<p>As a side note , we employ quite a few high school and college age " kids " during the summer months. I have learned over the years NOT to even consider giving a job to anyone who’s mother asks me for a job for junior …those are the kids who cannot check their schedules or do anything for themselves. It doesn’t make a good impression with me at all</p>
<p>I’ve been reading this with interest. Both of our kids lived in rentals beginning their junior year of college. I knew the rental agent for my sons grad school apartment, but I didn’t even have the names of the others. I was NOT on the leases and had no contact with their landlords. Both had some problems that did need to be addressed. We told our KIDS to take care of it as they were on the leases. And they did.</p>
<p>To the OP, these are not minor children or undergrad students. I say…deal with the person on the lease ONLY.</p>
<p>Update: I was prepared for an argument when I called the mother, but the call went better than I anticipated. My husband wasn’t thrilled that I was calling as he knows I can get a bit hot headed myself if pushed.</p>
<p>At first the mother was a bit aggressive, but soon calmed down after a few minutes. I explained that I was replying to her email as a courtesy, but after this, all communication after this point would be with the tenants only. She understood and said she was just concerned about her son’s health.</p>
<p>According to the mother, she had asked the son in July to talk to me about the mold; according to the son, he did and I never responded. Now, I believe one could read two different things here; one is the son is lying, the other is the son just told mom that story to shut her up! I don’t want to call this kid a liar, so I am thinking he told mom what she wanted to hear; I have responded to every text, email and phone call I have received from these boys. </p>
<p>I asked about the allergies that her son had; she hemmed and hawed and couldn’t tell me what he was allergic to other than once he moved into our house he began sneezing. He has played soccer his entire life and has never had allergies before, but now he has to take pills while in the house. According to her, this is why he can’t study at home as the pills make him sleepy and he can’t study while sleepy. She is sure the mold in the basement is the cause of the allergy, I am not so sure.</p>
<p>There was no mention of having the ducts cleaned, so I wasn’t going to bring it up. This mother must not have known that this was my son’s house and he lived there for the 4 years he was in medical school; I believe she thought this was a regular rental property. She got a bit quieter when I said we had not had any issues with mold in the past, but I understand that there might be one now and we were working on getting someone in there to look at the basement. She also seemed to understand that I was not going to just have some fly by night company come in, that I needed to do research first.</p>
<p>The most interesting part of the phone conversation is when I told her that because the house was in a wooded area, the tenants would see a few bugs and maybe a bit of dampness in the unfinished basement; if he son was prone to allergies, this might not be the best location for him to live. She then suggested I cut down some of the trees along the back to allow sun to get to the basement!! It took all my strength not to laugh, instead I told her we were not cutting down trees in the woods. We did trim some of them a few years ago to remove limps that hung over the house, but unless I wanted to clear the entire back, which by the way isn’t even my property all the way back, that basement was not going to see sunlight!</p>
<p>Mom was happy to know the gutters were getting cleaned even though they were just cleaning in July. Without seeing the house, I am going to believe they needed cleaning, again due to the amount of rain and trees. I will not be cleaning them again until the spring. </p>
<p>As far as her comment about deducting from the rent, this is what she said: “We can help you make the calls, and we will be deducting the charges from the rent.” When I told her under no circumstances were any of the families allowed to contact a company and do any repairs, and then deduct from the rents, she said that wasn’t what she said. She just was willing to help make the calls for us since she manages properties and know about this. As I was calling from the car and didn’t have the exact wording from her email, I weened out and apologized for misreading what she said. It was just easier than calling her out for it.</p>
<p>Tomorrow my husband and I will compose an email to the boys explaining what needs to be done going forward by them and what we are looking to do. I have a feeling this mom will be quiet for a while, but we will see.</p>
<p>Sounds like you did a great job, being a landlord isn’t for sissy’s!</p>
<p>I’m starting to feel sorry for the men/boys. Anyway, younghoss wrote a good post. just document everything, every conversation and it sounds like you’ve started. Learning to say “no” and to tune out the sob stories is essential. When H was working we used to split the landlord duties and I hated it. Since he retired they are all “his” and I’m glad to separate myself from all of it.</p>
<p>I love the idea up thread about suggesting they buy portable air filters.</p>
<p>I apologize for the mis-statement / error above. I had a brain fart. I meant you kill the mold on the ceiling and cover it with Killz, which I can’t help but mis-spell because I’ve aways spelled it wrong. Almost every surface needs to be wiped down before painting, especially something like a bathroom ceiling, and I mentally skipped that part.</p>
<p>Best thing for mold is bleach, you spray it on and it literally makes the mold vanish.</p>
<p>There is a chemical you can buy to add to paint that acts as a fungicide. I’ve used it in bathrooms where there is a lot of moisture, it’s not 100% but it helps a lot.</p>
<p>Snowball - nice job setting boundaries with the mother!</p>
<p>A bit of a devil’s advocate here, I guess… we ended up with a mold problem in our basement a few years after building our house because we did not have a sufficiently powerful dehumidifier. And honestly, I didn’t run the one we had enough. The mold got behind the plastic over the sheetrock (unfinished basement). We had to have it professionally removed.</p>
<p>Is there a drain in the basement floor? If so, you can buy a pretty inexpensive dehumidifier (a couple hundred bucks) and set it up to drain into that drain. Regardless of the tenants… this will help preserve your investment in the house AND avoid insurance claims on mold (you don’t want 'em, they drive your rates up like crazy). I do clean the pan with bleach a couple of times a summer (noticed it was getting moldy inside, even with the hose a small amount of water gets inside it).</p>
<p>Regarding the ducts… I noticed recently that the duct opening into our kitchen way up high looked dusty and gross recently. I had time last weekend, I climbed up to dust it. Didn’t really get it clean, so I got a screwdriver and removed it. YUCK! Not just dust, but some black moldy stuff was stuck on all over the side I couldn’t see. I soaked it in water & lysol, and scrubbed it, then let it dry before replacing it. It was really a lot of mold… Now I feel like I need to check all of them… but have not gotten to that chore yet. </p>
<p>I do agree that the boys should be the ones communicating, but it sounds like you took care of that. But she might not be wrong…</p>
<p>There are filters on MANY things. I looked at my microwave/outdoor vent filter too…yuck. And don’t forget to vacuum the vents on the fridge. We had to pull our fridge out to hook it to a generator this week, and yuck…mold to wash off there. Anywhere there is moisture, there can be mold. Anywhere where something that HAS mold touches…new can grow. </p>
<p>Some of this is about keeping things clean. The boys need to get some spray cleaner with bleach and use it. They need to vacuum AND empty the bag (mold spores love carpet and floors). They need to wash their floors, toilets, and sinks with a good cleaner.</p>
<p>Or maybe their mom will hire a maid.</p>
<p>I also suggest that you get word (in writing) to these young men that all future correspondence from them should be in writing, other than an emergency problem of course. Document that, too. And, let that become your standard procedure for all future tenants. Written documentation protects both parties.
