With Google Voice, you can get a phone number in one of many area-codes, anywhere in the United States. Once you get a number assigned, you can set up multiple other phones to work with the service. Using Google Voice, you can place and receive phone calls and receive voicemail, which is nicely transcribed (sometimes accurately) for you and stored online within your Google Voice dashboard. The great thing however, is that Google Voice keeps a record of text-message conversations in the same dashboard.

Google is sometimes lambasted by privacy advocates for storing all information about how you use their products….forever. This sounds ominous until you find yourself in court with the tenant above and conveniently you have a complete log of all the text messages, voice messages, placed calls and received calls all printed out and ready for the judge.

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How Google Voice Can Help Landlords

So recently, I had a tenant who had just moved to the area and  wanted a 6-month lease.Normally I don’t accept 6-month leases but she said she would pre-pay the entire lease including the security deposit and I accepted. A month before the lease came up for renewal, I spoke with the tenant about renewing and sounded very positive about signing a new 1-year lease. She even went so far as to request that I send the lease for her to sign.

The next phone message I got from her 2 days later, was that she had moved to another house with about 25 days left on her lease. Talk about flaky. I should also mention that she placed this call on a public holiday when she knew she wouldn’t have to talk to me directly. Now that’s what I call flaky AND cowardly.

The very next day after the public holiday, I was contacted by an ex-tenant who (ready for this?) moved out at the end of her lease because she determined that she couldn’t afford to pay her rent. This is quite a shocker because most tenants seem to want a big dramatic showdown because THEY can’t pay THEIR rent, like it’s my fault or something. This was not the case with this ex-tenant. In fact, she has referred her friends to me as potential tenants because, “…they have their act together.” Let me tell you, dear reader, it is absolute LANDLORD GOLD when you have good ex-tenants pre-screening potential new tenants and referring them to you.

The punchline of this story is that this ex-tenant called to find out if I had any units available for rent. “Why yes! Yes I do!”, I answered. I have to say that I couldn’t be happier with this situation. I always treat my tenants like valued customers provided that they keep up their end of the bargain. This time, it paid off in spades!

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Fastest Tenant Turnaround Ever

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This friend called me today to bemoan the fact that she’s, in her own words, “all jammed up” about a situation where she signed a lease and paid her deposit only to realize after the fact that her landlord and various associated employees are at the very least behaving in an unprofessional and demeaning manner while also not living up to their role as property managers.

Before she moved in, she was told that her unit would be painted, an appliance replaced and various plumbing issues would be repaired. Well, fast-forward two weeks to when the place full of boxes of her belongings, including all the headache that entails, and none of the above work was done. A call to the “property manager” was met by a person who behaved like the were doing my friend a favor by answering the phone. She was informed that she should be patient and that a maintenance person would be out to make the promised repairs.

When the maintenance person arrived, my friend was informed that he would need access to her unit off and on for about 10 days. Quite rightfully, my friend lost it. She called the landlord and told him that she could not allow various service people to access to her unit while she was not there because she did not trust these people and you’ll see why in a moment. The landlord was basically behaving in a dismissive manner, calling her “sweetie” and “honey” and telling her “not to worry.” Ya right!

The last straw was the second time the maintenance person was inside her unit painting, all the while dripping paint all over her boxes and furniture. When my friend protested, the maintenance man also treated her like she was 12 years-old and touched her inappropriately on the shoulder and stroked her arm, no doubt attempting to “soothe” her anger at the situation.

Right there and then, my friend decided that she could not put up with this kind of behavior from her landlord and decided that, deposit be damned, she would find somewhere else to rent. I seriously can’t say that I blame her for her decision but if I was in that situation, the landlord would be in court almost instantly for the deposit money with all the facts laid bare before the court.

The landlord-tenant relationship should be treated with respect and professionalism by both sides while each performs their stipulated roles. In my experience, deviation from this usually only leads to heartache.

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How To Handle A Creepy Landlord

I returned to find no less than 12 missed phone calls from the two of them and upon listening to their messages, I understood that they were splitting up and they would like their pre-paid rent back. After speaking with both of them, I explained that they can get out of the lease but that there would be penalties. They would have to forfeit the security deposit and two months’ rent.

The gentleman of the house asked me during the phone call if I could come to the property and change the locks. I let him know that I would come to the property the next day even though I had no intention of changing the locks.

When I arrived on-site, I let him know what I had told the estranged lady of the house on the phone earlier. I would not be able to change the locks due to the fact that even though he signed the lease, she and the children were listed as residents and they had just as much legal right to be there as he had. In fact, if she were to call the police, they would make him produce the lease determine that she had a right to be there and I would be forced to come back and change the locks back to give her access.

On the phone, apparently there was some question as to whose money pre-paid the lease and they were expecting me to make a decision as to who got the remaining money after fees were paid. The way I left it with them was that they needed to come to some agreement and if the lease was to be broken, then give me a call. I should also mention that there did not seem to be any violence, just a disagreement of some sort, so in my opinion, there was no need to involve the police.

