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        My name is Joanie  i live with my parents Marvin  and Michelle   We all live in  White Lakes Mall mobile home churt for over 20 years and Mr Dan Hanrahan the owner of the mobile park is not keeping up with the maintaining of the mobile park it is a mess The corner of my drive way is cabein because of them working on water line they never fixs it riht top of that my grandma kay zeller and my mom brother todd  lives next door they dig two big holes big  for a person fall into they never full it up  with dirt so near the cars y grandma she is near 80 years old almost fall into it we have call Hanrahan he did not nothing about it  so todd my brother and my mom and her mom full it up with dirt them self we should not of had to do that and i know this for a fact i had the lift at night catical city taxi and yellow taxi does not like the conditions of the road they cant drive right there is pot holes big as a pool almost.  The   Entrance of the mobile churt is as bad u can think of it is bad there very    one time when they work on the high way thiing on 37th they have mess up our entrance they never  fixs it .  When that happen they block the entrance of the mobile churt  my mom call the fire chief have them unblock it because we cant get in the mobile churt at all and the other entrance got block and never unblock we only have one entrance now hard to get out with out think we get hit by a other person coming in the way they have it now.And top of that the drives ways that do not get use acress from me and my parents so we park the exta cars there will Dan hanrahan  dig up the drive ways so we cant use them so we have to  park in the street . the road is in so bad shape that we cant with out hitting a rock  we have had a problem with my parents new car took it in to ford have them look at it there parts on it had to be replace shocks strutts nufflers will this is for the 3 cars we had  but on the new car they  said that with the exta inc  that my parents it could of cost 2,000 with out it

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I have a renter who moved in our duplex (I live in one side and she is in the other side) in Oct.  She said she had one dog (which pets were ok with me at the time) that was old and never went outside except to go potty.  When she moved in, there were suddenly 3 dogs.  When one of the three dogs started to attack my 4 year old, I told her that she needed to get rid of that dog because of the liability for me (and for my daughters safety).  She did, though there was lots of drama over it, for about 2 weeks (could’ve been longer) then the dog was back.  She said that the dog was there because her ex-husband was out of town and couldn’t keep the dog, but just for that week.  The dog never left again.  Now, we had a problem with some plumbing, and my maintenance guy had come to fix it.  She had the dog locked up while he was there, he left for a bit (not sure how long) but told her he would be back.  When he came back, the dog bit him, and it was a fairly serious bite.  I then told her that she had to get rid of the dog, and after much drama again, she finally did.  Now she seems to think that her dog was in the "right" by doing this because the dog was protecting her from an "intruder" because the maintenance man didn’t knock when he came back (which I’m not sure weather he knocked or not)   and she seems to think that she has some sort of "rights".  Does she?  Where can this go from here?  Isn’t the dog a liability to me as the landlord?  PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

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We currently have a third party that collects our rent. However this process projects the lead time for us to actually get the rent out about 10 days. By the time we process the rent and know which tenant did not pay on time or has not paid, we are already looking rolling into the next month. We would like to notify our residents a lot sooner of late payment or non payment so would like to install either a rent drop off box at each property or at our main office. Are there any California State Regulation that makes this difficult? Is there a website we can investigate this alternative?

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I am not sure what tod o. I have one dog  and it is part of our agreement, we pay on time,  mow our lawn, and keep everything looking nice, we dont punch holes in walls or do any damage to the property, however latley there has been bad weather down here in VA so we have not picked up some dog poop and I have been getting harrasing letters from the  Realestate company we rent from! what can/should I do ? Do we have any rights?

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So this is one of those “hindsight is 20/20″ stories and I apologize for how long this is!

