The Successful Landlord Blog

Just recently I received three emails, in quick succession, from smaller landlords, like myself, asking various questions about dealing with tenants in general.

One question was from a landlord who asked what they should do with a HEAP of stuff being removed from one of their units after their pack-rat tenant moved out.

Another question was from a landlord who asked what they should do about a tenant who was demanding that the landlord return their security deposit the day they moved out of the unit they were renting.

My response to all the landlords’ questions was that they should consult the appropriate state law where the property is located. Tenants can scream and threaten all they want about what the landlord should or should not do but when it comes down to it, the state law spells out pretty much everything to do with the landlord/tenant relationship. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I had a conversation with a good friend who just rented a residential property she owns. She asked me a question about how I handle my tenant security deposits. Florida state law says that tenant security deposits must be kept in a separate  non-interest bearing bank account in Florida. As in, you cannot “commingle” (mix) deposit money and business operating money in one account.

Apparently she had asked a long-time seasoned landlord the same question and he said that no one ever checks and he keeps his deposits in his operating account.

Early on in my (not so?) illustrious landlord career, I asked another long-time landlord the same question and she said that, yes the state law says that but she keeps her tenant deposits in an interest bearing account. Granted, the number of units she owns number in the hundreds so the interest earned on her deposits would be substantial. Mine? Not so much.

Regardless, I like to follow the law to the letter so that if I’m ever in front of a judge for any reason to do with landlord-tenant issues, the judge will have absolutely no choice BUT to find in my favor. Believe me, in my experience it’s worked like that before. To quote the judge, “Ma’am, if you want to stay there you MUST pay the rent. It’s the law.” And this was after asking me all these questions about the eviction procedure to see if I screwed up on my procedure.

Just last week, I had an email exchange with a reader who let me know that after our move to a new web server, a function of the site was not working properly (thanks David.)

He mentioned that he is a tenant and he mostly  reads this blog to gain insight into the mind of a landlord. Wonderful!

I think that in the future, I will be writing more tenant-centric posts along with the landlord-centric ones.

So, without further ado, here goes; 

How To Make Your Landlord Love You:

The landlord-tenant relationship can sometimes be a contentious one. It seems that no matter how friendly the two parties become, the lowest common denominator is that it is a relationship based on mutual trust. Read the rest of this entry »

So I recently ran upon this article about some local landlord/tenant shenanigans. In short, the article is a story about a software engineer who worked at NASA and used his work computer to fill out online loan applications in the name of an ex-tenant who owed him all of $200 in back rent thereby trying to temporarily ruin his credit.

I mean, come on! You use you WORK computer at NASA to do a dirty deed on the INTERNET??!! At what point did you not think you’d be found out? I think this guy is the first software engineer who does not understand how the internet works.

In the course of taking on a lease with a tenant there is a lot of personal information gathered from the tenant and I think it goes without saying that the landlord has a responsibility to protect that information.

Read the rest of this entry »