the less dollars "people" have to shell out of their own pocket, the less they care. I have a S8 tenant whose subsidy is 95%+ of the rent. She could care less about the place......her door has been kicked it by former boyfriends - more than once...here toilet is clogged every month, her carpet is filthy....etc.
North Las Vegas has both war zones and brand new Master Planned Communities; just depends upon location. So you must know where you are buying.
Plus there are some TREMENDOUS buying opportunities…BUT you must sift through a lot of junk to find them.
Just saw a Bandit Sign yesterday that read “Desperate Owner (702) 555-1212 Take over my payments PLEASE”.
And it is just getting started.
Hope this helps
John (LV)