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Money Saving Articles

A Tenant’s Story: Renting Gone Awry

Get Rich Slowly featured a reader’s story, Rental Properties from the Tenant’s Point of View. The article discusses how he found a duplex owned by a small-time landlord who had difficulties repairing an air conditioning unit. The duplex turned out to be an illegal apartment and the tenant ended up costing the landlord a lot of time and rent because he wasn’t able to repair the A/C.

If you have tenants who pay their rent on time and don’t cause trouble with the neighbors, keep them happy. As a small-time landlord, any tenant who is a royal pain can cost you big time. You don’t have the volume like the big boys to play things by the numbers.

Know the rules where you play. This is doubly true in a rent controlled area. In L.A., single-family housing units are exempt from the rent-control rules, but he had a duplex, period. As such, the property fell under the city’s housing office, legal dwelling or not. And L.A. is very unkind to landlords who have illegal units.

Having been a longtime renter myself, I’ve dealt with both good and bad landlords and it can be frustrating at times. If you’re facing an uncooperative landlord or property manager, you need to document everything. Try to communicate in writing and take very good notes when you talk in person or over the phone. Make sure to read up on your local tenant laws (you can do so with a Google search of “tenant laws [your city/state]”) and know what both parties are legally entitled to. This will help cover your butt if anything goes wrong.

3 Responses

  • Posted by Alison on May 10, 2011

    When I was in college I rented a house from a smalltime landlord like the one in this story. Also like the guy in this story, there was a major repair that he wouldn’t fix. Fortunately it was just the refrigerator and not the air conditioner, but it was still a pain. It took 3 months for him to fix the fridge only because I started taking him to court.

  • Posted by Sam Nelson on May 21, 2011

    Keep them happy is right! My landlord gave my neighbors a hard time over a small thing, they left, and the worst tenants in the world (for both me and the landlord) moved in. I know she wishes she would have tried harder to work it out with them!

  • Posted by Dustin on May 28, 2011

    I have laid tile and hung the ceiling fans for my landlord. He provides the materials, I provide the labor install it. Everybody wins.

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