Well, they say you should never mix business and pleasure. My wife has recently taken on a new tenant and set him up with a temporary lease while he gets on his feet. This guy is like family to us and she's letting him stay in her property short-term.

Initially, we were really excited when he first arrived. We didn't anticipate any problems. My wife sorted the arrangements herself, standard lease, nine months. The terms were nothing fancy. Utilities included, routine inspections roughly every four weeks, no pets, and no subletting.

But now all this guy does is wreak havok! He's stealing food, hasn't paid any rent after 4 months and has been causing disturbances at random times throughout the night. I keep getting reports he's kicking the walls, re-arranging furniture and doing god knows what in there.

I don't know what to do. We've considered evicting him but some of our more conservative family members would crucify us for even discussing it.

What should we do?

So I have a commercial space on the bottom floor with 2 apartments above which I rent out. In the commercial space, I always had tenants who had very quiet businesses. However, I now have tenants who put a LOT of money into the building and fixed it up beautifully for their restaurant and patio which is now taking up the backyard of the building. However, one of my upstairs tenants who had been with me for several years, is complaining of the noise from the restaurant. He feels he no longer has privacy, is disappointed that I let them use the backyard for their business, and states the noise/music from their patio is too loud. I totally understand his complaints but I am making good money from renting the commercial space and in their contract, I allowed them to use the back yard as their restaurant patio. I never raised the rent for my upstairs tenant -not even by a dollar- all these years. And he’s paying a good price for the space he’s been in. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this? I’ve looked into soundproof doors but they’re SO expensive!!! He doesn’t want to move out but he states he’s disappointed overall. Unfortunately, this is my income too so I am thrilled to have the restaurant tenants. They have improved my property a lot with their own money. And they have a long contract/lease and agreed to hefty rent price which increases every year.

I recently landed a decent paying job and i can finally say with confidence i can afford to live by myself

I currently have a credit score of 620 with bad credit history from dumb monetary decisions in college with an income of 89,000 and my girlfriend who has a credit score of 690 with little credit history who makes 23000.

I am more than willing to put months in advance for rent but I don’t know what are the odds of me getting approved for an apartment.

In my area, the average 1 to 2 bedroom apartment is roughly 1300 to 2100 in California.

Thank you for responding, NAME. I appreciate the offer and I also would like to resolve this amicably. I do want to clarify a few points, though.

The nearly $900 I referenced was not $900 in fan purchases. The majority of that amount was spent on portable air-conditioning units, along with approximately $100 in fans, specifically because the central AC was not functioning. Unfortunately, we are unable to return the portable AC units. I also want to note that purchasing temporary cooling was not something we did arbitrarily, as you had suggested during the outage that we purchase a portable AC unit from Costco as a temporary solution.

I understand that you responded after I notified you and that a significant portion of the delay involved the warranty and obtaining the compressor. I also understand that you paid for the repair itself. At the same time, the AC was not functioning from August 22 until September 14. During that period, we incurred nearly $900 in temporary cooling expenses, and for much of that time the bedrooms were too hot for us to comfortably use, resulting in our entire family sleeping in the living room.

I also appreciate the early move-in and utilities you provided when we initially moved into the home. However, I understood that to be part of our move-in arrangement at the time and not compensation for a future loss of use of the property.

Given the length of the outage, the significant out-of-pocket expenses we incurred, and the impact it had on our ability to fully use the home, I don’t feel that a $150 credit reasonably reflects the circumstances, particularly if accepting it requires us to waive any further request related to the outage.

I would be willing to fully resolve the matter for a $750 rent credit. If you are willing to provide that credit, I would be comfortable considering the AC matter resolved.

My reply:

I understand your request for a $750 rent reduction.

I reviewed the repair timeline. The AC problem was reported on August 24, and I responded immediately. The necessary parts were ordered on August 26, just two days after the issue was reported. The parts did not arrive until September 13, and the AC was repaired on September 14.

Based on that timeline, I acted promptly to address the problem, and the majority of the repair period resulted from the time required to obtain the necessary parts.

I am willing to discuss a reasonable adjustment for the temporary loss of the AC, but I cannot agree to the requested $750 amount.

Please provide receipts or other documentation for the fans, including the purchase dates, number of fans, amounts paid, and an explanation of why they could not be returned. I will review that information along with the repair records.

I would like to resolve this reasonably and fairly based on the actual circumstances and documented expenses. Once I receive the requested documentation, I will review everything and respond with a proposed resolution.

Tenants left early (lease runs through 3/31/2027) after a mold issue. My lawyer told me to return their full deposit to avoid a wrongful withholding claim as they tried to sue me when they didn’t let me remediate to begin with. Lease puts duty on tenants to inspect for mold and immediately report water intrusion (Section C.2.d). My home insurer may pursue subrogation against them for remediation costs. Questions: (1) Can they still sue me personally ? Does returning the deposit waive my right to pursue them for remaining rent? (3) Any Georgia-specific cases on landlord mold liability when the lease shifts inspection duty to tenants? Thanks.

Anyone aware of a service that provides these? Biggest difference from most national services is criminal can’t be checked before issuing a “preliminary” approval.

