I’ve been stewing in my own juices. Angry with recently moved tenants and myself, not sure which one I could kick harder but I’d like to kick something!
Younger people today seem to have a sense of entitlement and they don’t take responsibly for their actions, but they sure know all their rights and what they can get away with….knowing how to work the system does not make them right.
We own an apartment building in Mahone Bay on 14 Pleasant Street. Hubby owned this building before we met upwards of 27 years ago and to date, knock on wood, we’ve had few troubles. Yes a year or so ago we had to do a complete overhaul on one unit because a bachelor lived there and didn’t clean for eight years, but he was a man on his own and understandable. This was a couple and only there a year. Forgive my prejudice, but I truly feel that women are better cleaners, at least our generation was, it was ingrained in our genes, skills handed down by our white tornado mothers who went beyond spit polish to the nitty gritty core of dirt. At least at my house! Thanks mom!
Our three unit apartment building is good and solid, none of the hardwood floors are sagging or running downhill, it sports beautiful moldings and tall ceilings for that traditional look and feel. The building is tall and proud, an Edwardian design, well built and sturdy on her foundation.
The bottom floor of 1000 square feet was rented to a younger couple since February 2015. We don’t ask for references or put anyone through the wringer. I use my gut feeling and I liked this couple. They were young with the entire world ahead of them, good looking, and by all appearances, sweet. Shane thought the woman looked a bit like me in my youth and perhaps I saw myself in her but for whatever reason I was happy they were living in our space.
I love this building. My dream is to live in it someday. When we are too old to maintain our large property and home we planned to downsize there. It has one of the most beautiful staircases I’ve seen. Turned spools and a honey coloured, small grained oak, aged to a perfect patina with a magnificent newel post design rarely seen. I want to open the first and second floor and bring her back to a single family home. This building is the apple of my eye and I like that she’s well cared for by the people who rent from us.
After a little over a year, the young couple gave their notice to move out for the end of March 2016. Not in writing as the lease states, but a verbal statement and being relaxed, small town landlords, we accepted it as an official acknowledgement of their quitting the tenancy.
We are kind landlords. We are willing to work with tenants on all things that might pop up. We never begrudge a tenant moving out, moving to a house they’ve built or purchased. We don’t view renting our facility as doing them a favour like a lot of landlords that don’t give a crap. We feel the tenant is doing us a favour by living in our rentals so we can build equity in our building until the time when we can move in. We don’t penalize our tenants for losing keys and locking themselves out. I have personally had landlords from hell that were borderline cruel so I can truthfully say we are a walk in the park. When they call we respond. We allow pets; we fix things immediately and follow all the rules to respect their privacy.
Usually tenants take pride in leaving the apartments in the same condition as when they moved in. When we hand over the keys the apartments shine from elbow grease. Really who wants someone to see their dirt and grime anyway, have someone clean their toilets? To date, most tenants have been decent and respectful and we’ve had to do minimal touchups.
It was very disappointing to discover that the couple moved and left behind enough dirt and grime that it took a professional cleaner, Larry The Cleaning Guy, working along with me, 19 hours to clean the place. We filled a garbage bag with broken items and junk they’d left behind. We found things in closets and drawers; even a tampon was left on the bathroom sink. Really? The tenants argue that they cleaned the place. The mere fact that there was so much to be removed contradicts that statement. It only makes sense that if they’d cleaned they would have found all the stuff we had to remove.
The bedroom floor was filled with bits of this and that, stuff that obviously accumulated under their bed. The floors were filthy; the water in the mop pail was brown in each room.
The stove was a disaster. The oven was caked with burned on stuff, the burners and top of the stove were nasty. The side of the stove touching the cupboard was greasy as stuff on the stove ran down the sides and a buildup of crap behind it. The fridge had enough dust and dirt under it to stuff a pillow! The electric baseboard heaters were filled with dust balls and dog hair. The stainless kitchen sink was really dirty, no luster to it at all. It took comet, SOS pads and a toothbrush to bring back the shine.
The shower was filled with hair from the last use and the drain was packed with it from long term shedding. Tuffs of hair, woven into clumps and matted with soap scum, were sticking up through the holes in the drain, like a hairy beast trying to escape. The new pedestal sink was also clogged with hair; I pulled it out with tweezers in large clumps. The water barely drained, the man is a contractor, surely he would understand it was plugged and taken the proper action to fix it, but no. We bought and poured a drain cleaner that is supposed to dissolve hair. The sink, less than a year old, a lovely pedestal sink had a crack in the bowl about six inches long, a hair line crack so something must have been dropped in it.
