I do not know the details of your case. To be extra cautious, you could settle with tenant before HUD investigation, have them move out, pay some money to settle and stipulate a no suit peace pact between each other.
But once HUD conducted investigation, that investigation can be used as an evidence by the tenant even though the report is in your favor.
But since your insurance hired lawyer to defend you, I guess you did not have that much stress since you do not care how much legal fees is running and you do not care how much insurance will pay the tenant, as long as itâs below your coverage limit.
I heard that most insurance companies do not cover mold, not sure what that means exactly. Probably they do not cover property remediation, but still cover the tenant lawsuit.
Sure, it is easy to Monday morning quarterback this, but when you feel that you are in the right 100% and have already accommodated the tenant way beyond what other owners would have done what are you supposed to do? Sure, I could have offered a deal and required that the tenant sign off that there would be no further legal action on the matter but who knows what would have happened anyway. Some people are just bad. This is the real world that we live in.
I had some stress obviously for a year or so but I am glad that Safeco served me well. Letâs just say I am a client for lifeâŚ
Good points. My suspicion. Is why I donât buy rental in bad neighborhoods. So far, my tenants in SV have at least three times rent using base salary, 5-7 times including RSUs. In Austin, my property manager only manages SFHs with no swimming pools and any safety issues
Come on @hanera, are you suggesting that only low income or dumb people clog up our court system??? If you really believe that, I got a whole Millennium Tower to sell ya, really cheap. And oh, it is straight as an arrowâŚ
How does Millennium Tower issue relate to landlord vs tenant? High income tech guys got better thing to do⌠build their career, networking, boost their professional reputation, etc. Why engage in lawsuit with landlords in a high tech neighborhood? The high tech industry is not that big, chances of meeting each other or even become colleagues are high. I guess I should change the word âbadâ to âgood to very badâ⌠go for âvery goodâ.
My point is just that when you are in this business so long, sooner or later something will happen.
You can be the best darn careful driver there is on the road but an accident or a traffic ticket can come up, no?
One can make the argument that âdumbâ people (on their own now) wouldnât be smart enough to seek legal advice whereas someone who has some knowledge if not downright brilliant would seek legal representation if they believe they were wronged. I donât see this as a stretchâŚ
And again, my insurance companyâs lawyer (granted, she does this 24/7) point blank said that there is much much more of this going on now (claims against owners). Come on, deep pockets or the perceived notion of deep pockets.
As you can tell by now, I try my best to be positive whenever I can. Even this, it was a good learning experience (thanks Safeco). I hold no ill will towards anyone including that tenant. In fact, since that episode I got my Fremont home at a song so no complaints. It is what it is.
Now, for sure, I am no longer Mr. Care-free Landlord Who Does Not Raise Rents All The Time anymore⌠I just got the legal ok to raise rent on a tenant of mine by 40% and the letter just went out⌠Oops sorry
For all the legal responses: It is up to landlord and tenant how they handle the issue. If emotional in handling the issue, then the party gets a hit. For legal issue, proof is mandatory and must speak for.
When parties are going through lawyers, they (lawyers) extract money and both parties lose money to lawyers.
Having faced three court cases, so far, I understand the depth of those issues and how court deal with law/legal challenges.
Never mind, this legal issue will not happen to me - at least this case - as I take care of tenant and their issues properly. This is the main reason I keep my property manager and he promptly attends the call ! The tenants are so nice staying at home as they get at least $250-$300 from current market rate.
Mine was relatively harmless and did not go to court. Believe me, I wish it did. Now, I might have to take that back since you never really know what a specific juror will think. I was doing jury duty on a wrongful termination case where a retired civil service lady wanted to give the plaintiff millions of dollars. It was not justified whatsoever!!! Funny thing is, we give the plaintiff I believe something like $50k-$100k. The plaintiffâs lawyer who we chatted with after the case even admitted he was surprised that the judgement was that high even. People fish and hope for the bestâŚ
I am sure there are plenty of other owners who generally do the right thing and still got burned by one of their tenants. Donât think by being nice to them or cutting a break to them that in the end they donât turn on you. In desperate times, people do desperate things. Think about that hard. If you were in their shoes, you would do what you had to do to survive.
Vacate tennant, get inspection for the roof, repair or replace as needed. 10g for a new roof is minimal. Drywall repairs will be equal or more depending on if mold abatement is required.
Pm me if you want an inspector out of Sunnyvale that I used to purchase my home. I worked for a home remodeler that had him inspect jobs for possible complications, I have zero vested interest except that heâs smart, thorough and writes a great report.
The worst person is the tenantâs lawyer and tenantâs politicians, not tenant.
Even if you have an angel minded tenant, once a tenant attorney is involved, that angel will turn into a monster.
The problem with low income tenant is not their moral standard, itâs simply that they are judgement proof. If you win the case and are entitled to collect 50k or 5M from them, that jughement js useless. But if the tenant is a millionaire, he would think twice when he intends to file a frivolous lawsuit. Also low income tenants have government free lawyers and the regular tenant needs to spend money to get legal advice and representation.
This is basically the political dilemma. Itâs a disaster to have too many penniless population who have nothing to lose. If they have a job or something, they have an incentive to work hard and obey the law to protect what they have and strive for better. Once they have nothing to lose, or if they are guaranteed of something like in communist countries, moral corruption will be a big problem. The high crime rate in inner cities is a reflection of this. Permanent welfare will not help, you have to help them to get jobs and earn a living.
There are tenant rights lawyers or civil rights lawyers who provide free legal service to low income tenants.
I do not think Gloria wants money from Trump, itâs for political reasons. Even though Trump did not pay Gloria and her clients, Trump must have spent significant amount on his own lawyer. Will Gloria and her clients pay back the cost and a penalty to Trump? Trump is not asking for it because the plaintiff might be judgement proof. Also Trump has no time to pursue the case I guess. Itâs a self attack anyway if he want to counter sue.
When you deal with low income tenants, your opponent is not the tenant, itâs the leftist government and political forces, their resource is million times of yours. Makes no sense to seek suicide in the hands of government and liberal political powers. You are less than an ant comparing with their power.
Your tenant is not low income and SanJose is not super liberal, you might be ok. But if tenant finds any good excuse, you can still be doomed.
