<p>busdriver, great email. And Younghoss, I’m learning with every post. Having helped some friends with their rental property for years, I’m very glad to have these rental threads to better nuance my management skills. </p>
<p>I require rental insurance, but never thought about deductibles, or reimbursement for hotels. I’d imagine it might be an additional line item, as the rental car is for car insurance. </p>
<p>Busdriver, someday in the future, when you sell, you may be very happy you had those condos. But no fun right now!</p>
<p>If your other three condos are in the same development, perhaps you should have the contractor install a drain pan and drain hose so that when the next unit fails it does not cause this level of damage!</p>
<p>I guess I should add that documentation through written word could end up in court- on either side of the room. The LL might want it as the plaintiff, or may need it as the defendant.</p>
<p>I will be careful with the documentation. We did email that providing the hotel was not required, and that if they want to break the lease, they can do it within a week. But the truth is, after this, if they end up wanting to break the lease later on, then we won’t give them a hard time about it. </p>
<p>A pain in the rear about this situation is that the issue wasn’t a defective water heater, it is a hydrostatic boiler. Ugh. A system that uses water in the overall heating process of the house, and can cause leaks everywhere. For all I know, some of this damage was done earlier. There are pipes all over, behind the walls that can leak. It is a stupid, expensive system that they put in some condos, probably to save space. The unit itself will cost us $5300 to replace, instead of about 1K for a regular water heater. Luckily we have no more condos in this building.</p>
<p>busdriver11–if they have had issues with this same piece of equipment in several buildings I suggest someone contact the company to see if they have a recall or know that this equipment is failing at a high rate. It’s possible that your insurance company may do this as well. If the part is defective, they shouldn’t have to pay either.</p>
<p>SteveMa, they have had issues with this. Two other condos just this year, one of them with 80K in water damage, as it also harmed the condo below. I will ask them about a recall, but I have a feeling that we’re just out of luck as the condo is about 18 years old. And no warranty lasts that long. At least the new one we’re getting has a 10 year warranty (the company said that was unusual to have such a long warranty). The insurance company didn’t mention it, and I don’t know that I will bring it up to them. If they are willing to pay for the damage, I figure I should just keep my mouth shut.</p>
<p>But this is such a crappy system that it is rarely installed anymore at all. We could only find one company that does it.</p>
<p>On another note, we have another condo that is getting rented this week. I don’t think I want to use our standard lease that we have been, it is far too bare. Does anyone use a lease form that they download online? I know there are several companies that offer that, but I thought someone might have a favorite one. That covers everything so we don’t have to explain to the tenant that yes, you have to change your own light bulbs!</p>
<p>Okay, the latest to this saga is that the tenants took us up on our offer to let them out of their lease at the end of the month. This is completely fine by us, as I believe we asked for too little rent anyways, and now we don’t have to feel concerned that someone might be upset about this situation, worried about mold or water damage, etc. We can start fresh with a new tenant (or maybe just get rid of this dang thing)!</p>
<p>I think we’ll tell them that they can stay as long as they’d like to find a place, but give us 2 weeks notice. That would be fine, as we can be flexible.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of your help. I’ve learned a lot from your ideas, and it’s sure better than ranting to my family!</p>
<p>I use the standard form for my area. Then write an addendum, print it up, and we all sign. Nothing extravagant. But the addendum gets longer with every new renter, as I think of nuances to add. </p>
<p>The standard lease form has some blank lines that I carefully fill with details as well. </p>
<p>Busdriver, is 2 weeks notice standard in your area? Can you find a renter? In my area, one month is standard, and I really need more than that, as it needs to be shown, references checked on applications, and then offer so new tenant can give a month’s notice. </p>
<p>caveat: I am NOT a real estate professional! Have picked up details from other property managers over the years.</p>
<p>Bus driver, if it were me, I would take them up on the offer of leaving at the end of the month. You are going to have a brand spanking newly refinished condo to rent. Let it be with new tenants.</p>
<p>No, two weeks is not standard. But we told them they could decide to leave whenever they want, just give us two weeks, they didn’t have to leave at the end of the month, but could wait till they found something. They were very grateful for the flexibility. And honestly, I think there is something more going on here. If people are really unhappy and a situation like this has stressed them out so much they want to move, then that’s fine with me. I think the wife, though very sweet, is quite fragile and this has stressed her out beyond her limits. We actually don’t even need any notice, as we won’t advertise it until the place is empty and we have it all clean. All our condos have rented very quickly, but we make sure they are spotless before we show them.</p>
<p>And new tenants will be just fine, the place will hopefully look great. But my next question is, do we get it all redone with the hardwood laminate that was there before, or get some carpet and pocket the difference?</p>
<p>I see the last question as a business question, rather than personal preference.