Last Summer I took up a job about an hour and 20 minutes away from where I was living at the time. I had about two months left on my lease and I had told my then landlord that I was planning on moving and not renewing it. He was even nice enough to offer to lower my rent in order to get me to stay but the commute back and forth was too much. What he did do was he told me not to worry about paying him the last months rent and that he would just use my security deposit which worked out well for the both of us. So I began looking for an apartment closer to work. The area I was moving into was much more expensive than what I was used to so I was looking for a shared rental type of situation. I found an ad for an apartment which was very close to work and responded. After a quick visit, I was happy with the condition the house was in but the living situation was a little obscure at first. After about a week of emails and phone calls I was finally able to get the owner of the house to explain to me what exactly the living circumstances would be: it was a large 2-floor house inhabited by him, his girlfriend and his mother, one tenant downstairs, and one tenant upstairs that rented out two rooms more secluded from the rest of the house. He showed me the two small rooms and the bathroom which were for rent and the kitchen shared by all of the inhabitants of the house. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of sharing so much space and living in two small rooms but it was in my price range ($850/mth). I explained to him that I was a little concerned that I might not like the living situation. After a few weeks of trying to make up my mind, I discussed with him and we agreed that I would live on a monthly lease and if after a few months I was still there I would then sign a 12-month lease.

A few things that I know now should have tipped me off to the bad situation I was walking into:

-the fact that he was so reluctant to reveal details about the shared living situation at first.
-the fact that he had me pay him a $50 application fee to do a credit and background check, but never called any of my references nor did he do a credit check (I know because I monitor my credit online and I’m sure it would have shown up)
-when I wrote him the check for the application fee he had me write it out to his girlfriend, “for tax purposes” according to him (not sure what that means)
-he asked me if I could pay him the rent in cash; I told him I would try to accomodate this but couldn’t guarantee doing it every month

Around the beginning of November, before it got too cold, he informed me that he heat wasnt working but that he would have it fixed in about a week and he gave me a small space heater in the meantime. The space heater was sufficient for the current temperature but I made him aware that it would not function well once the temperature dropped too low. It took six weeks from that point for him to replace the thermostat.

After this and several other issues I had with living there (the firehouse across the street, him asking me to put all of my kitchen items in the basement for storage so he could use the space) I found a full one-bedroom apartment available for the exact same price in rent; in a much nicer area, and overall better living conditions. At this point it was about the 3rd week of December when I made the final decision to move into the new apartment in February. I told my current landlord that I planned on moving in a little over a month and asked if it would be possible for me to live out my security deposit as opposed to paying January’s rent. He responded to this by saying that he would have to check his budget because he was expecting to have that money. I told him I was confused as to why he would have to check his budget due to the fact that he would just be using the security deposit as rent. He kept repeating that he would have to talk with his girlfriend and see how their budget was so instead of arguing, I told him to call me once he discussed it. A little while later, the two of them called me into their room to tell me that the whole purpose of the security deposit was to ensure that no damages were done when I left.

At this point I was almost certain that my security deposit was spent and gone and that the landlord had no intention of giving it to me. Why should I trust him to return a months rent after 4 weeks if it took him 6 week to fix a thermostat? Seeing as though it was still the end of December, I still had not paid them January’s rent. I decided instead to write a letter saying that I would take pictures and do a walkthrough of the apartment ensuring that there were no damages but that I would not be paying them this months rent. I was sure that this would not go over well but I still didn’t feel comfortable giving them money that I knew they would not return. I called the landlord into my apartment to make sure he could see the good condition the apartment was in. I gave him the letter and explained to him my decision. Although I did not say that I knew he didn’t have the security depost because I felt as though that would cause even more friction. He then went and got his girlfriend and the two of them repremanded me for not giving them enough notice and also misleading them into thinking I was going to give them that months rent. At this point I was asked by his girlfriend if I had another place to stay in the meantime because she did not want me living there for free. I told her I would look into moving into the new apartment earlier but could not guarantee anything. Then about 30 minutes after they left I received a call from the landlord saying that I could stay until the end of the month but to leave the place in good condition so he could show it to new prospective tenants.

