Well that sucks.

I go home for lunch today and stuck in the door is a note from the renters "we've moved out". Shit, right at the start of the month and only 3 months into their lease. Anybody know how to obtain my funds? Also when I went to check on the place (it was actually really clean so that's cool) there was a stack of utility bills they hadn't paid. :mad::mad:

On a related note... any CO maggots need a place to live? ;) Only $350 per room (3 rooms) for a sweet house right in the heart of the ghetto.

Link:

http://denver.craigslist.org/apa/41177017.html

You got first/last/deposit right? If the place is clean, that should cover you for a few months. As far as getting your money and making them cover the lease, I think you need an attorney. Getting a judgement is easy, getting $ is more difficult. These were the skier kids that you thought were cool right? Does suck. Bad luck or part of being a landlord?

two words: collection agency.

step two, make yourself completely unavailable for atleast a year so you can completely fuck their credit.

meatdrink9: slum lord.

I've never had any desire to be a landlord after the stories I've heard. If you only have to pay a few utility bills I'd say you're doing pretty well.

First time I've ever had a prob with renters. Too bad. I've got enough cash from them to cover the rest of this month (obtained in the beginning), but that's it. The utility bills piss me off.

Yep, they were pretty cool ski kids. One of them: Willy Mushen, has won the Big Mountain comp at Crested Butte a few times. Placed top 5 quite a few other times.

Anybody know what a collection agency charges? I've gt the social security numbers and signed lease?

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Originally posted by The AD
meatdrink9: slum lord.

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Horse shit. I take offense to that. I've seen slum lording. Making the homes in the neighborhood 100 times better than they were previously and keeping them beautiful is not slum lording. Hopefully fixing up these homes will help pull the area away from being a slum. I live here too.

That does blow. I've lucky so far in the 1.5 years as a landlord, no lease ditchers yet. Just recently I moved to a rental agreement, month to month with the option to boot if needed.

Good luck mang!

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Originally posted by meatdrink9
Yep, they were pretty cool ski kids. One of them: Willy Mushen, has won the Big Mountain comp at Crested Butte a few times. Placed top 5 quite a few other times

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MD9 is the only landlord around who asks potential renters what their skiing ability is! OK, maybe he isn't the only one...

I hear Seth Morrison is looking for a place :)

More like meatdrink9: slum lord = Smart man & soon to be $$man

My friends joke about the "slum lord" thing, its just because they are jealous!

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Originally posted by meatdrink9
Horse shit. I take offense to that.

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Sorry! Only kidding due to your reference to "heart of the ghetto."

The guys really were cool. One of them got iengaged and ditched on the other two. The main kid I dealt with was really apologetic. In the note he said he'd be back in town in a few days in case I needed to kick his ass. He now lives back in Vail.

Cool kids, but damn that's shitty. wait right until the first. Don't even say a word until you're already gone. That's weak.

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Originally posted by The AD
Sorry! Only kidding due to your reference to "heart of the ghetto."

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That's cool. I only get pissed, cause it's definitely rampant where I live and it's horrible. 1500 sq feet poorly disected into 4 separate units. We looked at one house in the area that was for sale that was like this and I couldn't even imagine people living there. It's sad stuff.

MD9, you have a very full heart to still be able to refer to these units as "cool". Props to you, dood.

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Originally posted by meatdrink9
The guys really were cool. One of them got iengaged and ditched on the other two. The main kid I dealt with was really apologetic. In the note he said he'd be back in town in a few days in case I needed to kick his ass. He now lives back in Vail.

Cool kids, but damn that's shitty. wait right until the first. Don't even say a word until you're already gone. That's weak.

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Sounds like you want to give the kid a break. If so, make sure to let him know that you can fuck with his and his co-signer's credit for a long time and sick a collection agency on them. Once they understand that you have a big advantage, u should be able to avoid any long-drawn out conflict and get something back. There are plenty of places available with month2month rent - if you sign a lease it's your responsibility to live up to the terms. Period.

MD, are the utility bills in your name or in theirs? If they are in their names, their credit will get screwed and go to a collection agency anyway (however I would call to tell these utility companies the situation so it is on record asap and offer/give them a copy of the lease and the social security numbers, the more you cover your ass the better).

If they are in your name, I would have renters change them in the future and put that in a new lease, we just signed one just like that.

There is no reason to pay the utilities if they are in their names, they are screwing themselves. Just have em swithced back to your name to keep stuff going to show the place (utility companies I am sure are used to this). Please tell me you had them change em, please. If not, sounds like you will have to cover them to not ruin your credit. That sucks if that is the case.

I would not hire a collection agency quite yet, save those duckets and see what you can figure out, cause you do have a good way of getting these dilemas figured out.

Best of luck.