In these situations I think it’s best for a landlord to try to stay as neutral as possible so as not to get involved in the domestic dispute. Domestic disputes are not my jurisdiction and neither is marital law.

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Settling Domestic Disputes Among Tenants

They even left a very lame hand-written note apologizing for moving out and that they would pay their late fees in arrears, blah blah blah. Of course, the late fees never materialized and the tenant was never heard from again.

Well, as a matter of policy, if a tenant passes a bad check to me and tries to disappear I file a worthless check complaint with the local state attorney’s office. This is when the wheels of justice begin to grind and creek. Though they might turn slowly, they don’t stop turning.

A full 2 and a half years after the worthless check complaint was filed, I received a check from the county Clerk of Courts in the amount of $100. This is good because this tells me that the law has finally caught up with the tenant presumably at a traffic stop and my favorite, they went to jail unexpectedly.

What will be interesting, will be to see how long it takes the tenant to pay the other $700.

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Tenant Finally Pays Restitution

Recently while working at the newly vacant property, I noticed the utility interface boxes for telephone and cable TV were both open and exposed to the elements. While attempting to secure them, I noticed the electricity “meter can” was also open. As soon as I touched it, it completely fell apart and its pieces fell to the ground exposing the inner workings of the meter. I gingerly reassembled the meter can (220 volts at 100 amps is not your friend) and made a mental note to call the power company to notify them.

When I called the power company, I explained that I am the owner of the property and would like to open an account so maintenance could be performed. The customer service rep accessed the account log for the property and let me know that they had not had an account registered at the property since June of this year. So basically, for the past 3 months, this tenant had been stealing from the power company. I should also mention that  while not paying for electricity, she also could not see fit to pay her rent on time either due to every excuse in the book.

Oh how I wish I could be there when she receives that certified letter from the power company’s collections attorney telling her that she owes them for the last three months of electricity usage. It amazes me that people who do things like this will wonder why the world is against them. Maybe it’s because they’re thieves? Duh!

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Theiving Tenant

Like many of my past bad tenants, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this girl will be her own worst enemy unless she makes a major change her attitude toward life in general. Her complete lack of responsibility will do her no favors.

As an example, when she moved in, she brought with her a refrigerator, washer and dryer which she removed from her house before it was foreclosed upon. This happened supposedly due to a divorce (surprise!) Well, I’m not sure where she went, but she left all that stuff behind. All the appliances were completely filthy but they can be cleaned. I’m thinking a garage sale is in order. Her loss, my gain.

But first, we need to completely re-paint the place, replace the 36 year-old air conditioning unit (that’s not a typo,) whip the yard into shape, trim the largest oak tree I’ve ever seen in the back yard, replace the mailbox, and scrub the floors.

With some luck, we’ll be ready to rent it next month.

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Ding Dong The Witch Is Gone

Now, lets just pause a moment to think about this……

Ok, now. What in TARNATION is this tenant thinking?! I know she must obviously want a new air-conditioning system  but I don’t know how many tenants have a spare $2500 just lying around to pay for it. Well, it turns out that she wanted ME to pay for the replacement of course.  W-H-A-T-E-V-E-R  lady.

She went so far as to have a salesman from Sears come out to her unit, give her an estimate and then call me to give me the price. At the end of the salesman’s pitch over the phone, he asked when I would like the new unit installed. Again, W-H-A-T-E-V-E-R.

This tenant skipped one crucial step in the transaction. Call the landlord first to ask if a new air-conditioning unit could be installed. Duh?!

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Delusional Tenants

Granted, some of the complaints were valid and I fixed them promptly. The other things consisted of  a dead battery in the garage opener remote, minuscule cracks in the bathroom tile and non-working light bulbs.

What’s probably going on here is that they probably don’t want to be charged for things that are wrong with the unit when they move out, which is understandable but that’s what the move-in/move-out inspection is for. Before a tenant moves into a unit, I require them to walk through the unit with a checklist and note the condition of major things such as cracked tile, non-working appliances, etc.

I should also mention that every time they call with one of these complaints, they behave like this one complaint will be the “deal breaker” which will make them move out.

If they keep this up I may ask them to please go nitpick another landlord’s rental unit when their lease is up for renewal.

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Whiny Tenants Revisited

I called the tenant back on Monday morning and let her know that I have no problem coming out to take a look at her air-conditioning unit but that I wanted to talk to her about paying her rent late…. Every. Single. Month.  It seems that this tenant thinks that as long as she pays the late fees, she can pay whenever she chooses. Oh, how mistaken she is.

Back about 6 months ago, she had car trouble and needed to buy another car. She called to let me know that the rent would be late because of this and I worked with her to get her back in business. Since that month, she has been late paying rent every month. I should mention that I have spoken to her about this in the past and she always promises to “try” to pay on time.

Well, at the end of this lease term, I’m going to “try” to not let the door hit her on the way out.

And by the way, she said that she would endure the air-conditioning not working until she has sent the late fees for this month, which is just fine by me.

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Why I Will Not Renew Your Lease