The white plastic cover of the exhaust fan in the bathroom ceiling was covered in a sticky, orangey coloured gunk and packed with dust. I soaked it and scrubbed it clean and I get the feeling that it was nicotine; perhaps someone was smoking in the bathroom with the fan on to keep the smell from permeating the entire apartment but I’m only assuming. I so wish I had taken pictures. The building is supposed to be non-smoking and I told them that when they did the tour. They looked me right in the eye and said that wouldn’t be a problem because they don’t smoke.
The washer was really grungy inside and the dryer lint compartment was full of caked on fluff that mixed with something sticky that took an SOS pad to clean. We had to vacuum out the cavity as it was lined with lint which is a fire hazard.
All of the mini blinds were caked with baked on dust, a real pain to clean if they aren’t dusted or wiped down regularly. The blind strings were stained a golden orange colour as well. My son lived upstairs and told me he saw the guy smoking in the yard shortly after they moved in and on a visit to the building several months later I had to warn them about all the butts in the yard as one will kill a small dog if eaten. Nicotine is highly toxic. They then had a puppy and my son has two smaller dogs so it was a concern. I asked they put the butts in a can.
The doors all needed scrubbing from dirty hand smudges. They were raised panel doors so the flat parts were built up with dust. There were burnt out light bulbs not replaced throughout.
Nails were left in the walls that were supposed to be removed and three large holes in the living room weren’t filled from something large that had been hung.
One of the window panes were broken, cracked from one side to the other. There were even construction materials lying around. There was no care or thought for us as landlords or the building. The mess was left behind for us to deal with. Larry and I scrubbed every surface and dusted away the cobwebs. When we were finished, the place shined, just like it had before they moved in.
The new tenants were to move in the first of April but we had to delay their occupancy until the following week because the state of the place. I suggested they could move boxes and leave them in the middle of the floor for us to work around but they said no and I’m glad because it would have been difficult to work around. So we lost a week’s rent because of it. I had to pay the cleaner, purchase light bulbs and various cleaning supplies etc.
Because they failed to leave the place the way it was found, we planned to take the expenses of cleaning it off the Security Deposit.
They also left the yard in a mess. Two broken wood lawn chairs, a garden with a mesh fence around it that wasn’t cleared of the dead growth for the winter so there is a lot of stuff to dig out and take to the dump. An rickety old wood picnic table will need to be taken away. They had things stored in the back stairwell, a fire escape for the other floors that was supposed to be kept free. The back vestibule was not part of their rental, nor was the front hall, where they apparently stored their bicycles. These common areas are to be left clear in case of fire. They did not respect the rules; they were told the fire marshal would shut us down if they did a random inspection.
After the tenants moved then asked for their deposit back and I told them we were busy cleaning and would get back to them. We wrote out an account of the expenses to ready the place for the tenant, all the things that they should have done before moving out. She said she would not allow us to take their deposit and sited chapter and verse from the tenancy handbook. She said they cleaned and although admitted they left holes in the living room wall, they wouldn’t take responsibility for the state of the apartment.
Like I said, only decent people had rented from us before so we were not aware of the tenancy rule that you have to apply to the director within 10 days of the tenants moving out to lay a claim on their security deposit and even then, it was geared to favour the tenant, not the landlord, so we probably wouldn’t have mattered as the “Ordinary Clean” clause is too open for interpretation. If there was damage other than the normal wear and tear perhaps we might have had a case. Our way of thinking is that ordinary clean would mean what is needed day to day to maintain cleanliness. Yes, we should have been on top of the tenancy rules, but we’ve never had to use this clause so even if we’d known at some point in the 27 years of being landlords, we forgot it. Another lesson learned the hard way. We seem to live under the black cloud of Murphy’s Law, unlucky that we are!
I suppose we could fight this in small claims court, we certainly have enough witnesses to describe how dirty the place was but who has time for this? And, most of the rules are geared in the favour of the tenant. There is little a landlord can do. So they get to walk away with their full Security deposit and we cleaned their filth. It doesn't seem right! We not only lost a week’s rent from the new tenant, but the cleaning expense and supplies came to over $300.00 so we are out of pocket on that, which is wonderful with my husband out of work. I suppose people think we are rich because we own a rental property and therefore deserve to be ripped off and taken advantage of. Anyone who owns a building will know better. We feel like we’ve been done the dirty, figurative and literally.
All they had to do was clean the place the way they found it and all would have been fine; I could have continued to think kindly of this couple, perhaps see one another on the street and smile. Now I have to think ill of them, use them as the one big bad example associated with our time as landlords.