I’ve seen court cases where a tenant tried to claim mold(or some other problem) made a unit un-liveable, yet stayed there for months. Naturally, such a claim is hard to believe. I’d be skeptical of a tenant that claimed problems due to mold in July- yet didn’t report them until November. A judge would be, too. Did I mention to document everything? Don’t risk losing in court because you weren’t prepared!</p>
<p>If mold is suspected in a rental property it is probably prudent for the landlord to order a mold inspection by a trained, experienced, licensed mold inspector before the tenant orders an inspection! In Florida mold inspectors can not legally do any necessary remediation work because of conflict of interests…a separate remediation outfit not in cohoots with the inspector has to do any necessary work. Mold is nothing to sneeze about. Just killing dangerous spores with bleach or Kilz is not going to correct problem…dead spores can cause health problems same as live spores. Bad mold needs to be removed, and any entering water or moisture problems fixed, or the mold problem will keep surfacing. I learned most of this from the personal injury attorney ads on TV down here in Florida.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/mold/default.htm[/url]”>http://www.cdc.gov/mold/default.htm</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.epa.gov/mold/moldguide.html[/url]”>http://www.epa.gov/mold/moldguide.html</a></p>
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<p>Which is why if you reach an impasse with a tenant it’s a reasonable idea to send them a letter releasing them from the lease with no financial recriminations. It can be interesting sometimes. It also depends on the unit, make sure your lease is specific about the condition of the unit and the expectation of what you will deliver as a landlord and price accordingly, each party has rights and responsibilities. As far as young people renting an inexpensive apartment from a owner, just make sure they know how to use shut off valves, flip a breaker…basic stuff.</p>
<p>I should add having documentation works in 2 ways- the obvious, of course, to elimimate what is often called “he said, she said”.
But also in a less obvious way- Since both parties know documentation exists, they are less likely to make false claims against the other. imo this helps to prevent disputes, and that is even better than winning them!
As to mold- I have sometimes had a tenant claim a mold problem, when it was actually just ordinary mildew from not cleaning.</p>
<p>And another side note- sounds like these tenants have been there a while. Perhaps they are nearing the end of their lease? If so, you could give them notice that you do not wish to renew, or you recommend they look somewhere else if they think your house is causing health issues. If they “wave that idea off”, and choose to renew then you’d have great documentation! By choosing to renew after such a written correspondence, then it would be tough for them to claim health issues later! Same principle would apply with mom3’s suggestion in post 53. You might OFFER to release them from lease; if they choose to stay then a claim for unhabitability has very little credibility. If you make such an offer, you know by now I’d suggest it in writing. I also suggest you don’t admit to a problem, but write that they have “complained of a problem”. There is a difference.</p>
<p>My tenants just moved in July 15 of this year. I really don’t think the boys have a problem, it this one mom, or maybe all the moms, I am not sure. She is the only one to contact me, but she sent the letter to the other mothers also. I know the boys were all frat brothers in college all all grew up in the section of town we also live in. Whether the mothers are friends with each other I do not know, but my guess is they just know each other through the boys. </p>
<p>The one tenant that found our rental listing is a first year student and is interested in staying in the house all 4 years. The other two are tenants are 2nd year students and lived in a nice apartment last year. They were happy where they were living, but agreed to get the house with the first guy. I would like to keep these tenants if possible until we can get the house sold; who knows what the next tenants will be like! All three pay electronically and on time, so we are off to a good start. We will see how it goes from here on out, but my guess is all will work out ok.</p>
<p>Another good post Younghoss…remember you don’t have a problem, you thought the place was just fine and hopefully set the rent accordingly…they have a problem (or at best the mom does, and what she thinks is totally not relevant.)</p>
<p>thank you Momof3!</p>
<p>The mom is a professional property manager and is now offering to help you out by making some calls for you? Sounds like she’s looking for a new client! </p>
<p>Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2</p>
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<p>what… is this lady for real? disaster.</p>
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I believe the term is 'lawnmower parent" Rather than the ** helicopter parent ** who hovers, this parent goes ahead of the child and makes sure that the ground is level and that there are no obstacles. Maybe it was a different age but thirty years ago when I was in grad school, we got our own apartment and dealt with any issues ourselves which included a condo conversion and a bat in the apartment ( the flying kind).
Sounds like this parent isn’t ready to cut the apron strings and " give them roots and give them wings". Rant over…</p>