Yesterday, I posted an inspection notice which is a requirement, under Florida law, before I can enter the premises without her permission. The law states that I must post this notice 12 hours in advance of the inspection. I wanted to inspect to make sure that she was at least preparing to move.

This morning, bright and early, I received a voicemail from the tenant adamantly advising me that I DID NOT have her permission to enter the premises because the place was a mess and there were boxes everywhere. Now, at this point, I should mention that this tenant in the past has called me to complain about various minutia, beginning her sentence with, “I know you have your little laws, but you can’t blah blah blah….” I hate to tell her this but, these “little laws” she’s referring to are Florida State Statutes and they are enforceable by the courts and police. Um. Yes. Yes I can blah blah blah…

I called her back to let her know that, by law, I am allowed to inspect the premises after posting a notice to that effect, and will do so under police escort if necessary. It just amazes me that some tenants are completely ignorant of the fact that they signed a contract which is bound by the State of Florida and yes, there are laws which define the landlord-tenant relationship.

Another reason this tenant is having her lease terminated is that, pretty much, every time I speak with her, for any reason, it usually ends with her raising her voice to me. How somebody this argumentative gets through life successfully is completely beyond me. This is also probably why she constantly behaves like she’s so hard done by in life and nothing ever goes her way. Someone should explain to her the old adage, “Your attitude determines your altitude.”

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Attitude and Altitude Are Directly Related

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.

One important thing to note though, is that the state law supersedes the lease agreement and the judge supersedes everything.

This is probably not how things are supposed to work but consider this example; A landlord writes into the lease that if the tenant pays the rent of $500 late, they must pay a $1000 late fee. The tenant signs the lease and moves in.

Well, the time comes when the tenant pays late (believe me, it’ll happen at some point) and refuses to pay the $1000. The landlord files for eviction based on the terms of the lease which the tenant signed.

Most state landlord/tenant law contains a clause which states, in effect, that the landlord can not write “unconscionable” terms into the lease and expect the tenant to comply.

“Unconscionable” is a nebulous term in this context in that it’s wide open to interpretation. Here’s where the judge comes in. Based on other leases, common local practices, random circumstances, etc., the judge can choose to waive the $1000 late fee, assign a lower fee, eliminate it altogether or evict the tenant. It’s purely up to the judge presiding over the case.

The lesson for the landlord in this case, is to not write strange terms into the lease. But, typically, if the lease terms are fair and within the guidelines set forth by the state law, the lease will usually hold up in court.

The state law, especially for a landlord/tenant relationship, is usually written in plain, easy-to-understand language with the exception of words like “unconscionable” which can mean something special in the context of the law.

I would encourage all landlords, regardless of how many properties they manage, to seek out and read the actual state law. At least that way they can effectively deal with rambunctious tenants or be able to speak with their attorney intelligently on the subject.

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Landlord Tenant Law

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.

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Handling Tenant Deposits

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.

Yes, there are state laws defining the relationship with all their stipulations of performance and remedy, but in the end, a successful landlord-tenant relationship comes down to trust. So, without further ado, here’s how to make your landlord love you:

• Pay your rent on-time.
• Report maintenance issues in a timely manner.
• Do not destroy the property which you occupy.
• Keep the property clean.
• Communicate with your landlord, especially in adverse situations like when you cannot pay the rent on-time.
• Have respect for the landlord’s time and money, usually neither are infinite. (and the landlord should be respectful of you as well.)
• Try to be courteous and professional when dealing with the landlord. (as the landlord should be with you.)
• Read your lease and abide by its terms. (this should be obvious but bears repeating.)

If you follow these simple guidelines, the landlord should have no choice BUT to love you. If he does not, then he may have some other underlying issue which is not your fault. If the relationship gets uncomfortable, like any other relationship, you may need to consider removing yourself from it.

After all, the possibility of incompatibility exists in any relationship.

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How To Make Your Landlord Love You

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.

In my opinion (and from my experience), tenants who just can’t seem to wrap their head around the concept of financial responsibility are their own worst enemy and revenge by the landlord is unnecessary. Case-in-point would be these geniuses who proceeded to write a bad rent check, leave the unit a disaster and then put my name down as a reference on a rental application a little over one year later. DUH!

Anyway, to all my readers: This is the last post of 2008. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading my humble landlord blog and let’s all bid adieu to a dismal year and welcome another dismal one (from what I read.) The only positives I see from here are that things can only get better and we at least will have a shiny new president who has a brain and values advisers who are smart (i.e.- No horse show judging attorneys in the cabinet.)

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Landlord Takes Revenge On Tenant

Anyway, I have a set of roommate tenants with whom I have a good relationship. They are respectful as am I. About two months ago, when their lease ended, they moved out to a house owned by a family member with the idea being that they would live in the house and would someday soon own it. The only catch was that there would be other family members living there and it’s kind of out-of-town from where they work. They “warned” me that they may be calling me in a couple of months if things don’t work out with the family house.

Sure enough, I just signed a lease this weekend with them for one of my houses. They were all happy about moving in and that I was their landlord again so much so that they pre-invited me to their house warming party.

