If you have been or currently are a landlord you know a lot of questions come up. As they say, tenants do the strangest things and sometimes they are not pleasant.
When things turn a bit south, we turn to Andy Hull for answers. Andy is a well known and respected landlord attorney in the Phoenix area and his counsel is highly sought. Some questions pop up more often than others and we've collected a few of them, with Andy's answers, for your review and entertainment.
If you have questions of your own, Andy's team is there for you with quality answers that can only come from someone who has lived in the landord/tenant law trenches for many decades. Here is a link to Andy Hull's website.
FREQUENTLY ASKED LANDLORD QUESTIONS & ANSWERS FROM ATTORNEY ANDY HULL
I thought I would share some of the daily types of phone calls we receive at the office. Hopefully some of these legal questions will be items that come up in your daily dealings with your tenants and will be helpful.
Question: We did an initial walk-through after the lease ended and signed off on the walk-through agreement. We subsequently found additional damages that were not apparent when we did the initial walk-through. Can we charge for these?
Answer: You can always amend your Security Deposit Disposition Statement and send that to your tenants’ last known address with the new accounting of their damages or deposit refund.
Question: We have a tenant who we have served a 5 Day Nonpayment of Rent Notice, and the tenant still owes part of their deposit. The tenant recently moved in an unauthorized occupant with a Pit Bull. What is the best way to handled this?
Answer: You can serve multiple notices, so I would serve a 5-day Notice for Nonpayment of Rent and a 10-day Noncompliance Notice for unauthorized occupants and for having a prohibited dog breed. (We have previously advised to serve a 5-day Health and Safety Noncompliance Notice for the prohibited dog breed, but have found that certain Judges are wary of issuing an eviction Judgment on such a notice unless the dog has actually attacked somebody or another dog)
Question: Can we charge taxes on late charges?
Answer: Yes, you can charge tax on any income that you receive.
Question: We want to make our tenants give us a 60-day Notice to Move. Are we limited by state law that says a 30-day Notice must be given?
Answer: No, the state law says you must give at least a 30-day Notice to Vacate. Many landlords have gone to a requirement of a 60-day Notice to be received prior to periodic rental due date.
Question: Can we require our tenants to have renters’ insurance?
Answer: Yes. This is no different than renting a commercial space for your business. The landlord can always make a condition of the lease a requirement that the tenant maintain and provide proof of renters’ insurance.
Question: We had a spouse of a military man living at our complex and she has given us Notice that she is going to vacate so she can live with her husband. Does the military law apply to this?
Answer: Yes. The law applies to dependents of those in the military and they can terminate the lease with the 30-day Notice.
Question: We sent a tenant a 30-day Notice of Non-renewal for their month-to-month tenancy on March 3rd to be out April 3rd. Is this correct?
Answer: No. If the rent is due on the first, the 30-day Notice would have to have been received prior to the first to be effective for the end of that month. Your Notice of March 3rd would not be up until April 30, 2008. You should send a “corrected” notice notifying your tenant of the correct date.
Question: We charge one application fee for a married couple to run their credit but we charge individual application fees for non-married roommates. Is this in violation of the Fair Housing Act?
Answer: Probably not. You are treating everyone the same and there is really no evidence that you are discriminating against one of the protected classes. A marriage license binds the two married tenants as one community entity.
Question: Some guests of our residents did some criminal damage at our property. The resident was not present when this took place. Can we do an Immediate Eviction?
Answer: No. You must be able to prove that the resident knew or should have known the guests were going to do the criminal damage or that the resident participated in it. You can probably only serve the tenant a 5-day Health and Safety Noncompliance Notice that these guests are no longer authorized to visit or be on the property.
Question: We have a policy that we do not accept third-party checks. However, we have students whose parents pay the rent. Can we accept the parents’ rent check?
Answer: Yes, but I would do an Addendum to your Lease wherein you and the resident agree that the parents will be paying the rent, and you may wish to make the parents a co-signer or guarantor on the lease.
