Landlord Question and Answer Forum

Hello: i'm the landlord who posted back in April about our tenant moving her 'mom' in w/out our knowledge . . good thing now is she's moving into her OWN apt. this month . thank goodness.!!!!!! . . i appreciated all the suggestions . . . . . . anyway. . . we have another problem at this point . . . we just want to know if we're doing the right thing about the yard . When these tenants moved in w/2 dogs they said they were 'house ' dogs and stayed in the house ....would NOT be in the yard ....we got that assurance 3 times . . . so let them move in. Dummy us . . didn't put that in the lease ..it was verbal. Now the lady is saying she doesn't remember saying that ( of course) ...and we noticed last fall that the dogs were left for hours in the yd . . starting to tear up grass . they had kept them in the house before that . . we rarely saw them out . . . . so . husb told the guy about it . . he said he would definitely ' re seed' yard in spring . . husb also mentioned in early April . . again . . . and again he said he'd get it done . . nothing's been done yet . It's now May . . He reminded them yest about the dogs staying in house . ( he went over there to chk property and of course both dogs were running around in the yard) . the guy just stood there and said nothing . . . the one who kept telling us he'd re seedd it . . . . . . . the . lady got upset and called me after my r husb left there .. .she's done this before . . he talks to them . . then she calls me . like i'm a wimp and will change my husb's mind . . we BOTH are landlords and have the same ideas when tenants violate things . . she found this out yest when she called .... i was very polite but told her they're not keeping the yard up ...it has to be re seeded, why hasnt't it been done . and they are to keep the dogs in the house unless they're out doing their business . . she argued then started crying and said it's been raining . and they couldn't re seed it . . . . i told her no . .plenty of 'dry sunny' days they could have re seeded the yard where their dogs ripped it up . . . always an excuse . . . . . so she finally said she would 'go out right now and start re seeding' . . . i knew she just said that ... and didn't do it . . nope, hasn't been done. she's on media sites ....publicly . . where now she's saying they have to get some one to ' re seed ' the yard . . . and they'll prob have to move to someplace that 'permits' dogs . . boo hooing on the websites about us . . . . . . needless to say we've caught her in lies . . . hence she was going to re seed the yd. yest . . now they have to 'find' someone to do it. ?? ( her husb has real bad arthritis . . he can't do much ) . . We decided , since we've talked about this 3 x's and it hasn't been done . . we'll wait til June 1st . . go get rent . . if we noticed nothings been done . . . we're hiring a landscaping co. to re sod and they will have to pay bill . I know we can do this as it's in the agreement about them taking care of the yard . . bushes, shrubs, etc. etc. . . and they signed it. Also says any damage done to property has to be repaired immediatlely . . well parts of the yd has been torn up since last fall. She's now saying . . again, on media sites . . that she wants to look for another place . . she has high ideals and wants her 2 dogs to be able to 'run' in a yard . (.and apparently do whatever damage they want to do.) I can't say anything as i only know these things from reading the sites . . . . other than having to have our yard re seeded if they don't do it . . . we don't know what to do about them living there now . . . they love it and don't want to move . . but apparently losing everyghing they have is 'ok' if she can have her dogs live somewhere else and be able to run 'free' in a fenced in yard ( which ours is) . . . ...... we only let them move in with the dogs becasuse they said they'd keep them in the house . . . . . We don'

oops . . got cut off . . . do we wait til they give us notice when they're leaving ???? do we just start eviction proceedings . . . . wondering if they're really going to do as we ask ( i told her if she keeps havingt the dogs in the yard . . they're going to have to keep re seeding . . constantly . . she said ' got it' . . whatever that meant) ---- in this area . . most landlords don't even want dogs . . let alone 2 . . . or even let them in the yards . . . so we figure it may be a long long time before they find another place to move to . . . . . so we don't know if we should wait things out or just start to look for other tenants . Other than the mother . . . . and the damaged yard . . they keep the house up . . pay rent on time . . every month . . and mostly take care of the yard . . . . the rest of it anyway . ha .... anyone have any opinions on this . . thank you.

Posted by D and B U, OH on Sunday, May 13, 2012

Jessica . thank you for your reply . I doubt they'll sign anything now . . even tho they may be there for several yrs because they can't afford higher rent . . and they've already had a post from someone else, telling them most lanlds won't rent to ppl with '2 dogs'. . . . . . . they already signed about the 'yard maintenance' on the lease to begin with . We had gone over it with them and they agreed to it. 2 yrs ago . . - i had several addendums typed up in detail and they signed ea one . Yes, they are good tenants , we can't understand why this issue is such a huge problem with her . ---- We had thought about deducting it from the sec deposit, if we had to hire a co., and wasn't sure ...so am glad you mentioned this . The gentleman has pd a lawn service several times to cut the grass so i'm thinking he'll pay us if we have to get a service to do the labor - we know it's not hard to re seed, , we've done it here . I think they're just lazy . . . not tooo lazy to plant all her flowers and new bushes in the front of the house though !!! They ALREADY have had the grass seed to do it . . bought it months ago the lady told me !! What the problem is, i don't know . . . will need a 'push' from us, i guess. Thanks again and will use the links you provided. ;

