[Balboa]

Until we have universal basic income, jobs are actually needed … by people who need money.

[Balboa]

Undone? Now he can be president!

[Balboa]

[quote=ltsdd]
The tenants are all blue-collar kind of folks and the way I have looked at it is that they need an extra $$ more than I do (I know that’s a no-no way to think as a landlord/business). [/quote]

Systemic rejection of that “no no way” by white collar folks has done a tremendous amount of damage in the world, not least to blue collar folks. That you are thinking about this carefully suggests you’ll find a good balance for yourself and your tenants.

That said, if your interest is maximizing the value of the property, you should follow and disclose a policy of rental rates that follow the market. I advise against saying this is to “cover the increased cost of living,” though. My last landlord gave that line and I found it wildly insulting. Dude, *you* are increasing the cost of living! At double the inflation rate for housing! Every year! And my heater is busted!

Be honest and tell them you want a boat. 🙂

[Balboa]

[quote=utcsox][quote=enron_by_the_sea][quote=bearishgurl][quote=FlyerInHi]Bearish, why is Trump’s obamacare plan any better than Cruz’ or Rubio’s?
Trump plan so far is simply to get rid of state boundaries.[/quote]
I don’t yet know that Trump’s plan is any better. But “getting rid of state boundaries” will be HUGE! [/quote]

Looking back… Can we all agree now that there was never ever a “plan”! Some people just designed a non-existent plan in their minds.[/quote]

Disagree. The smartest conservative in Washington, Paul Ryan was able to come up with multiple plans that will increase the spending and decrease coverage in a spam of a week. It is just not able to find enough votes for it. So, please this misinformation that the Republicans has no plan. They do have plenty of plans that will increase spending and decrease the coverage but not enough votes to pass for it.[/quote]

I see what you did there.

[Balboa]

So Piggs, what are some signs/conditions that warrant more than patching a leak?

We have had water leaking through a roof for every rain since September. Today a hole the diameter of a pencil was discovered under some passive solar heating panels — presumably an old bolt hole. It’s now caulked.

The caulked hole may stop future leaking, but I’m concerned about damage sustained bythe materials between the shingles and and what we can see of the ceiling planks — particularly since it keeps raining and doesn’t seem to get hot enough to dry things out.

There is no attic in this area. It takes a few hours of rain for the water to start dripping through the planks, and it also takes several hours to stop dripping after the rain stops. On Monday I had a spot dripping until 5 pm, and there wasn’t any rain here on Monday.

Can a typical roof handle survive several months of these conditions, or is it most like shot and in need of replacement? The planks may be deceptive –they don’t bulge and stain like other materials do, so they don’t look as ominous as some other leaks.

[Balboa]

N_S_R, I don’t know if stores carry ice melt around here, but it’s branded as Damprid (and others) when it’s used as a desiccant. There are some other chemical dehumidifiers, too. You might want to toss some up in the attic to help things dry out. (They collect the water in a container, so ease of removal is a consideration.)

Forecast says my neighborhood should hit the 70s this weekend. Fingers crossed. We’ve got a leaky window, too…

[Balboa]

We have had bowls and tarps on our kitchen floor for 5 weeks now. Roof guy says it’s not a roofing problem, that it was an issue with the (pre-existing) passive solar pool heating system. So we had a different company reinstall the system a month ago. It rained that night and we had water on the floor in the morning. SO spent a good chunk of this morning on the roof with a garden hose while I waited inside for the dripping to start — so we have gone so far as to *pay* for the water that is possibly ruining our roof.

We’ve lived here 7 months — there’s no way the previous owners did not have this problem. There’s no way this roof didn’t leak in that amazing July 2015 storm, considering it leaked on us for the first time in September in much less rain. The trick is, the ceiling is planked, not plastered or drywalled — so it’s very easy to just wipe the dirty water off the painted planks and no one is the wiser.

I miss renting.

[Balboa]

Requested the day off a few weeks ago, but definitely not watching. The Jan. 20, 2017, schedule of events is roughly as follows (all times Pacific):

0900 – get some health care!

1030 – cheerfully comply with environmental regulations by getting my car smogged

1300 – see “Hidden Figures” or “Moonlight” depending on walking and/or flooding conditions at respective theaters

1530 – get some continuing education via the internet and thanks to my employer’s tuition reimbursement policy

1750 – a sensible meal for dinner

I’m aiming for a day of self-edifying productivity.

[Balboa]

One retro item that works as well or better than modern ones are digital alarm clocks from the 80’s.

This is a rare opportunity to evangelize for one of my favorite products! Philips HF3520 Wake-Up Light With Colored Sunrise Simulation. Totally changed my mornings. (Not for vacation rentals, of course, given the price point. And I have a 5 year old model. But I love these things.)

[Balboa]

Thanks, no_such_reality. it still feels good!

Barnaby33, party at anyone’s house but mine! Already a little burnt out on visitors. Especially once everyone’s past the age of sleeping on couches and floors, there is a certain freedom in being able to say, “Darn, we only have the one bedroom.” 🙂

[Balboa]

Hi pigs — since several of you took the time to provide feedback and advice, I wanted to come back with an update.

