Bad renters....UPDATE....

It defiantly goes both ways. I have rented the home I am in for the last 20 years. I have never even seen my landlord! ( they may drive by to look but other than that nothing We keep the yard up and the house painted. The rent is always paid on time and it works great for both parties. There really are good tenants out there guys ...I swear!

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If you make it idiot proof,
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We are great tenants, pay on time & keep it clean. This si a temp situation until we can sell our home in NM and then buy in TX. I am so tired of renting, no place for a garden.

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

We don't actually believe that the majority would make lousy tenants. The truth is that many people doubt that they will be able to meet our standards, so they go elsewhere. A lot of landlords in our area check credit reports just to make sure that there are no outstanding bills to prior landlords and to make sure that there are no outstanding power bills. There is only one power supplier in our area and if you've stiffed them, then you will not be able to get power turned on, which could result in broken pipes and lots of water damage. Most tenants don't know that that is what is being looked at and assume that the potential landlord wants to see spotless credit. This system keeps us from having to weed out the chaff ourselves. Most of our tenants stay with us for a number of years, so turnover is generally low. For the first time in a long time, we actually have two empty units. The tenants are already lined up and will move in on November 1st.

Yes, there are always a few bad apples....I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but one got to me for over $5000...the court awarded me that in damages and rent but I have never been able to collect a nickel. At least, I feel I can clean and patch, and rent it out again. We try to help our renters, as I remember the hard times when no one would help me. The renters we have now get behind, but they eventually catch up, we do not charge any extra, times are tough and they let us know what is going on....I feel like selling my houses at times, but for some odd reason, I just keep them and keep trying. One young family struggles, the young mother took in her brother's children, as the parents went to jail for drugs for over ten years. I admire them so much for what they are doing, and they know I will help them as well.

I'm in the process of getting my house ready to rent when I move to PA. It will be handled by a rental company.

I've rented my house out in the past when I lived in AK. One renter stiffed me with a $150 electric bill that I had to pay even though it was in his name. He also left a full pick up load of bagged garbage in the basement and lots of piles of dog crap. Another renter somehow managed to break one window in every room of the house. Another renter burned my firewood without telling me.

I don't really care about the house too much because the next person who buys it will crunch it up and toss it in the dumpster no matter what condition it's in so they can build a 3,000 sq ft lake "cabin". I plan on selling as soon as the market returns.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

we sunk our last $$ into fixing up our renter trailer only to have the lady trash it and move out. I am into week 4 of burning the trailer down, piece by piece, since we didn't have the $$ to fix it up again and no one wanted to buy the trailer. I still smell of smoke, it is a might scary to see how much of a trailer you can burn.

My house is clean. My truck is NOT. My barn is clean. My truck is NOT.

I deliver mail. There are a couple landlords around here that prey on folks without money. They fix their apartments *just enough* to get approved for HUD and then they let the maintenance fall by the wayside. They hound their tenents all the time and the buildings are an eyesore. They can do this because they know these folks have nowhere else to go besides the street.

I've had one of the two scumbag landlords try to get me to give him the tenent's Social Security check by producing a note stating it was okay to give the check to the landlord. I found out that he makes them sign their checks over to him and he'll take out the rent and give them the difference...minus a small fee for the trouble of cashing their check.

Jimmy lives in one of these places. He's blind. He's in his seventies. A very large portion of his Social Security check goes towards rent for his one bedroom apartment. Jimmy collects aluminum cans from trash receptacles around the city. He pushes a grocery cart right down the middle of the street. He listens for cars and hopes they don't run him down. Lots of people scream at him. He told me that he can only afford to eat beans and cornbread so that is what he eats three times a day. Guess what? Jimmy feeds the homeless three times a day. He shares what he has with those less fortunate (IS THAT POSSIBLE???) than he is.

Moral...there's landlords out there that are scum sucking, ghetto making, leeches of the poor. I wish I could hit them in the head with a baseball bat.

Homesteadforty,

While the percentage of bad renters may be low, think about this: A good renter may stay in one place 4-5-20 years. Why? Because they are good tenents, paying their bills and rent on time.

The BAD renters may move as many as 2 or 3 or MORE times a year, depending on how bad they are. I'm always AMAZED at how much damage they can do in such a short period of time. Therefore, the bad renters have a much greater impact on the rental system.

Yes, there are a few bad landlords out there, but by FAR, they are outweighed by bad tenents. Many state laws are so slanted in the renter's favor, that it's almost impossible to get rid of a bad renter. Meanwhile, who is making the mortgage payment? Ah, the landlord, of course.

The girl works 2-3 hours a day monday thru thurs. She works max 12 hours a week. Yet, she is on numerous welfare goodies including free babysitting. The husband is a deadbeat and does not work.Both appear to be well fed.

