Forum Archive: Posts by: gale

I’d like to ask other lanlords in the PS about their “rent increase polisies”. Here is the cituation: we have tennants in our brownstone, their lease is up in two months, they are paying market price for the app. and good tenants, we would like them to stay. Do you guys advise to increase rents every year for couple of % just as a metter of principal (all the commercial landlords do it)or not to increase it at all sometimes? Our expences (taxes, heating,etc.)rise every year does it mean it’s a good practice to raise rent every year as well? What most small landlords do?

My tenants informed me that they want to break one-year lease after only 3 months citing personal reasons and bad planning. Which would leave me with a vacant apartment in December. I hold one month security deposit but it seems to me that wouldn’t be enough to cover my loses and a headache.

I’d like to ask all the landlords out there, any input will be appreciated. The question is simple. What is the temperature you keep in the tenants apartments? The reason I’m asking is that my new tenants called and complained yesterday that it was too chilly in their apt. during the day. I keep temp. at 71 till 11:00 at night and 68 during the night. I think it’s preaty dicent. They are good tenants and I want to keep them comfortable but I politely refused to turn the temp. up.

I would like to ask for the opinions of fellow landlords in this matter.
My tenants just moved out after less than 2 years (21 months)in the apt. When they moved in apt. was absolutely new. We gut renovated the whole bulding. They were the first tenants in the apt. We had it clear from the begining that apt. has to be left thoroughly cleaned and damage free (have a separate rider to the lease). When they moved out the kitchen countertop was gamaged by water overflowing(I guess), it was also warped. The wall they hanged they TV had four wholes (about 1 inch in diameter each) plus 2 feet long deep scar. Also some water damage under the window sills on the wall. The glazing on the top of the bathtub was severely damaged.
But the worst think was the filth. We had to use acid to clean the bathroom floors and tiles, stove and oven took 5 hours to clean with 3 applications of Easy Off, all the kithen cabinets were dirty inside and out. All the doors in the apt. had to be repainted because they were beyong cleaning. We replaced the countertop, repaired the walls, painted almost all of the walls and windowsills, cleaned everything. I deducted 490.00 for the damage and cleaning from the sec. deposit. I e-mailed them pictures of the damage and itemized account of the deductions. But tenants are disputing the deductions saying it was normal wear and tear and they cleaned the apt. They did hire the cleaning lady who spent in the apt. 4 hours picking up trash and cleaning fridge after the moved out. For cleaning everything else she said she was not going to do it because it’s too much. In all the repair of the damage cost twice the amount, but we only charged them for work that was done by repairman. For repairs that we did ourselves (took almost a week of hard labor)we didn’t charge them. Any thoughts?