I decided to go the demand letter route– I spent a good deal of time on it, attached a table itemizing the disputes, and sent it by email and certified mail. I’m not even sure they’ve received the certified envelope yet, but we received a terse email today saying that they wholly disagreed with our letter but were cutting us the check we asked for since it would be a waste of their company’s time to do otherwise. Close to $500 — totally, totally worth it to me, mostly emotionally. Yes, it was a lot of time scouring the internet, but I’ve never made $500 on the internet before. 🙂

Flu, hopefully this doesn’t mean we can’t still avail ourselves of your home-owning and engineering expertise. We’ve been here a little over a month and I think we’re about to run out of issues that can be solved by turnbuckles and J-B Weld!

For other renters who might end up in this thread, I’ll paste in some of the most useful parts of the letter:

Landlord did not comply with the requirements of Section 1950.5(f)(1-3) with regard to noticing, conducting and documenting a Pre-Move-Out Inspection.

Identification of the name, address, and telephone number of the person or entity paid to perform the repairs was required per California Civil Code Section 1950.5(g)(2)(B).

Receipts for the cost of materials were required to be provided per California Civil Code Section 1950.5(g)(2)(C).

Section 1950.5(e) prohibits security deposit deductions for ordinary wear and tear and pre-existing conditions.

[Specific to broken leases and, in our case, the $175/hr admin charges]
The proper calculation of amounts due to Landlord under Section 1951.2(a)(4) requires consideration of excess rents Landlord will collect as a result of the cancellation of our lease and the subsequent rent increase charged to the new tenant. (“Unless the total detriment suffered, whether by loss of rentals or consequential damages, exceeds the amount to be received under the new lease there is in fact no detriment, and hence no damages.” Willis v. Soda Shoppes of California, Inc. (1982) 134 Cal.App.3d 899 at p. 905.)

ETA: There is still a question about whether any of landlord’s administrative time can be charged. We just assumed it could be and then said it didn’t matter because the rate was unreasonable and excess rent would cover any reasonable rate.

[Balboa]

I don’t know the case law, but Section 1950.5 has some pretty broad phrasing:

As used in this section, “security” means any payment, fee, deposit or charge, including, but not limited to, any payment, fee, deposit, or charge, except as provided in Section 1950.6, that is imposed at the beginning of the tenancy to be used to reimburse the landlord for costs associated with processing a new tenant or that is imposed as an advance payment of rent, used or to be used for any purpose, including, but not limited to, any of the following:

1. The compensation of a landlord for a tenant’s default in the payment of rent.

2. The repair of damages to the premises, exclusive of ordinary wear and tear, caused by the tenant or by a
guest or licensee of the tenant.

3. The cleaning of the premises upon termination of the tenancy necessary to return the unit to the same level
of cleanliness it was in at the inception of the tenancy. The amendments to this paragraph enacted by the act adding this sentence shall apply only to tenancies for which the tenant’s right to occupy begins after January 1, 2003.

4. To remedy future defaults by the tenant in any obligation under the rental agreement to restore, replace, or return personal property or appurtenances, exclusive of ordinary wear and tear, if the security deposit is authorized to be applied thereto by the rental agreement.

That said, there’s also “The landlord may claim of the security only those amounts as are reasonably necessary for the purposes specified in subdivision (b).”

[Balboa]

Thanks everyone, this is good feedback with well presented perspectives.

Flu, you should never have been charged for that paralegal’s errors. That sucks. I say this as a paralegal — sure, I’ve made errors, but our clients have never been billed for them. (I’m mostly out of the billing game now, thank god, but my rate is an astounding $280 an hour.)

You’re right that there is a psychological toll to caring about $400, especially considering that it’s rather less than one monthly installment of my new property tax bill. But man, this guy is a bully and it gets my goat. (He seriously sent another good tenant with five years under his belt a bill from the tailor because the tenant’s dog jumped on the landlord and put a hole in landlord’s jacket.)

I also misspoke — the rate he’s charging is $175 an hour. I assume it’s his paralegal’s rate for performing paralegal services, or some hybrid figure that they came up with, because the entries are labeled “landlord name/paralegal name).

no_such_reality, I’d agree $175 would be very reasonable for competently performed legal services. That is not what this landlord is providing. He’s not even performing his landlord duties competently. If Lebron James is my landlord, does he get to charge me $1,650 for his .2 email to tell the leasing agent that the repairs have been completed? Because his professional hourly rate is $8,200 and because he could have been polishing his ring instead of writing that email?

I think some charge for this time is allowed under the relevant code section, but I also believe the rate has to be “reasonable.” My mind would be blown if the standard for “reasonable” turned out to be “what wealthy landowners owners make at their professional day jobs.”

Also, this is on top of $500+ in (inadequately documented) leasing agent and cleaning/repair fees.

I think I will send the demand letter and propose a rate of $25 an hour for those times entries. Mostly because I think people who work should be paid a living wage and his legal assistant has x years experience (implementing her boss’ poor property management practices). Not that it goes into her pocket, but $25 an hour for that seems fair to me.

[Balboa]

It’s on the table. $125/hr rate to schedule a carpet cleaning? To meet the handyman? Hilarious.

[Balboa]

[quote=bewildering]
AFAIK the limit in San Diego is $562,350 not $417,000

Are you buying in San Diego?[/quote]

I thought < $562k would before fully conforming, too, but it appears not. HLS will be the expert on this but, after looking into it, I think the hard limit actually applies to Fannie/Freddie and that other lenders just mostly fall in line. There are higher Fannie/Freddie limits in San Diego, but I can see how the higher limits would come with a bit of an interest penalty.

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