- Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:44 pm
#9293
I believe there is a web site running on a pay basis somewhere right now but what we need is a free site where everyone who has rented a room, house or apartment to someone can post information about bad tenants.
[Of course there are legal ramifications one would have to look into regarding slander and the like]
As a real estate broker almost 20 years, we used to own an apartment building and I have managed many other units as well.
Some tenants know the landlord-tenant act better than I do and use it to their advantage -- to stay as long as possible without paying a nickel of rent!
This type of tenat and may check out okay on an initial screening -- they may have a job, good references etc. but how is one to know that they intend to live there as long as possible and not pay the rent knowing full well that at some point they will be evicted but in the meantime they got to live there for free?
I've dealt with lots of these types -- 1 most recent one completely destroyed the interior of the apartment -- had parties every night running until five o'clock in the morning! This type of tenat disrupts the rest of the building -- other tenants left due to this.
We call the police several times -- one time I met them at the apartment only to find out that the police would not enter the apartment because they needed a search warrant -- meanwhile I as a landlord, had posted proper notice so I was legally entitled to enter my own property -- which I did only to find the apartment in shambles. The police did nothing because they said I could not prove it was him that did it.
That episode cost about $5,000 in repairs and that's not including the vacancies that he created from other apartments (loss of income) all total he probably cost us double that.
When he finally moved out, we found that he had moved to a neighboring apartment. Later that apartment was taken down by a SWAT team because he and his party friends had guns (and drugs of course).
On his application he even lied about his name and forged documents about his "job".
Luckily he is now in jail but I feel this type of tenant should be written about and post it to a centralized web site.
A web site that all landlords can use from small landlords renting a basement apartment to large landlords who come across as all the time.
As it is and it's not economically feasible for a small landlord to pay for a membership to such services that do credit checks etc.
In fact most small landlords only use their units to subsidize their own income -- they still end up subsidizing the apartments that they rent out -- in other words it's a negative cash flow situation.
EBay has a system where a buyer or seller can complain but they also have a process where those complaints can be neutralized by one another this web site would be similar where if the tenant is clearly not wrong, they would have the right to clear their name.
And conversely the tenat should be able to write about apartments are not maintained properly just to keep things even.
Your thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated -- especially in if you have a background in law.
Speaking about law -- the web site would be interactive virtually worldwide and however the laws change from country to country, state to state, province to province so I don't know how that would work? Unless each web site was dedicated to that particular area, with links to such web sites in other areas -- then each web site would take into consideration their particular laws of that area.
Reward: Peace of mind for landlords
[Of course there are legal ramifications one would have to look into regarding slander and the like]
As a real estate broker almost 20 years, we used to own an apartment building and I have managed many other units as well.
Some tenants know the landlord-tenant act better than I do and use it to their advantage -- to stay as long as possible without paying a nickel of rent!
This type of tenat and may check out okay on an initial screening -- they may have a job, good references etc. but how is one to know that they intend to live there as long as possible and not pay the rent knowing full well that at some point they will be evicted but in the meantime they got to live there for free?
I've dealt with lots of these types -- 1 most recent one completely destroyed the interior of the apartment -- had parties every night running until five o'clock in the morning! This type of tenat disrupts the rest of the building -- other tenants left due to this.
We call the police several times -- one time I met them at the apartment only to find out that the police would not enter the apartment because they needed a search warrant -- meanwhile I as a landlord, had posted proper notice so I was legally entitled to enter my own property -- which I did only to find the apartment in shambles. The police did nothing because they said I could not prove it was him that did it.
That episode cost about $5,000 in repairs and that's not including the vacancies that he created from other apartments (loss of income) all total he probably cost us double that.
When he finally moved out, we found that he had moved to a neighboring apartment. Later that apartment was taken down by a SWAT team because he and his party friends had guns (and drugs of course).
On his application he even lied about his name and forged documents about his "job".
Luckily he is now in jail but I feel this type of tenant should be written about and post it to a centralized web site.
A web site that all landlords can use from small landlords renting a basement apartment to large landlords who come across as all the time.
As it is and it's not economically feasible for a small landlord to pay for a membership to such services that do credit checks etc.
In fact most small landlords only use their units to subsidize their own income -- they still end up subsidizing the apartments that they rent out -- in other words it's a negative cash flow situation.
EBay has a system where a buyer or seller can complain but they also have a process where those complaints can be neutralized by one another this web site would be similar where if the tenant is clearly not wrong, they would have the right to clear their name.
And conversely the tenat should be able to write about apartments are not maintained properly just to keep things even.
Your thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated -- especially in if you have a background in law.
Speaking about law -- the web site would be interactive virtually worldwide and however the laws change from country to country, state to state, province to province so I don't know how that would work? Unless each web site was dedicated to that particular area, with links to such web sites in other areas -- then each web site would take into consideration their particular laws of that area.
Reward: Peace of mind for landlords
- By AaronBurns
- By Uolevi Kattun