Landlord/Tenant question

[CaliLily]

3 years ago I had an issue with the apartment I was living in where the tennant before me never returned his keys and ended up stealing my mail and waltzing around my apartment since the manager never changed the locks. I ended up moving out because even after all of that the manager 'just didn't feel it was nessecary' to change them.

The building I am in now has several different extra locks and they swap them around on the doors so that even if someone has a key out there somewhere they can't use it on the particular apartment they are expecting it to work on. That way it dosn't cost the management anything extra if a tennant needs or wants to have lock changed.

[Google]

 

[buglover]

The funny thing is that the person who had the apartment before this tenant moved out of state. The tenant who lives there now had changed their locks 4 times at their other apartment but kept swearing someone was coming in during the day and watching their tv.

[PWS]

Reading these reminds me of the times we've leased our house. We go away on sabbatical for 6 mo. to a year every seven years, and we really don't want the house standing empty all that time...because of burglars, burst pipes, etc. Usually our tenants have been fine, because they've been students of one of ours and not wanting to offend the prof. But one year we rented to a visiting German family with a 2 year old. Well, she got pregnant again (she was the visiting prof.), went back to Germany for a visit, was told her pregnancy was in danger and that she couldn't fly again. So they moved out with a week's notice and we wound up having 2 other families live there sequentially (also from Europe) that we had to recruit long distance, one of whom (we don't know which), took it upon themselves to do major pruning of trees in our backyard and bushes. They cut off a lot of lower branches of evergreen trees, ones which blocked the view of a tool shed from the living room (and also held a birdhouse), and, worse, they cut down some lilacs that my deceased dad had planted the last time he'd visited us. All without asking us, and none of it can ever grow back of course. And I'm sure they felt they'd done us a huge favor by "opening things up". I burst into tears when I saw it, and it was very hard to ever rent it out again---I left about 2 pages of instructions the next time, but I still feel sad when I look at where the lilacs were.
So again, I have to ask, who does something like that without asking? It wasn't like we weren't available on email.

[prhoshay]

"Dream tenants" are a true rarity.

[gabriel]

Originally Posted by prhoshay

"Dream tenants" are a true rarity.

Thank You, we are.

[hutchlover]

Originally Posted by gabriel

Thank You, we are.

LOL Gabriel. Being a landlord probably makes for being a pain in the ass tenant. We've asked for real specific things in the new lease of the townhouse we're renting, and it's specifically because of the issues we've been having with our tenants.

[kewtiebaby]

http://www.mrlandlord.com/html/frametop.html

Since the laws vary so much from state to state, you might want to click on your states link to see what their laws are.

I can't guarentee that all these links will work, I only clicked on a few random ones to check.

[MamaC]

We have a total of ten units in three different buildings, in addition to a house that we rent out to our two older kiddos and two of their friends. (The four of them actually say quite a bit living under the same roof as opposed to living in two to four separate apartments since they split the cable, electric, etc. They do, however, have an over-abundance of hand-me-down and dorm-room furniture. )

We do change the locks anytime a tenant moves out. We even go so far as to use one old lockset from say apartment building A and put it in an apartment in building B or C.

We've been very lucky as far as our tenants go. One lady has lived in one of the apartments for 27 years! Another has been there for seven. Never had to evict any of the other tenants. *knocks on wood*

[gabriel]

Originally Posted by MamaC

We have a total of ten units in three different buildings, in addition to a house that we rent out to our two older kiddos and two of their friends. (The four of them actually say quite a bit living under the same roof as opposed to living in two to four separate apartments since they split the cable, electric, etc. They do, however, have an over-abundance of hand-me-down and dorm-room furniture. )

We do change the locks anytime a tenant moves out. We even go so far as to use one old lockset from say apartment building A and put it in an apartment in building B or C.

We've been very lucky as far as our tenants go. One lady has lived in one of the apartments for 27 years! Another has been there for seven. Never had to evict any of the other tenants. *knocks on wood*

I have been where I am for 13 years, simply put because I like the building, the area, the owners are great. Only have had to have them do anything for me twice in the 8 years they've owned the place, that was they snaked out the main drain line from my kitchen (and others) and replaced part of my bathroom ceiling drywall from a leak upstairs. The previous owner was good too.

Now from my perspective, I (of course with permission) installed track lighting in the living room, new light fixtures in the kitchen and the hall to the bedroom, new faucets in the kitchen and bathroom, and have had the apartment wired so it is phone/cable/internet ready on almost every wall in every room, I have had my apartment painted at my own expense and am hoping to put new carpeting in this year economy permitting.

I do any minor repairs that come up, I prune the tree outside my living room window so the branches won't hit the window and break them, I clean my windows inside and out. etc etc., and it is no ones business in this building that my rent is lower than anyone elses.

[Gutmutter]

Wow! You sound like the perfect tenant, gabriel! They're lucky to have you. I'd give you a break in the rent, too, for all that. I would never want to have rental units. I've heard too many horror stories.