Tenants, who to choose

In a perfect world you would have lots of tenants with great credit, no criminal history and a spotless rent record. Sadly reality has to rain in on our parade, making the perfect tenant a rare animal and not the norm. This is even more true now with the economy the way it is. And for anyone living under a rock the last couple of years, I mean its completely horrible.

So before you write off tenants with black markets in their past, its a good idea to take a look at exactly what they are. For example I wouldn't write off someone who has a minor shop lifting charge when the were 19 if it was 10 or 20 years ago. After all, how many people did stupid crap in college. Most of us were just luck enough not to get caught. It is highly likely that the one incident was enough to scare them back on the straight and narrow, so why penalize them for something stupid they did in their youth, especially if everything else is spotless. You could be losing a great tenant.

Credit is a major sticking point for most landlords, with good reason. I mean who wants to rent to a tenant who has a habit of not paying. No one with any sense. Having to evict and take someone to court to get late rent is no walking in the park, so most landlords would prefer to avoid it. However that being said, it never hurts to take a closer look at why someone's credit isn't overly high.

After all lets face it, how many business have let go of employees to stay afloat or just gone under completely? A whole bunch, and finding a new job is a painful slow process for most people now a days. This could easily make it impossible to pay bills, especially large ones like mortgage. As that was the only issue and the tenant had a steady job and had been there for sometime, why let the fact that they haven't yet had enough time to erase the past from their credit stop you. Especially if their credit was good before things went down hill.

That being said, avoid people immediately tell you a sob story. The more dramatic and heart wrenching it is, the more likely it is to be a scam. Make sure you do your research, don't assume what the potential tenant is telling you is the truth. Happy tenant hunting.

Risk of Tenants keeping quiet about issues.

Sink holes have become a major problem in some areas. They can be an even bigger issue for landlords who own property in such high risk areas. Unlike most home owners, landlords aren't liable to visit their property daily unless they already live there, so they depend on tenants to inform them of issues. However tenants aren't always willing to be the bearer of bad news.

While I've never had to deal with a sink hole, I have had issues crop up that would have been far easier to fix if the tenant had informed me immediately of the problem instead of ignoring it for months until it became to dangerous or annoying to live with. I find it helps to make sure that the lease has a clear definition of who is responsible for what issues, that way when cases like this happen your tenant doesn't fear informing you of the problem.








*Cartoon by Peter Morici
* Sink hole info from TVS

Recently It seems I've had to deal with more and more renters who seemed to have no understanding of the lease contract. I don't know if they feel like it is just there for formality sake and the clauses are just a guideline or they aren't even bothering to read it. I've recently had to evict two tenants for violating it. One lady painted her whole apartment a rather obnoxious shade of pink, which I probably wouldn't have know about if she hadn't decide to then put up a bunch of shelves up, rather poorly I might add, that ended up falling down and tearing apart the wall. Then she decided to complain about it and demand that I fix it.

Seriously, the paint, I could have lived with, but destroying the wall and then trying to get me to pay for it, that was too much. Told her she had 30 days to fix it or I would evict. She of course didn't fix it. 

The lease is a legal agreement but either some people don't understand that or they don't care. I mean there has always been people who pull this crap, but it seems like there has been a steady rise in such incidents and not just for me.

Just a quote

“Though Alec had never seen the occupants of the first floor loft, they seemed to be engaged in a tempestuous romance. Once there had been a bunch of someone's belongings strewn all over the landing with a note attached to a jacket lapel addressed to "A lying liar who lies." Right now there was a bouquet of flowers taped to the door with a card tucked among the blooms that read I'M SORRY. That was the thing about New York: you always knew more about your neighbors' business than you wanted to.” 
― Cassandra Clare, City of Lost Souls

Bad Landlords, Make the rest look bad

Its landlord's like this that give landlords in general a bad name. Its a business, practices like that make it hard to get good tenants. Only someone who doesn't care about long term tenants and is looking to make a quick buck would let their property get like that. The property I currently own had a bad landlord, prior to my purchasing it. It took me years to escape the bad reputation. I spent weeks working on Tenant Screening trying to find a good tenant my first year. 90% of the applications had multiple eviction and some had criminal records. Now when i have to fill an apartment I have a lot of good choices. But it took a long time to earn that reputation, so seeing landlords pull this crap annoys me.

Couple sues landlord over mold in Bound Brook rental home

Published: Sunday, August 09, 2009, 6:27 AM     Updated: Monday, August 10, 2009, 10:44 AM

 By Tom Meagher 

BOUND BROOK -- A husband and his pregnant wife are suing their former landlords, accusing the Jersey City couple of failing to remediate "toxic mold" from the Bound Brook home they rented until May.