I think I could handle being a landlord again, however.....since at the time, we had to go with property management services (and it was through the real estate company we purchased the house with originally....think it was a Century 21 office) and they were the ones that allowed things to get out of hand...I dont think I would want to trust anyone to "landlord" my property for me. I would rather be in the area to be able to do it ourselves if need be.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons...for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!

There are bad tenants, no doubt.

There are bad landlords, no question.

My only question is why don't the bad tenants rent from the bad landlords and leave the rest of us alone?

God Bless.

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Diamondtim

You can tell what someone thinks by reading the bumper stickers on their car. You can also tell if they think at all.

For the most part we do what Ryan NC and TheMartianChick do. We have an owner-occupied three unit so if things go badly the renters live right next door. We also use a recorded answering machine message....and very often only hear a bunch of clicks.

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The less I seek my source for some definitive - The closer I am to fine.

http://williampalmerhomestead.weebly.com/

Totally agree, DiamondTim. I rented for 3 years as a single mother and had one of the bad landlords. I replaced window blinds that were barely hanging on-called the landlord, who kept telling me that he would come by "tomorrow" to 'fix' them, painted the entire inside (neutral color) because my DS3(at that time) marked on 1 wall & when I tried to clean it the paint came off, replaced inside door knobs because they didn't work, replaced bathroom fixtures that came off in my hand every time I turned them on. I kept the place clean, paid my rent on time, replaced air filters once a month. When I moved with a month notice, my rent was paid up, all of the utilities were paid and the apt. was spotless. Did I get my deposit back? NO! I had to take the man to court. As I had kept records and pictures of repairs and reciepts the judge asked the landlord what his problem was, that the place was in better shape after I left that it probably had been in yeats. We later found out that he was behind on his mortgage for the apt buildings and about a year later lost them to repo.

Oakwoods201,

And, let me guess now, the rest of the story was you got a judgment, but no money because he squandered it away on something else and was "judgment proof". I really hope that wasn't the case for you.

I personally didn't have a bad landlord experience because I didn't expect much of him in one case and made friends with the property manager in the other. I got my own house as soon as I put together 3% down payment on an FHA loan and started building equity instead of a pile of rent receipts.

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Diamondtim

You can tell what someone thinks by reading the bumper stickers on their car. You can also tell if they think at all.

a bad tenant can cost you way more than a bad landlord. A bad landlord can cost you your deposit. But, a bad renter can cost you thousands and thousands......

So can a bad landlord. Not to mention, a bad landlord can cause you to become homeless.

I have been on both sides. When we were just starting out, we had a landlord lose the building, and we had to find a new place to live on basically no notice. This was in a time and place (Boston in the early '90's) where you couldn't find a rental unless you paid a rental company or realtor a fee equal to a month's rent. So in addition to having to fight for months to get our deposit back and having to move on less than a month's notice, we had to spend $1200 we didn't really have on a realtor's fee for a new place.

I feel bad for all the renters now who are paying their rent on time, then having the Sheriff show up at the door to evict them because the landlord is being foreclosed on. Happens a LOT.

We had a landlord that owned all the houses on the street. The moved offices and didn't tell anyone until after the rent was due. Naturally, everyone's rent was late because it had to be forwarded. They had the nerve to send the sheriff to give eviction notices to everyone on the street! He was amazed at the stack he had. We talked to him a bit and he said he had one for nearly everyone.

The next day we got the notice in the mail saying they had moved their office. My husband went in there and went off on them. Needless to say, they did not follow through on the evictions. But they did send out letters chastising everyone for paying the rent late. Unbelievable!

1/ Always get a deposit to cover damages. If they can't come up with a deposit, then there's a chance they might not be able to make rent payments. And if a financial emergency comes up, the rent will be one of the last things they will pay. Rent is not a big priority for some people.

And do NOT agree to let them use that deposit as their last month's rent....after you agree to that, it's possible you will find some other damages that were not immediately apparent. Have a contract in that you will hold the deposit until a thorough premise check is done.

2/Always get a referral from at least 2 other places they rented from, if possible....DO NOT rely on the word of their present landlord, as if they're bad tenants, the landlord will want them gone and lie to you as much as possible to ensure it. Ask the person that they rented from before that, a landlord that has nothing to gain.

3/Check all references. Make sure it's employers or from other places like volunteer services. Otherwise, if they supply personal references, it's likely to be their relatives or friends.

4/Always take pictures before and after renting to tenants. Be sure they know you have done this. They are more likely to clean up when they leave. Be sure it's in the contract that the place is to be left in decent shape before they leave (I mean, regular wear and tear is fine, but huge holes in walls, missing windows and ceiling fans, etc is not). Have them sign the "before" pictures as proof that they acknowledge the condition when they moved in.

That might sound extreme, but it's covering yourself. If the person won't agree to the above, then there is likely a reason why. If a decent person is going to keep the place nice and pay the rent anyway, they won't care.

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"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."