Ex landlords advice

Blueberry farmer's

(Advice PLEASE!! Landlord coming on Monday to 'investigate my power bill)
thread caused the creation of this thread.



Having actually been a landlord I consider myself to be knowledgeable on Landlord Tenant relationships.

I had been a landlord simply because I was an electrician/many hats. The developer, individuals would typically give me an apartment and salary to collect rents and do minor repairs. Things such as stairwell clearing(safety issue) would be my responsibility or in large complexes a janitor.
Keeping my day job doing the landlord thing evenings and weekends was too sweet a deal to turn down.
Being the electrician that actually wired the building was the reason they hired me.


I would be the electrician for several properties and the other property managers would share the stories with me.


The number 1 rule is do not make a pest of your self. This means be quiet and respectful of the neighbors these neighbors will likely be the reason trouble begins.
Have your friends who visit do the same. Say hello in the hall if its done where you live.


This is a hard one here....invite the landlord in the kitchen living room or any room you do not grow in. Let them see you are not destroying the place and it is in good serviceability. If the kitchen or bathroom has any kind of leak call them right away. In other words appear to be open. Not ever letting anyone know you are growing.

It always made me suspicious if someone was never having a thing break or any complaints.
Roaches in the ashtrays were a dead give away. Pay your rent and let them see rooms your not growing in.

Now that that is said there is an other type of landlord.
This landlord is a voyeur of sorts not always sexual but real nosy.
I have had little old ladies that as soon as the tenant went to work would go into the apartments and just snoop around.

The most devious landlords would claim they heard a smoke detector beep or water running. These were the ones to watch. Sneaky ba$tards. Usually they were thieves. Blackmail was not beneath them. Most I suspected were sociopaths and always were nice on first meeting. If you find yourself renting from this landlord move asap and do not grow.



Have other house plants in case they see a bag of soil. This is just obvious. Roaches in the ashtrays obvious.
The best situation is to own where you grow and never tell anyone. Necessity is the mother of invention. Be cool, let them see you are not trashing the apartment.

I hope this helps someone not get evicted or busted. BTW do not make an electrical fire hazard.

Octodiem
Greta advice I just wanted to add some of my experience on the larger complexes. In my younger years my brother and I rented in one of those larger complexes. Multiple buildings with over 12 units each.

Although many offer amenities like work out room or even a pool these are the worst in my opinion. Please do not take this wrong but unlike the duplex or 4 plexs these are usually managed by someone other than the owner. There in lies the problem that you eluded too. This staff can be very unscrupulous. In the one we lived in every thing had to locked up. If you left cash or other personal items out consider it gone. I don’t mean to imply the very next day but if you got into a habit of leavening things out. We had a large change jar and one day it was gone. We heard plenty of other stories from other tenants. These guys hold no alliances to either the owner or the tenants.

If I had to I would pick a duplex or fourplex. Many times they are owner managed and the last thing the owner wants to do is be over at your unit every week. On top of that they have more to loose if something comes up missing or they do not comply with the tenants rights. The larger ones can just blame the management.

The owner wants the rent...... normal property managers want peace. Peace

You're both telling me people go into your apartments?!??!

If I was in mine and someone came in I would mess their face up. Am I hearing this right, they would go in and steal shit? Where do you people live?

I had a friend move in to a smaller complex managed by an old lady. I think she owned it but was like 60+. Well with in the first week she came up to my friend and straight out said. "you need to remove all the paraphinallia (bongs and other glassware) from teh apartment" Apperantly she went in the apt. after they went to work and snooped around. I felt violated and it was not even my apt...Just becareful when renting period.

Wow, that's illegal BTW. I would sue.

Yes, I am telling you landlords/managers come into your apartment. I do not think it is common but it happens more than you think. If you have bongs and roaches or anything illegal you probably wont be suing anyone. If you have none of those 9/10 times you wont know they were in there because there not coming out and telling you.

Right or wrong they are protecting their investment. I personally know a guy who owns many units nothing fancy he always buys in questionable neighborhoods and if he has any trouble with tenants paying on time or fighting etc he has his manager (always works through a manager) change the locks and tells the tenant I will let you back in to get your stuff and give you a good referral for your next place. Number one rule; a landlord always gives a good referral especially if you are a poor tenant. He wants you out.

I have seen 3 guys where I work leave in the last year and all swore they were going to tell the boss off. We all cheered them on but in the end they just left. It’s just easier to move on. That’s how this landlord works it. His comment to me was “The common man does not have the time or money to try and bring these things to a lawsuit.”
In my experience he is right. Point in case:

I own (bank owns) my house but rented for over 10 years and I have never regained my complete deposit. I always took care of the place never left on bad terms and sometimes did improvements that landlord liked. I would always bitch and ask on what grounds and they always had a lame excuse in my mind. In the end I was moving and just wanted to get on with my life so I folded.

I asked this same guy why would this happen? He told me it is common practice(especially if you move with in a year or two) to keep part of the deposit. Unless you actually take pictures of everything he said it was all part of doing business.
I asked how the hell do you get your full deposit back? He said just leave the last months rent open and after leaving tell the landlord your deposit will cover it. I never got to try it because I already was a homeowner by the time I met this guy.

One more realism for the road. A friend and I were looking at buying a duplex 55K in a questionable neighborhood and we looked at it during a weekday. They current owner takes us right in each unit calling out, “Anyone home” and we precede to look in every room. He never told the tenants we were coming. It happens more than you think.