Posted by D and B U, OH on Monday, May 14, 2012

I can’t believe what I’m reading. @ Jessica – why in the world would you even suggest that D & B send tenants a Lease Amendment/Notice. Do you feel that you have to post something to prove your worth? I’m sorry, but you’re doing D & B an injustice. @ D & B – what are you waiting for? A miracle? It’s time to get off the pot and do something to preserve your investment or find a new type of investment. Consider the following: 1. DO NOT fix the yard until they move out, unless you have lots of $$$ to keep on doing repairs. 2. Send them a Notice to correct the violation or move. Information can be found at http://www.dayton-ombudsman.org/llt.htm - Landlords’ Right and Remedies. 3. If they don’t move, start the eviction process. It doesn’t matter if they don’t want to move out. The courts will force them to move using law enforcement. 4. After they move, redo the lawn. ---- You really need to stop chasing your tail and do nothing. By now it should be very clear that the tenants don’t care about your investment. Don’t be surprised if they do more damage before they leave. Knowing this as a possibility should not stop you from doing what needs to be done. STOP making excuses. I would also make copies of what she has been saying on the social sites. You may need that information. Consider this your wake-up call. Maybe someone from OH can offer some insight -----Disclaimer: Since I’ve been answering a lot of questions, I thought I would make the following statement. I’m not affiliated with EZlandlord Forms. I’m just here (not sure how long) to help those that have questions. Having 40+ yrs with Rental Property and done well, it’s my way of “Pay it Forward (check out the movie).” However, it is up to you to become familiar with your State/Local laws. I always like to know if the suggestions I offer are helpful. Feel free to comment anytime. Thanks in Advance.

Posted by Bob R, CA on Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Bob: thanks for your suggestions . . --- these aren't 'slum' type people and have actually been good tenants . . , she's President of the neighborhood association and has been for months . and . they both have been extremely active in civic affairs over the past yr, and helping other organizations .. with beautification projects ( yea, ironic . . ha) . . . .... and have met alot of people in our area, and had no plans to move. They got the msg from us loud and clear. . . we were polite, but firm. ---- we have no doubt they'll fix the yard. . . . . . now that we've sat on them , , , but if they don't, yes, eviction will be in the process. Believe me, they don't want that. ...... the other time we mentioned something to them , , they got on it right away. This time they've been s l o w . . . . and i wasn't thrilled with her response about 'forgetting' what she promised about her dogs being house dogs . . Our plans are they have til June 1st . . . . . and she's mentioned on the 'site' that they're getting a new hedge clipper to trim the hedges around the property . . ( which is in the section of the fenced in yard that their dogs have been in . . . ) so if they're buying that . . and i KNOW they have no place to go . . . . i think maybe she's done a reversal of her statement. . YES , i've made copies of the comments she's said on the posts . . so far, she's only posted the one comment . . . . . . . then last night , mentioned about the hedge clipper .... so things may be looking up. They paid twice the amount we wanted for a security deposit ..... we were stunned . . . . but they said they really wanted to move into our house and knew there were 2 other families vying for the house . . i told them that. ha . . so we will see. . Thanks again for your comment. and hopefully we won't have to start a eviction process in a few weeks . . . .

Posted by D and B U, OH on Tuesday, May 15, 2012

I’m not sure how to put this w/o sounding……You need stop making decisions on what you thing of people (such as “slum type”). Good & Bad tenants come from all walks of life. I don’t care what tenants do for others or how nice they seem. I care about how they do business with me. From your posts, it looks like they’re playing with your emotions. It’s time to get a grip and start treating being a landlord as a business and not a charity. Continue down this path and you’ll get hurt, financially. Can you afford that? -----Disclaimer: Since I’ve been answering a lot of questions, I thought I would make the following statement. I’m not affiliated with EZlandlord Forms. I’m just here (not sure how long) to help those that have questions. Having 40+ yrs with Rental Property and done well, it’s my way of “Pay it Forward (check out the movie).” However, it is up to you to become familiar with your State/Local laws. I always like to know if the suggestions I offer are helpful. Feel free to comment anytime. Thanks in Advance.

Posted by Bob R, CA on Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Our tenants have hired a landscaping co themselves . . . re mulched around bushes and shrubs . . . and re seeded the back yard at our property . a few wks ago . . . . . . . it looks great -. 100% improvement . !!! . . . . . . and the grass is already starting to come up. They also said they're keeping their dogs out of the yard and will only let them go out to do their business and then come rt back in . . they clean up the yard always so no problem there. We did NOT have to start eviction proceedings, we are NOT losing money financially . . . . . just talked to them and told them what we wanted . . . i think they knew they'd lose their nice home if they didn't do as we asked . Things are good and they are staying put . -- I appreciate your kind comments Jessica . . . . . . all is well in " our " landlord world. ha

Posted by D and B U, OH on Friday, June 1, 2012

@ Kevin Kiene,- Founder; Brian Davis - Vice President …….I noticed that Jessica removed her post (Forum / Leasing Issues / Yard Damage ...) that suggested D & B send tenants a Lease Amendment/Notice. Is this standard practice? Why are we not allowed to delete our post or make changes after the fact?

Posted by Bob R, CA on Thursday, June 7, 2012