Willie just floats through towns. And life. You never know when or where he'll show up, and probably neither does he. Sucks he pulled this on you. I couldn't see him caring about a credit report though.

why wern't the utilities in their names too?

thats how it works around here.

Some utils were in their name, some weren't. They were supposed to call and have them changed to their name, but apparently they never got around to it. The bills went to their place.

I still think you should have rented to the first group who looked at it. :D

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Originally posted by board
I still think you should have rented to the first group who looked at it. :D

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You and me both. :D

Collection agency is the way to go. As far as the utility bills in your name, you're kinda screwed. Chock it up to experience.

I have some friends (twins) that own a six unit apartment building. They ran it themselves for about a year, got screwed a couple of times, and decided to hire a rental agency. They said it's the best thing they ever did. They have to pay the agency, so it cuts into their take, but they hardly have to do anything - just sit at home cashing their checks. I don't know your situation, but maybe something you might want to look into.

Shitty dude, I just had the same thing happen to me. Unfortunatley I'm about 1000 km from my place so dealing with it is a bit more difficult. Thank god my neighbor is a decent guy and is willing to help out. The thing is, she is a really decent chick who's boyfriend screwed her royally so I have a bit of a hard time being pissed at her. She just called me to say again that she was sorry and that she had just finished cleaning the place up and handing over the keys. Said I was the best landlord she had ever had and that she felt really bad. Kinda hard to get pissed at a single mom with 3 kids who is just doing what she has to do to survive.

In Nelson, even if the utilities are hooked up in your tenants name, if they don't pay them, they add them to your property tax bill as the city is also the main utility in town. Bastards.

Oh well, in the end I make a fair bit of cash off the suites that I rent. It isn't the first time it has happened and I know it won't be the last. It just really sucks when you treat people well and give them all kinds of breaks and they stiff you. I've found that for all the time, energy and money you spend trying to get your cash, you're better off to just forget about it and wait for karma to kick in.

I've gotten even a couple of times but not by collecting my money. My favorites are the debt collectors who call looking for them. I've had that happen a few times and I knew where they had moved so I gave the information to the collectors and let them go to work. One time they repoed the womans car, and another time they garnisheed (sp) a guys wages for child support. He had been working for cash and I knew who his boss was. Done deal. The best part was, neither of them knew I had fingered them. But I still didn't get MY money. Oh well, no biggy.

It sounds like you have the rent already paid for september. You should be able to find new tennants in that time - So there's no real financial loss there.

So, Have they told you that they refuse to pay the back bills? You might just ask them to cough up the dough before you go and fuck with them.

collection agencies usually charge you about 33% of whatever you place with them. They then determine if it is collectible, send a couple nasty letters - threaten to turn them into credit agencies, etc.

Generally they will never take them to court as it is not profitable for them to do so.

--you know where they live etc? Take them to small claims court yourself. Or, send the letters yourself.

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Originally posted by SponsoredByDuctTape
...and decided to hire a rental agency. They said it's the best thing they ever did. They have to pay the agency, so it cuts into their take, but they hardly have to do anything - just sit at home cashing their checks. I don't know your situation, but maybe something you might want to look into.

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This is what my job is. I work for a management company. MD9, do you have a lawyer? Was the lease for a year, or month to month? It is a legally binding contract that they should have sigened befor they ever took possession of the property. I'm not sure how the landlord-tenant acts are in CO, but in KS they are biased towards the landlords and the kids would be held responsible for the rest of the amount owed. You might want to throw in a sublease option in the future, but tack on a fee and make sure they know that if they don't find someone to take their spots, they are still liable. Lemme know if you have any questions. I'll try to help...

Was the house built in 1888?


Whoah.

Thanks for the info guys. I've left several messages with the guys. About $100 worth of utils are in my name (maybe more coming). I've seen atleast $275 in their name (maybe more coming). I'm not going to bother and call the utils their name's on that they're out any time soon. Hopefully they'll be cool and pitch in some more cash. It would've even been nice had they let me know so I could be showing it while they were there.

Unless the collection agency only charges if they collect I doubt I'll pursue it.

Theodore, I'll defintely get in-touch with questions. They had another 3 months on the lease. They signed it before taking posession.

I'm not sure how long you've been doing this and I don't know much of your local rules and how they impact recovering money.

I'm about 10 years in as a proud slum lord and have a couple of rules of thumb.

First is the 'cooler the guy' the more likely they'll screw you. The cool guys skate through life on coolness not responsibility more often than not.

Next is the 'my word is good' type. The irony is the people you can count on fully understand the need for things like damage deposit and timely rent payments and don't ever make an issue of it or make you chase them for it. The only reason these fuckwits repeatedly tell you their word is good is because it absolutely isn't worth shit.