Perhaps it’s time to sell the building or only look for older, respectful tenants.
Younger people today seem to have a sense of entitlement and they don’t take responsibly for their actions, but they sure know all their rights and what they can get away with….knowing how to work the system does not make them right.
We own an apartment building in Mahone Bay on 14 Pleasant Street. Hubby owned this building before we met upwards of 27 years ago and to date, knock on wood, we’ve had few troubles. Yes a year or so ago we had to do a complete overhaul on one unit because a bachelor lived there and didn’t clean for eight years, but he was a man on his own and understandable. This was a couple and only there a year. Forgive my prejudice, but I truly feel that women are better cleaners, at least our generation was, it was ingrained in our genes, skills handed down by our white tornado mothers who went beyond spit polish to the nitty gritty core of dirt. At least at my house! Thanks mom!
Our three unit apartment building is good and solid, none of the hardwood floors are sagging or running downhill, it sports beautiful moldings and tall ceilings for that traditional look and feel. The building is tall and proud, an Edwardian design, well built and sturdy on her foundation.
The bottom floor of 1000 square feet was rented to a younger couple since February 2015. We don’t ask for references or put anyone through the wringer. I use my gut feeling and I liked this couple. They were young with the entire world ahead of them, good looking, and by all appearances, sweet. Shane thought the woman looked a bit like me in my youth and perhaps I saw myself in her but for whatever reason I was happy they were living in our space.
I love this building. My dream is to live in it someday. When we are too old to maintain our large property and home we planned to downsize there. It has one of the most beautiful staircases I’ve seen. Turned spools and a honey coloured, small grained oak, aged to a perfect patina with a magnificent newel post design rarely seen. I want to open the first and second floor and bring her back to a single family home. This building is the apple of my eye and I like that she’s well cared for by the people who rent from us.
After a little over a year, the young couple gave their notice to move out for the end of March 2016. Not in writing as the lease states, but a verbal statement and being relaxed, small town landlords, we accepted it as an official acknowledgement of their quitting the tenancy.
We are kind landlords. We are willing to work with tenants on all things that might pop up. We never begrudge a tenant moving out, moving to a house they’ve built or purchased. We don’t view renting our facility as doing them a favour like a lot of landlords that don’t give a crap. We feel the tenant is doing us a favour by living in our rentals so we can build equity in our building until the time when we can move in. We don’t penalize our tenants for losing keys and locking themselves out. I have personally had landlords from hell that were borderline cruel so I can truthfully say we are a walk in the park. When they call we respond. We allow pets; we fix things immediately and follow all the rules to respect their privacy.
Usually tenants take pride in leaving the apartments in the same condition as when they moved in. When we hand over the keys the apartments shine from elbow grease. Really who wants someone to see their dirt and grime anyway, have someone clean their toilets? To date, most tenants have been decent and respectful and we’ve had to do minimal touchups.
It was very disappointing to discover that the couple moved and left behind enough dirt and grime that it took a professional cleaner, Larry The Cleaning Guy, working along with me, 19 hours to clean the place. We filled a garbage bag with broken items and junk they’d left behind. We found things in closets and drawers; even a tampon was left on the bathroom sink. Really? The tenants argue that they cleaned the place. The mere fact that there was so much to be removed contradicts that statement. It only makes sense that if they’d cleaned they would have found all the stuff we had to remove.
The bedroom floor was filled with bits of this and that, stuff that obviously accumulated under their bed. The floors were filthy; the water in the mop pail was brown in each room.
The stove was a disaster. The oven was caked with burned on stuff, the burners and top of the stove were nasty. The side of the stove touching the cupboard was greasy as stuff on the stove ran down the sides and a buildup of crap behind it. The fridge had enough dust and dirt under it to stuff a pillow! The electric baseboard heaters were filled with dust balls and dog hair. The stainless kitchen sink was really dirty, no luster to it at all. It took comet, SOS pads and a toothbrush to bring back the shine.
The shower was filled with hair from the last use and the drain was packed with it from long term shedding. Tuffs of hair, woven into clumps and matted with soap scum, were sticking up through the holes in the drain, like a hairy beast trying to escape. The new pedestal sink was also clogged with hair; I pulled it out with tweezers in large clumps. The water barely drained, the man is a contractor, surely he would understand it was plugged and taken the proper action to fix it, but no. We bought and poured a drain cleaner that is supposed to dissolve hair. The sink, less than a year old, a lovely pedestal sink had a crack in the bowl about six inches long, a hair line crack so something must have been dropped in it.