That following Friday I came home from work to discover that he had been in the apartment and had turned the heat off. It was 60 degrees inside the apartment when I came in. Because of the awkward situation I stayed at a friend’s house over the weekend to avoid any further conflicts. I stayed there that Sunday because I had to work the following morning but at 5 in the morning he was making a lot of noise downstairs. There was a lot of banging and stomping and slamming of doors. I cant help but feel as though this was in an effort to wake me up.

Thats my long story, and I’m currently still in the apartment as I have a little over two weeks before I move into the new place. I am trying desperately to avoid a bad situation by not confronting him directly over the noise and going into the place without my knowledge prior. However, I do not feel comfortable being there while he has direct access to all of my personal things and while he is making noise very early in the morning. I really don’t feel as though I am wrong by not giving him the last months rent in return for him not giving me my security deposit but I would like to hear someone elses opinion/advice on how to deal with the last few weeks here.

Thanks!

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I thought I would post some tips on how to screen tenants.  Over the years I have found many landlords that skip some very important steps when screening tenants, so I’m posting some tips that have helped me. 

TIP ONE:
Without fail it seems that every-time I have a vacancy I will always find someone that offers me up front cash and is anxious to rent the unit quickly.  Yes, I’ve fallen for this trick a couple of times… You know how it is, sometimes when it’s slow you just want to fill the vacancy quickly so you take the bait. 

Speaking from experience, never ever place yourself in this type of a situation.  Ask yourself the following questions:
          1.  Why is the tenant so anxious to move?
               Most likely this is a sign of a tenant that is being evicted or forced to move.  
               You will have to be careful with judgement on this, even if the tenant gives you
                a valid reason for need to move in so quickly it may be a trick to play on your
                emotions.  Can you verify their story?
          2.  Did the tenant have any questions about the unit or features?
               Everyone should have some questions about the rental before renting.  If the 
               seems like they are completely happy with the rental, especially without a good 
               walk-through; it probably means that they don’t plan on staying for very long.  
               Are they planning on getting evicted within a couple of months?
          3.  Does it sound too good to be true?
               Most people don’t rush into renting a place unless their is a hidden reason such as
               eviction history, drug problems, etc.  Is the renter acting way off character, do 
               their actions match up with the obligations required? 

TIP TWO
Gut feelings and first impressions are usually the worst form of screening.  Some of my most costly mistakes have been based off of renting to someone that I “felt” good about.  I know the importance of saving money, and because of that I have found myself skipping over the background check in order to save a little money.  I learned the hard way that this is one of the poorest decisions to be made as a landlord.  Now I ask myself the following before renting to someone:
         1.  How much will it cost me to replace flooring, fixtures, appliances?
              Bad tenants can cause costly repairs.  Once after remodelling a unit I renting to
              someone based on a gut feeling…  3 months later the unit was completely trashed
              costing more than $5,000 in repairs.  Although the renter seemed like the 
              perfect renter, they actually had a history of drug problems.  Had I spent the $20
              on a background check I would’ve found their history and would’ve never rented 
              to them.
         2.  How much will it cost me if I have to evict the tenant?
              If I have to evict the tenant, how much money will I lose in the court process and 
              with lost rent?  
         3.  How long will it take me to fill the vacancy again? 
              This question is two-fold, how long will it take to get the rental ready to rent, and
              how long will it take me to find a renter?  The quickest I’ve ever seen a rental 
              turn from vacancy to rented was one week, and that’s very rare.  Even if you can
              rent out your unit in one week you will still be losing 7 days of rent, which could    
              be several hundred dollars.
          4. How much time and headache can this cause me?
              I already have enough stress in my life, so I don’t need to cause any more
              headaches.  And I’m sure all of us can use all the time we have on other things.
In short, you should never ever consider not screening a tenant before renting to them.  Their is way too much to risk.  By far the smartest decision you can make as a landlord is to spend money on the screening process.  The old saying of stepping over a dollar to pick up a nickle holds so true to the screening process.  Don’t risk saving a few dollars when you have thousands at risk. 

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