do you rent? sooo ticked at landlord

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
Do you live in Arlington? I've heard you mention the Arlington shelter or something. We lived in the Wedgeworth area of Ft worth and owned a house in Blue Mound for 5 years. Just curious. DW has a good friend in Arlington. My Mom still lives in Fort Worth as well as my younger sister.

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
It's worth it to keep the house occupied. One month of lost rent will pay for a lot of filters. My sister and her ex used to own 4 houses and rent them all. What a juggling act. My ex BIL bought her out when they divorced after 22 years of marriage and her working 3 jobs while he maintained houses. Now he has lost all the houses because of refinancing and drop in values. It's a tough game to play.

 

[JustAChickenLittle&More]

Pla, I know it is so hard to up and move with kids, husband, dogs especially. But if I were you, I would start looking. As far as the filters are concerned, unfortunately, tenants are responsible for changing filters unless it is a specific plastic expensive filter for that certain unit. (unless that is in your lease). This is the first time I am renting in tons of years. We've only been here two years so we really want to find a "nice" place with acreage, etc., otherwise I would not be renting at all. Please install more smoke alarms, and preferably a carbon monoxide detector. You can get them really cheap at lowes or home depot. I just have to thank God he kept you from harm. I would have been mad as H___ about his filter question, but as you know, he was just trying to blame the "tenants" of course. Make sure you get those detectors.

 

[justbugged]

I agree you cannot afford to not have carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the house. When you mentioned being sick at the same time as having furnace problems, my heart dropped. I would also have a couple of extra smoke alarms installed. If you couldn't hardly hear it during the day consider it useless. Place the smoke alarms in the path that the smoke will most likely travel.

As far as the landlord is concerned you have had your warning about how reliable his ability to repair the furnace. His opinion of how you keep your home doesn't matter unless you have an agreement in writing about it.

I would also go to the local library and look up the landlord tenant laws for your state, county, and town. I would get a copy of them printed out and keep it with your lease. At this point I would start looking for a safer place to rent, and move as soon as you can.

 

[Tala]

My old landlady broke into tenants' cars (including mine) and stole stuff. I will never rent again! I'd rather live in my truck!

However, them changing the filters was specified in the contract. I think they changed them every 3 months. Seemed to be ok there, but would never fly at our place. This has to be the dustiest place I've ever lived in, mine look pretty bad after 2 weeks so I replace them every month even though they are supposed to last longer. I work at a pizza place where there's that flour dust from the dough ALL in the air, it gets EVERYWHERE and we only change the store filters every month. That's a whole lot more dust than your average household, I promise ya that.
One time they didn't get changed and one of the a/c units froze up, which I think is what happens when you don't change them, that and it hurts the efficiency of the system. I really don't think you can blame an electrical problem on the lack of filter changes, well the landlord can try, but I just don't think that's a symptom of not changing them often enough. Sounds like shoddy work to me!!

 

[Spookwriter]

First off, and above all, I am glad that everyone is okay. Take time
to hug your family.

I am a landlord also. We're not all bad people. I have one renter, a blind
lady. Haven't raised her rent in years. Don't intend to. Her furnace and a/c
is checked twice a year by a professional. Home is sprayed for bugs every
six months by a pest control company. I even have the lawn mowed for her.

In short, I try to make her living in the home a pleasant experience. If there
is a problem, she knows to call me and it will be dealt with.

Our rental trailers, I don't spend as much on. But I do have necessary work
done by professionals. I believe it saves money in the end. I know what I can
and can not do.

But a house fire is a very real threat.

Be prepared. Be prepared to let it all go if need be. Nothing in there is worth
your life.

Lessons learned here?

Have VERY LOUD WORKING smoke detectors. Enough to get the job done. The
ones in my home are wired to a cheap Radio Shack horn. But even my neighbor
can hear it. Audible over a tv, stereo...it WILL wake you up.

When / if it goes off....GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. Do not worry about what is burning.

Head count the family.

Calling the fire department is a pretty good ideal. Sort of what they do...

But I also understand the desire to handle a small fire yourself. Until you find out
it's bigger than you thought. And that can be to late.

So, back to sqare one....get out and make sure the family is safe above all.

Insurance is there for a reason. You can buy more stuff. It's the people thats hard
to replace.

I have insurance on my places. I strongly advise my renters to buy renters insurance.
It is cheap for the cost. Just did one a few months ago for a young couple... $1.50 a
thousand on $40,000 contents. $60.00 a year.

But I'm glad everyone is okay.

 

[Spookwriter]

There is indeed a set of landlord tenant laws in effect here, in the
town my two rental home are in. I pay for the privilege of renting
my property out. And in turn, it is inspected by the city on an annual
bases.

My mobile homes are in a rural setting, and not subject to the same
laws. I still choose to keep them up.

 

[DuckLady]

I figure if you take care of your tenants, it will be returned.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Amen to that one. We have always taken good care of the homes we rent because it is our HOME. I see damage that an animal caused and I have a list of what WE need to replace. Like the place in the blinds the Mr. Yackers enters and exits from. No sense replacing it now because he does it all the time. On my list.

 

[PineappleMama]

Quote:
Yuppers, home of the Texas Rangers... and unfortunately IMO, the "Dallas" Cowboys... I am SO not looking forward to February's SuperBowl being here. *shudder*

Where'd you run off to Dunk? Everybody knows Texas is the best state in the union.

Terrie you sound like my Mom. She has a small house over in that bad area of town... all she could get when she divorced Sis and Bro's dad... owner finance since that moron ruined her credit and his by not making the house or car payments just to spite her... then filing bankruptcy before the divorce was final... hateful man... ANYWHO, she went through the drill, extensive drill, to have her property become a Housing Authority Rental... everything has to be up to their codes, which can get costly... but the rent check is in the mail on time every month guaranteed AND no one on housing wants to risk being booted, which is what happens if they destroy the house, so she's never had a problem with 'messy' tenants. It's worked out really well for her... She takes care of any repairs quickly, in order to keep them and the HA happy and the check's always on time for her... think if we ever got to the point where we had a rental property (extremely unlikely but JIC) that's something I'd definitely look into.