Ahh...the joys of renting...

March 19, 2008

Ahh...the joys of renting...

It's almost that time of year when we start surveying the rental market. The pickings are still a bit slim this early in the spring, but we're trying to get a head start..

This early, it's not unusual to find some real outliers. Landlords or (flippers trying to rent out their flips, i.e.) floppers trying to take advantage of the relatively sparse market assume they have leverage. In our view, they are clearly testing the outer limits of what the market will bear. In some cases, it's astonishing what people think they are entitled to charge for their PoS.

This "opportunity" below was such a sterling example of this early-spring market that we had to share. (Craigslist is not the best for paragraphs, so we tried to edit it, just a little.)

Enjoy:

* * * * * * *
Reply to: xxxxx @craigslist.org
Date: 2008-03-13, 4:24PM PDT

BEWARE! RE: CUTE AND CLEAN: Weekly gardener, water and garbage included

I just want to let everyone know who is interested in this house listed on 209 S. XXX Ave., San Jose to make sure you ask the landlord about the PG&E before applying!!

There is a unit he rents out in the back of the house that is connected to the garage and the PG&E is all together. The unit in the back has a heater, washer & dryer, refridgerater, stove, etc. and the tennant living there told me it's not that well insulated.

The landlord did not tell us that we were paying PG&E for both places when we moved in and he didnt have it in our lease contract. The only way we found out was when I recieved our bill and it was $460.00!!

I knew something was wrong, so I called him and his excuse was that he forgot to tell us that he makes the front house pay all the PG&E. How do you forget something like that? He sure remembered to tell us to get it turned on in our name by the time we move in. So he expects the tennants of this house to pay someone elses PG&E bill like its not already expensive enough!!

He said he would put a meter in the back house so we would know who was using what but 1 year and 3 months past and he never did. If he tells you that he will put a meter in you should tell him to have it done by PG&E so the bill will be seperate. PG&E triples the rate when you go over the (prior year's) usage so, if its combined, you will still have to figure out who owes what amount.

We agreed on him paying 35% of the PG&E bill until a meter was put in. He didnt stick to that agreement either! When summer came he said he would only pay $30 because it shouldnt be more than that since there was no A/C in the back unit.

He says it is all electric in the back house so he wouldnt pay any of the gas, but if there is only one water heater, then it does use gas (make sure to ask about that too). There could be 2 water heaters but make sure to find out because we never seen proof from him.

Parking is also an issue. He never told us that we couldn't park in the street in front of our house when we moved in, but the tennant in the back says he told her its for her only.

Isn't (the street) public parking!? So don't plan on parking in front of your own house or having your visitors park there (only in the driveway).

He had the nerve to tell us we maybe should sell one of our cars so we wouldn't need to park in front of our house or he would maybe have to rewrite the lease if it was still a problem for his tennant in the back.

He is also trying to charge for scratches on the floor that were already there, so he won't have to pay back our full deposit, even though we documented the scratches when we moved in. He came over 2 times and didnt find any damages, he didnt want to do a final walk through and 5 days later he claims there are gouges on the floor.

We documented that there were scratches but he is wording it as being "gouges" so he thinks that makes a difference. So be careful how you describe the damages when you do your initial walk through of this house!

Hope this helps, other than these problems it's a cute house and nice neighborhood but be careful when dealing with this owner, get everything in writing and take lots of pictures and/or movie film any damages before renting so you don't get charged for something that was already there!!

Good Luck...

* * * * * * * *

Conclusion: What else could we possibly add?