Tenant
My wife and I have had about all we can take from this tenant. She was two days late with her rent check, so my wife called and talked to her. The tenant said she would send the check out that day, along with the late charges. A couple of days later, we get two money orders that total the amount of the rent - IOW, no check for the late charges. So, my wife calls her again, and the tenant plays forgetful. She says she'll drop the check in the mail that day. This is last Wednesday. It only takes mail about two days to get to us from anywhere around Austin - max. Saturday, we check the mail, and no check. Yesterday is a holiday, so the mail didn't run, however, my wife noticed in the mail Saturday that we got a bill from the city for sewer services. The bill is noticeably different, and has a different account number, so we believe at first that it's a courtesy copy to us and the tenant got the actual bill (especially, since it has a different account number). The city offices were closed Monday for Veteran's day, so we had to wait until today to call the city and confirm. Well, we were wrong. The city changed the billing (without any notice to us, mind you), which included changing the account numbers. The lady there confirmed that we were still the account holders, and the tenant has never switched it over. Of course, my wife was fuming (as was I, since the tenant told me twice she had done it). The lady at the city said what we should do is just cancel the account. That way the tenant would HAVE to open an account or the water would be disconnected since the city and water company have an agreement as such. The only downside is that we would have to pay some reconnect charges in the future to have it turned back on in our names, which I think I'm willing to do at this point. So, my wife called the tenant and told her the news to which the tenant again plead dumb. My wife told her that she was going to call the city back this Thursday afternoon, and if the account is still in our name that we would go in Friday, pay the outstanding charges, have the account disconnected, and that the tenant would owe us the amount for the bill. We'll see what happens.
4-plex
This deal seems to be dragging, and dragging, and ... I got an email from the agent last week saying she would forward my options to the Seller. Yesterday, she sends me another email saying she met with the Seller and gave him my email, specifying my options and that he requested a few days to ponder his choices. She also reminded me that the property was being sold "as is" "where is", and I was made aware of this beforehand. I wrote her back today saying I realized it was "as is"/"where is", but based on the information I was given beforehand, including a copy of the Selelr's Disclosure, it was in worse shape than not only I was led to believe, but probably even worse than the Seller realized. I told her I was fine with giving the Seller a few days to ponder the decision, and to get back with me ASAP once he made up his mind.
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3 comments:
did you screen this tenant before offering her the rental? I am asking because we are wondering how we will screen our renters. Our first rental property came with a previous renter and she was willing to stay and we were willing to let her stay. Thsi next one we will advertise and screening is something we want to do but not sure of where to start. I have found some online services that claim to do this but i wonder if they really get all the information correct. Another idea is references from a previous landlord. That we will do for sure.
Your very patient with the 4-plex. I don't know if I would keep holding on. Keep us posted.
I always screen my tenants, but you never know exactly what type of person you have until you get the 2nd rent check. Even Mike has had to evict some tenants of his lately, and he seems to do a more thorough job than I.
At a minimum, I have the prospective tenant fill out a lease application - COMPLETELY. I tell them if there are blanks, they better have a good explanation - especially if it's for current/previous residence and employer.
The vast majority of renters have not-so-good credit, so I expect their credit report to be "bruised". However, if they have a lot of late payments (especially recently), that raises a big red flag. I also try to do a criminal background check to see if they have any drug convictions or any other nasty criminal convictions that would make them less than desirable. I then check up on their references - both employers and current/previous landlords.
Even after all that, you can STILL have a bad tenant.
This current tenant checked out in just about every way. The only suspicion I had was with her current landlord. I asked him if she was ever late paying rent, and he said "No". I asked if she was a nuisance to others, failed to maintain the property, and/or failed to pay the utilities. He said "No". I'm thinking now he was probably saying all that just to get rid of her as she has failed in half the questions I asked him.
At this point, I would send the tenant a letter telling them they are in violation of their lease and to rectify the situation or be evicted. At least get the legal groundwork laid in case you do need to evict. The tenant should recognize what you are doing and shape up. Sometimes they need a legal-sounding threat to make them perform.
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