Renters Rant

My son owns a condo in Maryland. It is managed by a Rental Management company because they live in another state and are out of the country some of the times.

He tells me the management company had to call a electrician out because the renter complained about a light that would not work even with a new bulb.

The electrician gets there and finds a breaker blown. He turns on the breaker and it blows again.
After doing some checking he finds that the renters were using portable electric heaters to heat one room.
Their thought was; we turn down the central heat and heat this one room we are in most of the day with portable heaters.
Saves on electric bill.
Problem is they had several small heaters on one circuit and it was blowing the breaker.

So now my son has paid a electrician to make a house call; after hours; to tell a renter you can not overload a circuit; and show them how to flip a breaker back on.

I swear we are raising a generation of idiots in this country.
 
Hello John in LA,


Frustrating! not only of the stupidity, can't fix that, but its the distance to the idiots. Expensive although it was simple,

Guido.
 
What are the monthly fees for the rental management company? It's likely more than the electrician's charges. The word on most rental management is about all they do is: rent to the first person that applies; collect the rent checks; deduct their percentage; and call someone else when there is a problem. They are not problem solvers.
 
John,
You just gave the best reason why you shouldn't be an absentee landlord living too far away to make your own repairs. I became a landlord out of necessity while in college, 48 years ago. I've seen so many things I could write a book on the stupid idiotic things tenants have done in past 48 years. You may think your probles is an expensive fix. It's nothing like having a stupid tenant burn your place to the ground.
geo
 
Idiocy is no generational thing... there are representatives in all age groups.

I had a stupid tenant complain about a leaky window. He had sealed it with the plastic stuff, and it was puffed out from outside air getting in. I had to explain to him that he needed to shut the storm window before going to the effort of sealing the window. That guy is in his 60's now.

He later got the kitchen on fire, and nearly burned the place down. The good news was HIS insurance company paid for a complete remodel, and all lost rent to us. We got a much better house out of the deal, and could charge nearly double the rent. This helped weed out a lot of less "responsible" tenants like him.

As for your son, it is unfortunate. But he has removed himself from some of the management, and consequently, some of the profits.
 
Just pass the bill onto the tenant, its nothing you did or the condos. And yes I rent, from the same ahole for 17 years. All the problems here are caused by his stupidity and saving a dime to spend dollars later!! I've even tried to help him and he won't take hints from somebody who is 40 years younger. chris
 
Wow, I can't believe "his" insurance would pay to rebuild your house. Never heard of a renters policy that paid for structure.
 
I swear the big money in the not too off future is trades. There's an increasingly less percent of the population willing to use their brain and get their hands dirty if they can pay someone to do it for them.
 
Which state are you in? In the Midwest, renters insurance only covers the renter's property. The property owner's insurance covers the building. I do believe you got a free remodel, but your insurance may have paid for it after they confirmed there was no fowl play involved.
 
I had a clause to that effect when I still owned a rental property.

Had one renter call in a panic, said his wife smelled gas whenever she opened the oven door on the range. I went to the house and confirmed what I already knew. It was an electric range. I have no idea what she smelled that she thought was gas.
 
no,.. not new , this has been going on for years, it's handed down generation to generation.....
 
Its an acreage a mile from town, wifes work, and school for kids. Looking for an acreage when we found this one to rent and haven't found anything else. Plus there is a barn that holds 2 vehicles, 8 tractors, my excess stuff all concreted and a 30X40 tin shop with concrete, and a three car garage.
 
(quoted from post at 16:05:30 01/15/17) My son owns a condo in Maryland. It is managed by a Rental Management company because they live in another state and are out of the country some of the times.

He tells me the management company had to call a electrician out because the renter complained about a light that would not work even with a new bulb.

The electrician gets there and finds a breaker blown. He turns on the breaker and it blows again.
After doing some checking he finds that the renters were using portable electric heaters to heat one room.
Their thought was; we turn down the central heat and heat this one room we are in most of the day with portable heaters.
Saves on electric bill.
Problem is they had several small heaters on one circuit and it was blowing the breaker.

