In my nearly 30 years of owning rental property, I only had one tenant that was over the top bad. She sued and my insurance settled for a small amount even though I wanted to fight to the end. Insurance company said it was a waste of time and court fees would be more anyway. The appointed attorney was actually surprised I had lasted that long without any legal issues. She said it is very common now. Tenants are looking for a way to score and their landlord is as deep pocketed as anyone to go after. Beware owners!!!
I’ve connected with numerous people who got scammed by tenants.
There are services out there which can assist with screening for bad tenant such as www.bzinterviews.com
In the other hand, at least we can ask for similar experiences and avoid this kind of stuff.
So, you always keep an eye on owners since then, right?
I don’t know if it is legal (and someone will make zillions off this idea) but I was thinking of creating a Yelp! if you will for tenants (used by landlords). So, that bad tenant I had, I would post her profile by say last name + 4 digits of SS#. I would illustrate what she did (and I would need to show proof of it). People have come up with landlord ranking apps or websites, why can’t landlords have the same? You really can’t be too careful these days so it would be free for listing the bad tenants but users who want to review the database when renting to others would have to pay a nominal fee. I suppose you could even post for the exceptionally positive tenant too.
Why? Why can tenants say sheet about landlords or management companies without necessarily any proof either? In my scheme, one would need to demonstrate proof and I would mask the tenant by name initials and only partial SS number. Aren’t court evictions public record, at least for now, as some jurisdictions that I have posted about want to hide all evictions from the public?
Well, to what extent legally I don’t know, but I would argue I did and if you don’t like it, sue me. Again, as long as the information is truthful, why can’t the owner provide that information legitimately and discreetly enough to help the (paying) public?
Ever heard of preventive maintenance? Tell me, do you have any form of insurance? Why do you buy it? I mean, the odds of something drastic happening to you is huge, right?
Look at exactly what the idiot developer of the Millennium Tower did. Went cheap by not going to bedrock when even my Mom knows that is landfill and you shouldn’t compound it by putting in a heavier designed building then.
Well Harriet, I don’t help people with that type of insurance.
Any property and casualty insurance aka Farmers, and so on can help you with that type of insurance. You get the protection against libel/defamation, etc.
You also can self insure yourself by putting $ aside for future “problems” which some businesses do when they realize the amount of claims are so little. It’s not worth it when they are paying too much $ for the coverage.
But, if you became the owner of a Yelp type of thing with huge income, yes, there’s a loophole aka tax code that helps you to put aside 10% of your gross income for reinsurance purposes and such amount of $ is deducted from such income for tax deduction purposes. If there’s another “partner” the deduction is 20%.
A year later + one day, that money (around 80%) can be moved into your business, or as we do, to open an IUL where you got 80% working for you, and 80% in your liquid account for whatever reasons you want to use that money for. It’s yours! Every year!
It costs $5K to open it though, and you need to have $50K+ gross income
But, dealing with human beings as customers is not that romantic. Imagine you get me as one of them? You will be sorry!