What Do You About Multiple Tenants?
We have a SFH that three 20ish guys want to rent. If they pass the credit check & background check, what do you do about holding someone responsible for the rent? Are they each liable for 1/3 or do you hold one person responsbile for all of it? What happens if one of the tenants move out, can you hold the other two responsible for the entire rent? How does this need to be worded in contract?
Thanks.
Obviously run credit checks, etc... on all three of them. Other than that, you should have all three of them on the lease and have all of them sign it.
You should also have something in your lease saying that they are all jointly and severally responsible for all obligations outlined in the lease.
This gives you the ability to sue any or all of them at your discretion and lets them know that should one decide to leave, he will not be off the hook and will not get back any security, etc... until the end of the lease.
Thanks for your reply. I will check leaks for both units. If I ask water dept to seperate the meter, do we need to pay for the service? Around how much will that be? Thanks.
Should I talk to the tenants and ask them to control their water usage, or should I keep silence? There are 3 years left in their lease and they paid their rent on time in most cases. Their rent is below current market because of the long-term lease. With the high water bill we can just break even.
Any suggestion? Thanks.
Thank you for your good advices. I will check their toilet and shower. Can we tell them that we are losing money on their unit because the water bill is too high, so they may feel guity and use less water?
The properties I own are in a town where there is a flat fee per six month period for water AND sewer. I pay roughly $270 a year for water PER unit in addition to a land fee of $90 per year per property. The sewer is $360 per year per unit.
For one of my 3 unit properties I pay a total of $1980 for water and sewer a year.
I just purchased my two-family in August of 2004. My last water bill for three months was $409. The one before that was $340. I live downstairs with my two toddlers, my tenants live upstairs (two adults, two school-aged kids, and a few visitors daily) NO one does laundry or washes cars there. The water company came out and agreed that it was a lot of water usage, but they could not find anything wrong. What do I do? Oh yeah, apparantly, there have been over 9,000 gallons used in the past 3 weeks.
High water biils?
wow, i received a bill for $180.00 for 3 months, and i was crying, on my other 2 fam home.
I SHOULD NOT CRY,compaired to some of these rates i have seen.
my friend rents a 4 fam, and his bill is $750 every 3 months, he said they have like 4-6 people living in each apt. (3 beds each). he said he closes his eyes, and just collects the rent.
Really check the toilets. I had the same issue in a 3-family. Two of the units had their toilets running 24/7. When they run like that it is like having your faucet on all day. My bills went from $1,000 for six months down to $600.
The lease follows the property. You need to get a copy of the lease from the current owner. I usually write a welcome letter to existing tenants indicating that I am the new owner and that the terms of the lease are still the same. I also include instructions on when/where/how to pay the rent.
I am not sure what you mean by appraisal inspection unless it is an inspection associated with an appraisal. I would assume that this is a requirement of your lender if you have one. If not, this is the one I would skip since you are already under contract and I assume you have a good idea what the property is worth.
Cool, thanks for the termite link. I will print it out and add it to my REI knowledge book. I am out of state, so i will be controling this property from afar.
Thanks again,
Colin