If you choose the more expensive flooring, will the unit rent quicker than with carpet? Will it rent for more than if it had carpet? Will one wear significantly longer(for tenants) than the other? Only Driver11 can answer these questions about his/her unit, but that’s what I’d look at when making the decision.</p>
<p>The answers can be different than if one were doing one’s own home.</p>
<p>Actually younghoss, I can’t answer those questions. I don’t know the answer. I suppose for most people it would be personal preference. Some might like the wood look and appreciate the allergy free atmosphere, but other people might find it cold. I personally like the look of wood, but prefer to live on carpet because we are always rolling around on the floors with the dogs. I really don’t know if it would change rent (I don’t think it would matter), but I’m not sure about the wear. Probably the laminate would last longer, but then again the carpet could be replaced fairly cheaply. Ah well, I guess we’ll just see what the samples look like and take our best guess. Probably not that important anyways.</p>
<p>BD–we use a Socrates lease for our rental property. You buy it at Office Max or whatever and then register it online and then you have access to the program to edit the lease however you want. We add in there that they must have renters insurance and a few other things–a big one we add is that if the renters cause damage above and beyond the security deposit they will be responsible for the additional costs-either through their renter’s insurance or out of pocket. We use month to month leases because we don’t want to get stuck with renters we don’t like :D.</p>
<p>As for the laminate vs carpet. You probably won’t get to “pocket the difference” really. Typically insurance companies pay out a % of the covered cost, say 80%. You can pocket that 80% of you want and not fix the property because the goal of insurance is to get you back to where you were before financially so with the damage and the depreciated amount you were paid (80% or whatever) your condo is “worth” what it was before the damage. When you fix the condo, the insurance company will pay you for the difference between that 80% and what you paid to fix, up to the limit of the policy. You have to submit receipts to show you made the improvements and they will reimburse you for those expenses up to the limit of the policy.</p>
<p>If the laminate is going in the living room or an area where there generally is not water, I would stick with laminate. It’s a heck of a lot easier to clean when they move out and if you get a good quality one, it is very durable.</p>
<p>^^Great information, stevesma. I will act on that, and check out that Socrates lease tomorrow, plus confirm what our insurance will pay. That laminate looks pretty nice and sure is easy to clean. We have a great carpet cleaning machine but jeez, a broom and a mop takes 10 minutes. I wouldn’t want to live on it, though someone could just put an area rug on it if they really wanted.</p>
<p>We own two rental properties – a duplex and a single family home. I would hate to add up what we have spend on carpet replacement and carpet cleaning in the 32 years we have been landlords. We finally wised up a few years ago and replaced the flooring with ceramic tile. We have tile in the bedrooms of the house but we still have carpet in the bedrooms of the duplex (we’d replace that, too, except we can’t find matching tile now. We should have tiled those rooms when we did the living areas and kitchen). It’s so much easier to clean and has saved us thousands of dollars in replacements.</p>
<p>We live in south Florida where ceramic tile floors are commonplace and the climate is warm enough for a floor that can get pretty chilly. It wouldn’t be practical up north. But if I couldn’t use tile, I’d definitely use laminate. It’s more expensive than re-carpeting at first but you’ll save over the years.</p>
<p>Okay, laminate it is! They already have one that will match the existing laminate, and insurance should pay for it fully…so we’ll go for that. This isn’t in the bathroom or kitchen, so hopefully we won’t be flooded again and the laminate should be more sturdy.</p>
<p>Like SteveMa, we have the clause about damage caused by tenant. We also have clause about damage caused by neglect of tenant, and damage caused by failure to promptly report problems.
Know though, that just because an item is covered by the lease it does not necessarily mean a judge would order it as so. The idea that- <em>they signed it!</em> does not automatically make it enforceable in court.</p>