It’s a business never forget that! Always believe someone could be checking your apartment out.

Where do you guys live? I don't think that stuff happens in Canada.

first rule in growing in a rental: CHANGE THE LOCKS. You may get in trouble, just a warning but you will know if you have a snooper

How would you find their exact same lock though? THat's a good idea however.

Changing the lock is always a good idea. Lock changes can deter snoopers but they arent hard to get past by a locksmith ofcourse.

The other day we had work done on all units and one neighbor was out of town. The owners lost everybodies keys and they were trying to make copies of all the tennants keys. One guy was out of town so he missed several notices. Finally I saw them pick his lock and change out the door knob and dead bolt. I assume they put a copies in his mail slot. Watching the locksmith pick 2 locks in 30 seconds made me feel pretty vulnerable.

DurbanStone said:

How would you find their exact same lock though? THat's a good idea however.

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go to a hardware store and open your eyes

If you can't find the same one at a local place, go to a bigger place like lowes or home depot.

If you still can't find it, just take the manufacturer name thats on the front of the lock and find it online.

It's not like they use special secret locks for apartments, and unless you're in some place with 50 year old locks, it shouldn't be a problem..........deadbolt technology isn't exactly changing on a day to day basis.........

I am so glad, that the housing market is imploding because it means that young people now might actually have a shot at owning a home in a few years. I am buying a house as soon as I can which may be years but renting is bullshit, unless you get a stand-alone house and a good landlord. I have a good landlord but my neighbors are total kunts. I wont say where i live but in my area there has been two solid months of newspaper stories about indoor growing busts and every landlord in three counties is now on the hunt for growers. I had a walk through yesterday, that was actually on schedule since I've been here a year but the notice letter said specifically they were inspecting "electrical, plumbing, and smoke alarms". HMMMMMMM. . . . .yea that's a tough couple of dots to connect isn't it?

I swear the guy who came by must have been completely dumbfounded, that there was nothing to indicate anything out of the ordinary because I think they had an idea what they wanted to find. After this BS I think I could hide jews from the gestapo!

hamstring said:

...it is common practice(especially if you move with in a year or two) to keep part of the deposit. Unless you actually take pictures of everything he said it was all part of doing business.
I asked how the hell do you get your full deposit back? He said just leave the last months rent open and after leaving tell the landlord your deposit will cover it. I never got to try it because I already was a homeowner by the time I met this guy.

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Hi hamstring,

This tactic to get your deposit back won't work in the UK at least, as every tenancy agreement I've ever signed has always stated that this is not possible, so before trying this I'd check the tenancy agreement wherever you are.

Also, I've always got my full deposit back, usually taking pics, as well as taking pics when originally moving in, but always being there as well during the exit inspection is also often important in getting your deposit back - you can discuss any potential damage/losses with the inspector, instead of them just putting whatever they want on the form, which is what usually happens.


Peace

leave someone at the house and take the lock to a locksmith to be rekeyed if you want.

The trick is, changing the lock wont make much safer, but you will know if the landlord is coming around because they will notify you that the lock has been changed.

If i was growing in a rental I would never do it in a complex with onsite managers and maint crew. Maybe a small 6-8 unit building with a out of area owner.

Why? What if they aren't there 24 7?

DurbanStone

Hey bro nothing we have said is written in stone. There are way more honest landlords than not. If you are replying to Yamaha’s comment,” If I was growing in a rental I would never do it in a complex with onsite managers and maint crew. Maybe a small 6-8 unit building with a out of area owner.”

The reason is these guys (management) hold no alliances to either the owner or the tenants. They are not as worried about serving you notice before entering or nosing around in your stuff. They only have their job to loose not their investment. If the place is owner managed he is more likely to pay heed to the tenant/owner laws.

Now I have no personal experience in finding a small unit complex with an absentee landlord. I think that would be hard and stupid on the landlord’s part. It must be very hard to manage from a different state.

Also, I agree that changing the locks is always a good idea. I did it once when I rented and grew. Eventually they did notice and when they asked me I said the lock was not working properly and gave them one of my keys. It was an old building and they were satisfied with my reason.

I was referring to a big complex with 100+ units. They may enter at anytime to exterminate, or fix something. I just wouldnt want to be in that situation.

I rented a townhouse from a guy out of town. It wasnt for growing but would have been great. two upstairs bedrooms would have been great. Guy didnt come around once, we just paid rent and replaced a couple things on our own and deducted from rent like the garbage disposal.

I was a landlord, I never entered w/o notice

just because they own 100 apt doesn't mean they can just walk in opposed to a few...

They can't just walk in. They can say"I thought I smelled a fire" or"smoke detector was beeping"as I said sneaky....This may be a difficult concept...... invite them in show them a neat tidy apartment any room but the one you are growing in.

Do not under any circumstances invite a cop in. Invite the cops to get a judge to sign a warrant. My address was wrong on a warrant also my name was spelled incorrectly. They were looking for a weapon the the landlord (sociopath) said I fired at him. They searched found some pipes, bongs, papers, seeds and a QP. I knew I would walk. The court day arrived.The judge let me go.

This is when I moved to a place where pot is not criminal. Even though I walked, I knew the cops ego's had been obliterated and planting evidence was next.

Its not very good to grow in a rental.... very risky. I understand that MJ is expensive Whats 5 years of your life worth?