Wednesday, May 14, 2014

My Rental Property: And Tales of Silly Tenants



For the past five years I've been renting out a one bedroom condo that I bought in 2008 (smart eh? recession.. lower housing prices... you get the idea).  I've rented out to students, working adults, working-students, males, people with dogs, people with cats, and so on and so forth. To say that it's been a learning experience is a staggering understatement. What I've come to realize (although I was pretty convinced of this beforehand) is that people are very Silly. And by Silly I mean Stupid.

I'll start off by saying that overall, renting out my condo has been a positive and financially beneficial experience. Having the rental unit located in Kingston is a plus as well. There are plenty of Colleges, the Queen's University, prisons, hospitals, and a Military base which provide lots of individuals (students, working professionals, Army Dinks) who require lodgings.

The key to being a good landlord is being able to read people and picking out the potential 'good ones' from the group. I've lived in a lot of places in my life and have met more people then I would care to, however, it's given me a pretty good 'people radar'. Sometimes I feel like Sherlock Holmes when interviewing for a tenant. I notice everything. When finding a tenant you can't be an eager beaver and desperate for that first and last month's rent cheque. You have to be calm, patient, and very suspicious! I come by that latter quite naturally.

Even with my excellent 'people radar', I've gone against my 'gut feeling' before, and given people the benefit of the doubt (I won't be doing that again).

For example, I once had this young female tenant aspiring to be a police officer. I should have said 'no' on the spot just based on that. But I thought to myself, well, if she's working with the Police Department and trying to become an officer she'll have to behave and be an 'upstanding citizen' (*I could barely write that last sentence with out coughing). My first assessment of her upon meeting was that she was very 'young minded' (aka: 'not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed', aka: 'dumb'), her over bearing mother was with her, and she had nervous, 'flighty' energy.... all the classic warning signs that I should have listened to. But I tried to think rationally, and think to myself 'Be Nice'.

Needless to say, things went bad quickly. The day she moved in to be precise. I was called at home by the property manager's minion and notified that the tenant had damaged the stairwell walls while moving in. Pictures were taken of the damage; scuff marks, scratched paint, and dents in the dry wall. At first I was skeptical, how do I know these marks weren't always there. I then talked to the tenant who admitted to doing 'some' of the damage, but not all of it. She then told me that she signed a piece of paper that the minion provided, claiming responsibility for the damages. OK.. so, she's accepting responsibility here, this is good. Well... it's good until the bill comes around. The condo corporation sent me the bill for damages (because I'm ultimately responsible for my tenant..and our lease agreement didn't specify damages incurred outside of the rental unit). The damages came to $620.00!!  I brought it up with the condo board that this amount seemed ridiculous but, they wouldn't drop it or even lower it. I offered my tenant a deal.. I would pay half of the damages. I felt bad for her at the time... and I knew that she probably didn't make very much money.

When I made the offer to her she was furious. She said, "I'm not paying them anything! That's stupid!". I was thinking a big, fat, "UH OH!". She eventually agreed to pay her half, and I offered her a payment plan... She could put $75/month towards the bill. She eventually agreed and paid $75 with one month's rent cheque. (*Not to mention she never once thanked me for offering to pay half of the damages).

Soon after that she emailed me saying she couldn't afford the condo anymore and was moving.
I said that once her half of the damages were paid, I would release her from our lease agreement. She refused and high tailed it out, filling out some 30 day notice form that she was leaving. Quite frankly I was very glad to get rid of her. She said to me, "I give you my word that I'll pay you the rest as soon as I get it."  Needless to say, I've never received another dime from her and that was over a year ago. The cost of taking her to small claims court over the issue would have cancelled out what she owed me anyway.



My most recent tenant texted me in the middle of the winter and said, "It's snowing in my bedroom... I think the window's broken!". I immediately thought to myself, the window's probably not shut properly. The tenant then assured me %100 that the window was in fact closed properly. When I went over the next evening (while she was at work) to look at the "broken window", I immediately deduced that the window was in fact Open! Not by very much, but it was definitely not 'Closed'. I could tell because the window frame wasn't lining up properly, it was probably about 0.5cm open.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Bootsy... give the tenant a break, that's such a tiny opening... it's not like she's a scientist or anything." WRONG!!... she's in school to be a Laboratory Technologist!!! These people are supposed to be able to identify the smallest living microbes on EARTH!!  Give me a break lady!! Work with me here people. Sooooo... I had to Thaw the entire window with a hair blow dryer because ice had collected within the "OPEN' window frame making it impossible to close. After an hour of hair blow drying, wiping, wiggling, pushing and pulling... I finally got the window shut and locked.

I texted the tenant that night and told her what had happened and how I fixed it, and that it took an hour of 'defrosting'. She answered me back immediately with, "Did you put the plastic insulation back up around the window when you were done?"
Oh Sweet Lord Baby Jesus give me the strength. So, I mustered up a polite response and said, "No.. but the window is shut now so you won't need the plastic anymore." (the plastic was collecting snow inside it... not to mention moisture and potential water damage). She answered back with, "Oh that's OK.. I'll put it back up just in case it's not fixed."

No, "Thank You".  No, "Wow, I feel like such a huge idiot! I'm so sorry". No, "Oh my God I should not become a Laboratory Technologist!!"... Nothing.  But, that's what you get when you have to deal with "Silly" tenants. Is the rental money worth it? Is it worth the stress and ridiculousness?  The jury's still out on that one.

Cheers,
Bootsy



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