A complaint filed last week with Superior Court in Somerville alleges that the mold may have caused the health problems Floyd and Tabatha McColley suffered from while living in the Cedar Crest Road house, and also suggests that it had an impact on the woman's unborn child.

"There's a definite problem with the baby that will require... immediate action after birth," Floyd McColley said Thursday, but stopped short of saying mold is responsible for the unspecified medical issue that was diagnosed by an obstetrician.

The girl, expected in about two months, will be born at Columbia University Medical Center in New York "so she's right there with the best doctors when she's born," said Floyd McColley, who now lives with his wife in Brick Township, Ocean County.

The couple's complaint, filed on July 27 by attorney John Charles Allen of New Brunswick, claims Sameen and Yameen Khan, the Jersey City husband and wife who rented the house to them, failed to respond to complaints that there was "severe leaking" and "substantial growth of toxic mold" in the home they moved into in August 2008.

Both McColley's had become sick after living in the home, Floyd McColley said.

"It was a gradual worsening of symptoms," he said.

They had issues with being over-tired and had trouble breathing, said the husband, who's sickness were more pronounced.

"As a result of the defects to the property and more importantly, the hazardous conditions with the property, plaintiffs were forced to move out," the complaint says.

Both McColleys are healthier since leaving, said the husband.

After moving, the landlords hired contractors who the court filing calls unqualified and not properly equipped to remove the mold. The complaint says workers destroyed property left behind by the McColleys, and Floyd McColley, who hired his own mold expert, said Thursday that the mold was made worse by the contractors.

The Khans never paid for the cost of alternate housing or relocation, the complaint said.
Reached Thursday, Sameen Khan referred questions to the couple's attorney, Michael Wroblewski of New York.

"My clients vigorously deny the allegations and have acted responsibly through this matter," he said later that day, but didn't want to elaborate.

The McColleys' suit, which is requesting a jury trial, asks that the couple be awarded compensation for various damages, as well as legal fees.

Floyd McColley, a military contractor, said he and his wife moved to Bound Brook from Illinois after his employer called him back from Iraq to work in New Jersey.

The home appeared nice when they moved in, but the flooding started with the first rain storm, he said.

"We had high hopes of staying in this place only to find out we'd moved into a nightmare."

Why Landlords Tenant Screen

Ever wonder why your landlord asks you all those questions? Why you have to fill out endless forms every time you go apartment hunting? Well there is actually a good reason for it. Being a landlord is like being a business owner and the apartments are your business. Its the landlords job to insure that the apartments are a safe environment, both for the tenants benefit and their own. 

After all, if they get a tenant who decides to destroy the property because they are having a bad day, the landlord is responsible for paying for the damages.Its true that they can often get the money back in  court, however that takes time and even more money, and until they manage that they have to pay for everything out of pocket, which could be thousands of dollars.Many landlords also depend a great deal on the money that comes from the tenants. There are a great deal of property taxes involved in owning an apartment. Without having that money coming in, many have no way to pay for it. So in truth its in the landlord's best interest to find a tenant who is capable of paying rent, likely to stick around, and not liable to go on a rampage and destroy the property. They also want to make sure you personality is a good match for their buiding. 

However, landlords, aren't mind readers. That's why potential tenants are required to fill out applications and submit to tenant screening. The information asked is only part of the process. Landlords take that information and use it on sites www.atenantscreen.com to get information such as credit reports, criminal records, and number of prior evictions. The also verify that you are who you claim to be, something that has become more important in today's society, where identity theft is rampant.

Landlords look at things like credit, how steady your job is, the amount of money you make and how much you have in account as a way to judge how likely you are to pay rent. Eviction records and criminal records generally can tell landlords how likely you are to cause issues. Last thing a landlord wants is to find the  cops at their door because of something a tenant did. 

What seems like an endless pain to tenants is the landlords best protection against scams and risky tenants. So when your filling out one of those applications, consider this, you probably don't want a neighbor selling drugs next door, or damaging any of your property either. 

Protect Yourself, Take Pictures

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Again and again I see tenants cheated out of their security deposit and unable to do anything. Often because they did not take the proper steps to protect themselves from a bad landlord. Many not realizing that they were at risk until it was too late.

Its important to make sure that you take pictures and videos of the apartment, both before you move in and right before you leave. That way you have evidence to prove that the damage was not there prior to your leaving or in the case of previous damage, already there before you move in.