The white plastic cover of the exhaust fan in the bathroom ceiling was covered in a sticky, orangey coloured gunk and packed with dust. I soaked it and scrubbed it clean and I get the feeling that it was nicotine; perhaps someone was smoking in the bathroom with the fan on to keep the smell from permeating the entire apartment but I’m only assuming. I so wish I had taken pictures. The building is supposed to be non-smoking and I told them that when they did the tour. They looked me right in the eye and said that wouldn’t be a problem because they don’t smoke.
The washer was really grungy inside and the dryer lint compartment was full of caked on fluff that mixed with something sticky that took an SOS pad to clean. We had to vacuum out the cavity as it was lined with lint which is a fire hazard.
All of the mini blinds were caked with baked on dust, a real pain to clean if they aren’t dusted or wiped down regularly. The blind strings were stained a golden orange colour as well. My son lived upstairs and told me he saw the guy smoking in the yard shortly after they moved in and on a visit to the building several months later I had to warn them about all the butts in the yard as one will kill a small dog if eaten. Nicotine is highly toxic. They then had a puppy and my son has two smaller dogs so it was a concern. I asked they put the butts in a can.
The doors all needed scrubbing from dirty hand smudges. They were raised panel doors so the flat parts were built up with dust. There were burnt out light bulbs not replaced throughout.
Nails were left in the walls that were supposed to be removed and three large holes in the living room weren’t filled from something large that had been hung.
One of the window panes were broken, cracked from one side to the other. There were even construction materials lying around. There was no care or thought for us as landlords or the building. The mess was left behind for us to deal with. Larry and I scrubbed every surface and dusted away the cobwebs. When we were finished, the place shined, just like it had before they moved in.
The new tenants were to move in the first of April but we had to delay their occupancy until the following week because the state of the place. I suggested they could move boxes and leave them in the middle of the floor for us to work around but they said no and I’m glad because it would have been difficult to work around. So we lost a week’s rent because of it. I had to pay the cleaner, purchase light bulbs and various cleaning supplies etc.
Because they failed to leave the place the way it was found, we planned to take the expenses of cleaning it off the Security Deposit.
They also left the yard in a mess. Two broken wood lawn chairs, a garden with a mesh fence around it that wasn’t cleared of the dead growth for the winter so there is a lot of stuff to dig out and take to the dump. An rickety old wood picnic table will need to be taken away. They had things stored in the back stairwell, a fire escape for the other floors that was supposed to be kept free. The back vestibule was not part of their rental, nor was the front hall, where they apparently stored their bicycles. These common areas are to be left clear in case of fire. They did not respect the rules; they were told the fire marshal would shut us down if they did a random inspection.
After the tenants moved then asked for their deposit back and I told them we were busy cleaning and would get back to them. We wrote out an account of the expenses to ready the place for the tenant, all the things that they should have done before moving out. She said she would not allow us to take their deposit and sited chapter and verse from the tenancy handbook. She said they cleaned and although admitted they left holes in the living room wall, they wouldn’t take responsibility for the state of the apartment.
Like I said, only decent people had rented from us before so we were not aware of the tenancy rule that you have to apply to the director within 10 days of the tenants moving out to lay a claim on their security deposit and even then, it was geared to favour the tenant, not the landlord, so we probably wouldn’t have mattered as the “Ordinary Clean” clause is too open for interpretation. If there was damage other than the normal wear and tear perhaps we might have had a case. Our way of thinking is that ordinary clean would mean what is needed day to day to maintain cleanliness. Yes, we should have been on top of the tenancy rules, but we’ve never had to use this clause so even if we’d known at some point in the 27 years of being landlords, we forgot it. Another lesson learned the hard way. We seem to live under the black cloud of Murphy’s Law, unlucky that we are!
I suppose we could fight this in small claims court, we certainly have enough witnesses to describe how dirty the place was but who has time for this? And, most of the rules are geared in the favour of the tenant. There is little a landlord can do. So they get to walk away with their full Security deposit and we cleaned their filth. It doesn't seem right! We not only lost a week’s rent from the new tenant, but the cleaning expense and supplies came to over $300.00 so we are out of pocket on that, which is wonderful with my husband out of work. I suppose people think we are rich because we own a rental property and therefore deserve to be ripped off and taken advantage of. Anyone who owns a building will know better. We feel like we’ve been done the dirty, figurative and literally.
All they had to do was clean the place the way they found it and all would have been fine; I could have continued to think kindly of this couple, perhaps see one another on the street and smile. Now I have to think ill of them, use them as the one big bad example associated with our time as landlords.
Perhaps it’s time to sell the building or only look for older, respectful tenants.
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