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hi,
so my renters left a couple of weeks ago. they were renting from me for about 10 months (term of the contract). during this time, a number of minor fixes were made (door knob, shower valve, etc.) and things were good/ok between us.
they paid the rent late (3 days late) two of the months, and i politely reminded them that it's important to get it to me on time, as the contract states that there will be a 10% late fee and 3 dollar a day for late payments....but i really didn't have any intention of collecting that from them.
so, long story short, when we were doing the walk through, i noticed a couple of tiles broken in the kitchen, a couple of bulbs missing, and the fridge a bit dirty.
he said that he will fix/replace the tile himself and i told him that i will call him.
i don't want him doing it because it's not what he does for a living and i'm afriad he might mess up. i want to tell him that it'll cost about 150 for the tiles to be repared (3 estimates i got) but i know he will throw a fit.
what's your opinion about this?
what should i do?
should i be persistant? should i remind them of the roughly 300 dollars i can legally collect from them if i choose to? (am i right on this?)
thank so much.
IMO you made a very good decision not to let them fix it them self...you need to have it fixed in a professional way and not getting into more issues with this tenant. Make sure you keep all bills and show what and how much you have deducted and wait till they completely have moved out...you never know if the sinks ar clogged, or the something else might have been broken...
IMO you made a very good decision not to let them fix it them self...you need to have it fixed in a professional way and not getting into more issues with this tenant. Make sure you keep all bills and show what and how much you have deducted and wait till they completely have moved out...you never know if the sinks ar clogged, or the something else might have been broken...
Good Luck, keep us updated
Thanks.
they have already moved out.
i guess one of my questions is wheather i need to actually fix it in order to be able to deduct the amount from their deposit or whether i can say based on the estimates i've gotten, it's 150 and i will deduct that and then either fix it in 6 months or decide not to fix it and instead live with it.
Just curious but how are the tiles broken? Some landlords use the cheapest tile and foot traffic over a period of time coupled with changes in the temperature indoors can cause tiles to crack. Wouldn't that be normal wear and tear?
It's hard to believe that someone would carelessly break tiles on the kitchen floor. Is this the only damage that they have done to the apartment?
Are they really broken to the point that you MUST repair them for the next tenant? You asked if you could charge them for it but wait six months (maybe) to have them fixed. Would you leave the place vacant for those six months? If it's rentable with the tiles as is, are you just looking to nail these people?
Again, not being judgmental, I'm just curious here.
It sounds like you're being petty. Minor damage occurs with normal living.
I don't rent, I own my own home, but the fridge is sometimes not perfectly clean, there might be a dead or missing bulb or two here, and I've broken things like tile myself that I should fix when I get the time.
Clean the fridge; replace the bulbs; get some tile grout, superglue or construction adhesive and fix the tile at least so there's no sharp edges. Might take you 45 minutes...thank them for being good tenants and be happy if they don't get ticked off and sue you for some defect or code violation you're not aware of or not telling us about.
Forget about the late fees on the rental payments, too. You didn't charge them late fees at the time, gave them no notification you were planning on doing so (three days is really no big deal) and you can't backtrack now. Sounds like you had good tenants.
????
how can i justify deducting the daily value of my unit being vacant? i'm not sure i understand.
also, what if i don't want to fix the tiles? can i charge him the 150 based on the estimates i've gotten and fix later? (in 6 months or whenever?)
also, do you recommend me charging them for the late payment penalties? we never really discussed it but i have copies of the checks that they paid and the dates on them are past the date they were supposed to pay me. or should i let that go if they don't give me trouble on the tile issue?
You could wait to do the repairs however I don't advise it. Why would you even do that anyway, don't you want the unit to look nice for showing prospective renters?
You cannot charge late fees after the fact. When you accept the rent and say nothing more, by implication you have accepted their payment as payment in full. If you had a firm late fee policy in place which they had in writing (preferably in the lease itself) and when they were late you calculated these fees, charged them then itemized all on their receipt, then you have properly handled the late situation. To even think of charging late fees on past rent is well, just unthinkable. Once you have accepted the next month's rent, all previous month's rent/fee issues become moot. Notices and charges must be served within that current month in question.
You need to read your local landlord tenant code, see if there is a layman's handbook available, or see if there are any classes given by local courts or Landlord associations available to you. Or, you could hire a professional licensed RE company to manage your property however you as the owner are ultimately responsible to know the law as it applies to you. If you do not understand it, the burden is on you to find a way to learn it. I suggest you do this before someone takes action against you for something you did not realize was "wrong".
This sounds like it is on the edge of nitpicking.
If a couple light bulbs are missing, 3 tiles are cracked, and the fridge being a little dirty is the only problems you ever have with a tenant you will be very lucky.
Forget the late fees. You didn't take action to do anything about at it the time and now it's after the fact.
If they had left rotting food in the fridge or stole all the light bulbs to take with them or busted up the floor through careless action that would be another matter. Tiles can crack just do to the fact they are so brittle and if the floor underneath is old they are very prone to cracking.
I think you should give back the deposit. This sounds like it falls more into the normal wear and tear catagory.
Thanks.
they have already moved out.
i guess one of my questions is wheather i need to actually fix it in order to be able to deduct the amount from their deposit or whether i can say based on the estimates i've gotten, it's 150 and i will deduct that and then either fix it in 6 months or decide not to fix it and instead live with it.
Does anyone know?
If you have an official quote/estimate you can wait till you got your money back and it is up to you if you want to fix it or not...but it might be hard to find another tenant who wants to move in a place with broken tiles...
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