Now here’s where I draw the line. They’re great tenants but I don’t want to be so involved with their personal lives that I’m looked on as a friend. The reason being that if everything goes pear-shaped, I may be in a position of evicting a friend.

Needless to say that I never want to be in that position so this is how I will handle the housewarming invitation; I will respectfully decline the invitation but I will send a nice bouquet of flowers (the tenants are three girls) with a card saying, “Welcome back!”

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Landlord Ethics

The bad thing is that I’m on my way out of town to do some work for my day job. Because my name is on all the eviction papers, I’m pretty sure that I have to be on-site at the rental to actually take back possession. So that’ll have to wait until I return.

Stay tuned for a complete post including the letter I had to write to the judge all but pleading (no pun intended) him to uphold my rights as a landlord.

…and I thought this business was going to be cut-and-dry because the behavior of all parties involved is written in the state law. Ya. No!

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Just A Quick Note

Once the judge called roll, he stipulated that what he usually does is assign a mediator to the two parties to see if things can be worked out without the need for his ruling. In my opinion, this is a great way to handle things because, from my experience, when a situation between landlord and tenant gets to the point that communication breaks down, that’s when an eviction suit is filed or the tenant stops paying rent.

So, we went into mediation and told our sides of the story and the tenant behaved exactly as I expected. She behaved like she was the victim and I was the big, bad landlord. She proceeded to tell the mediator that she had been looking for another job, that she had car repairs to pay for, et cetera, et cetera. The mediator then asked her to step outside for a moment. He then asked me if, other than not paying the rent, was she a good tenant. My reply was that besides the complaints from the neighbors and the call from Child Services, yes, she was a good tenant. (i.e.- She was not destroying the property.)

The whole mediation process took about 10 minutes then we went back into the courtroom. The judge asked a few standard questions about how much money was owed to date and how much the tenant had paid into the court registry (which is like escrow to be paid to the prevailing party,) the difference of which being about $1200. The judge then looked at the tenant and said, “Ma’am, if you haven’t paid the rent and you can’t foresee being able to pay the rent in the future…..you can’t live there.”

In my mind, I thought, “Well…D-U-H!!” So, like Jessica’s comment (#4) said, “She’s just playing the court and trying to buy time.”

The judges final ruling was that if she could put $300 into the court registry by the end of business the next day, she could stay for two more weeks. Otherwise, he would make the eviction effective immediately. And that was it.

All that’s left to see is that whether she puts the money into the court registry or not. Either way, I’ll find out tomorrow.

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My Trip To Eviction Court

This tenant in question has been totally stonewalling me on the rent while we wait for a court date. By the time we get to court next week, she will owe approximately $1200 in total.

In my opinion her so-called defense will consist of crying “poor” to the court in an effort to obtain mercy from the judge. From my experience, the court DOES NOT consider itself a social worker and tends to stick to the letter-of-the-law.

We shall see….

In the mean time, I posted a “notice of inspection” and performed that inspection. I found that she had not done any maintenance on the property as is her responsibility under the lease, like changing the A/C filters for instance. And that’s not to mention the broken window, torn bug-screens and damaged patio door.

After that, I sent her a “notice of non-compliance” pursuant to a part of the Florida state landlord-tenant code which, if she fails to comply, I can use to evict her.

It’s interesting to me that some tenants think that they can do w-h-a-t-e-v-e-r they want and get away with it.

The good news is that there’ll be another post next week on this situation so you won’t have to wait another month for a post.

With tenants not paying rent, etc. The money has to come from SOMEWHERE to pay the mortgages on these rental houses…so that’s what I’ve been doing during that time.

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Eviction Court Here We Come

As we all know, the United States is the home of the liability lawsuit. It reminds me of a routine by The Jerky Boys where one of their characters calls a lawyers office to say that he’s “hurt” and wants to sue. It turns out that his feelings were hurt and was advised by the lawyer that he can’t sue on those grounds. Ok, so it was funny at the time.

Anyway, I asked my friend if having a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in place and acting as the management company would present much of a barrier to a personal injury attorney intent on suing for some negligence (real or imagined) on the landlord’s part. I also mentioned that I have homeowners liability insurance on each property and a personal umbrella liability policy as a secondary buffer.

He said that basically in my situation where I am the named property owner, president of the management company and maintenance person, an attorney would sue me personally and bypass the corporation altogether.

He also mentioned that the corporation could pose a problem for me in that the insurance company could look at the lease, see that the corporation is the landlord, and deny the claim because there’s a business involved and try to pass the buck to the corporation which, you guessed it, comes back to me personally.

His advice was that personal injury attorneys want to sue an insurance company and not an owner who does not seem to have sizable assets. He said that it’s better to have multiple layers of insurance in place and if sued, make the insurance company handle it because it’s their job.

A footnote to this is that the insurance company is responsible for the insured party’s attorney fees should he be sued and that amount has nothing to do with the “limit of liability” stated in the policy.

Of course, being an attorney, he mentioned that I should read my policy completely to be sure of the above. Imagine that.

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Using A Shell Corporation To Avoid Liability