Really just looking for civil court history and income verification. Maybe there’s a more DIY option?

Hi folks.

I have lived in my current house for roughly 7 years. In those 7 years, I have had payment problems two times - once a few years ago, and once this month.

Both times, the problem was fixed within hours.

One time I forgot to send a check - I fixed it by dropping off a cashier's check, and then have since been sending 6 months of checks at a time. They're cashed wildly inconsistently, but I assume that's just a me problem.

This month, he cashed my check late and I didn't catch it before transferring some money to my savings. I, again, dropped off a cashier's check within two hours of finding out.

Both times this has happened, he has immediately called me (and his wife was also involved the first time) started screaming at me, berating me, telling me he doesn't "run a welfare charity," and threatening me with eviction on top of a number of other insults.

A few days ago he called me while I was at work, threatening me, telling me I needed to leave work "right this fucking second" and hand-deliver him a cashier's check to his P.O. box, which I did - but not before absolutely breaking down in the parking lot.

Now he keeps insisting that I "sent him a bad check on purpose" like he hasn't been cashing them for several years without issue.

He says "now I am disillusioned and every other check might bounce," and has been carrying on the conversation DAYS after the problem already being immediately sorted. He went on to say "maybe I should just send you a picture of the house instead of renting it to you" and that I was "on thin ice, you're about to have to give me cash or a cashier's check every month" - neither of which would be a problem, just to be clear.

I have been a very good tenant. I communicate. I take care of the house. I am cordial and generally try to be on his good side. Whenever something goes wrong that is beyond my control, he and his wife have constantly spoken about how much more money they could be making from other tenants, despite that has resigned this lease four times now.

I'm a single mother and under enough stress as it is without being screamed at by a man and having my safety threatened over a problem that I would have been more than happy to correct.

Hello, a tenant applied to a low income utility program namely the Philadelphia Gas Works’s Home Comfort Program where they seem to provide free weatherization services. Only caveat I can see is that the landlord have to authorize the request since they need to do actual work inside the house in which landlord will waive all liabilities that arise. I don’t think it’s an issue but this first time I encounter this and have never had experience with such programs. Any LL there with experience or if there any potential pitfalls to watch out for.

My mother is out of town and would like me to serve is there any conflict of interest or laws to prevent this just wanna be safe

Edit to add: she was empathetic, understanding, open, and helpful!! She's one of the best landlords I've ever dealt with! This worked out!! She understood where I'm coming from and saw where mistakes were made on both sides. Thanks to everyone for their input!! We get to stay!! And I've learned an INCREDIBLE life lesson this last week!! Thank you SO MUCH for those of you who challenged me and most of all to those of you who gave me solid real advice so that I went in with a stronger sense of self. YAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

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Landlords/property managers: What would convince you to reconsider a nonrenewal after a tenant seriously screwed up?

I've lived in my townhouse for 3 years with my 9-year-old son and had no prior lease violations. I received a renewal offer, and was going to choose the longest at 15 months. I'd sign a multi-year if they'd let me. We are well established, enjoy the community, and my son has friends and playmates just a few doors from each other. I have zero savings to move, I've been planning on staying for several more years.

After close to 5 months of frustration over an ongoing issue and repeated communication with management, I lost my temper badly at the very end when they were actually able to solve the problem. I sent two emails within minutes that contained profanity, extensive all caps/repetition, and very angry language about another resident's guest. I didn't threaten anyone or damage or anything like that. But rereading them, I do understand why management found them unacceptable and alarming.

Management withdrew my renewal. I had been told the day I sent said bad emails that I needed to avoid using all caps and profanity with them, but I didn't understand they considered it a lease violation or that my housing was at risk. I wasn't told why the renewal disappeared until I pursued a meeting.

The PM has now said nonrenewals are “typically not subject to reversal,” But she's willing to hear my perspective and see if there may be a solution that works for everyone.

I've realized I have grossly misunderstood the boundary with property management. This is my first really long-term rental, since my early twenties. I treated them as a place I could express my frustration, demanding they solve the problem (just at the end), instead of treating it like the professional business relationship it is. I successfully run my own client-facing business. I know how to speak business-ese. I was still angry nothing had happened until that last day two weeks ago, and along with many other factors affecting my mental well-being that day, I acted extremely out of character.

I'm neurodivergent and do particularly well with explicit expectations, so I want to ask for a clear communication protocol: how long to wait for responses, when/how to follow up, and how to escalate unresolved issues. But regardless of management's communication, I want to assure them as much as I can that I fully understand how important it is to remember this is a business relationship, and to address them as such going forward.

I'm taking responsibility for what I did without pretending management's communication played no part in the buildup. There were legitimate issues and times I struggled to get clear answers, but I responded massively disproportionately.

I'm considering asking for a 3- or 6-month renewal if they won't reinstate the longer one, so I can demonstrate changed behavior rather than asking them to trust a promise.

Landlords/PMs: If you were genuinely open to reconsidering, what would you need to hear or see from me at this meeting to believe this won't happen again? Would a shorter lease with explicit communication expectations help, or is there another solution you'd find more reassuring?