So now my son has paid a electrician to make a house call; after hours; to tell a renter you can not overload a circuit; and show them how to flip a breaker back on.

I swear we are raising a generation of idiots in this country.

You would think they would have complained about the heaters not working also....
 
I had rental property when I bought the second farm...rented out the house and some outbuildings for a few years before I sold the farmstead. I had split the elec system since I was using some livestock and storage buildings. Well was on my meter. Above ground "doghouse" with the pump and tank inside, controlled heat with thermostat. I paid that electricity.

Renter turns the tstat to max setting. I find out a month later when I get the bill. Instead of about $20, it"s over $125. I checked it out, found the tstat turned to the max, and he says he wanted to make sure the well didn"t freeze! HELLO- if the tstat is set for 40 degrees, it will stay on as needed!

Worst applicant was the one who told me straight to my face, that he wanted to rent a house in the country, cuz you can"t be rough with a house in town!
 
We had a renter who was constantly complaining about the heat. The biggest thing I found, right off, was that she never bothered to change the return filter. Most time I went up to check a problem it was a dirty filter not letting enough air flow.

Another ongoing issue was that it wouldn't stay the same temp she had the thermostat set at. In other words, she'd have it set for 73, but if it ever hit 71 or 72, before kicking on, she claimed it was getting too cold. I never could get her to understand that it had to drop below the set point before it would fire and begin heating.

The way I fixed that was to install a new thermostat that let me 'cheat' the temperature. In essence I set it to show a temp a few degrees higher than it actually was. She never complained again about it being cold.
 
Nothing worse than owning rental property if you're not local. I have a co-worker in Shanghai who owns a house in Michigan. I sometimes help him out when he's in a bind, because his management company is useless.

So the city inspects his house and dings him for the basement bathroom, which he had added without pulling permits. No exhaust fan and bad GFCI. He hires a "handyman" to do the repairs. The handyman installs a fan but doesn't fix the GFCI. So I swing by and check the outlet. It's wired with reverse polarity, the input power is connected to the output terminals and it's not grounded. I fixed that in a few minutes. Looking at the exhaust fan, I find the end of the duct is just duct-taped to the rim joist; it doesn't actually go outside! But it was good enough for the inspector, so my colleague said, "leave it be".
 
You mean to tell us that she didn't know that when you bend over to open the oven door that it puts more pressure on the lower intestine which can cause it to vent gas to the room?
 
I don't have a rent house for all the above reasons and I hate keeping my domicile up and running, especially plumbing, much less another house that would be substandard and require more work. Add that to what you get for renters sometimes and I just don't need that hassle in my life. I don't have any need for the KISS band, but the other usage is my motto.....Keep it simple........
 
(quoted from post at 16:05:30 01/15/17) My son owns a condo in Maryland. It is managed by a Rental Management company because they live in another state and are out of the country some of the times.

He tells me the management company had to call a electrician out because the renter complained about a light that would not work even with a new bulb.

The electrician gets there and finds a breaker blown. He turns on the breaker and it blows again.
After doing some checking he finds that the renters were using portable electric heaters to heat one room.
Their thought was; we turn down the central heat and heat this one room we are in most of the day with portable heaters.
Saves on electric bill.
Problem is they had several small heaters on one circuit and it was blowing the breaker.

So now my son has paid a electrician to make a house call; after hours; to tell a renter you can not overload a circuit; and show them how to flip a breaker back on.

I swear we are raising a generation of idiots in this country.

Stuff like that has been going on sense they first started selling electricity!

Rick
 
It's amusing to listen to each generation rant about how the next generation is so stupid and will be the death of us all.

Your folks said the same things about your generation. The only difference is that they didn't have the Internet to broadcast it to the world.
 

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