Re: Help!! Tenant stole property! - Landlord Forum thread 350218

Re: Help!! Tenant stole property! by Garry on January 18, 2017 @10:03

Yes, you can charge their deposit for the depreciated amount of the appliances, since they are no longer on the premises. And, yes, you can deduct for the missing furniture and tools, since you have pics of them before they moved in. However, you need to change one thing in your lease. Any appliances you provide, you, the LL, must "maintain" them. Most judges will not allow you to "pawn off" your LL responsibilities onto the T. Think of it this way------it's like saying it's your house (which it is) but since they are renting it from you, they must "maintain" the whole house at their expense, no matter what goes wrong with it. If you can prove a T damaged something, thru their negligence, that you provided in the lease, then you can charge them for that repair or replacement of it. But otherwise, whatever a LL provides, they must maintain, at their expense.

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Re: Help!! Tenant stole property! by Joel on January 20, 2017 @15:15	[ Reply ]

G, what's wrong with requiring the tenant to maintain the home they occupy. Do you see a problem with it being in the lease and the tenant accepting the responsibility. The LPA doesn't.

Re: Help!! Tenant stole property! by Garry on January 20, 2017 @16:48	[ Reply ]

Randi, the LPA lease is a general lease that is meant to be changed sometimes to conform to a state's particular LL/T laws. A LL can put in anything they want to in their lease, and the T can agree with it by signing the lease. But if a T takes a LL to court over something, the Laws of the state will prevail, no matter what was agreed to in the lease. In general, courts all over this country have said there are certain things a LL is responsible for "maintaining". Usually that means anything that the LL supplies as part of the place the T is renting-----roof, furnace, central air, water heater, and APPLIANCES if they came with the property on day one of the lease. If a T supplied any appliances, THEY would be responsible to maintain their OWN appliances, but not the ones supplied by the LL on day 0ne. And most state laws say a T cannot sign away their rights given to them under those state laws. All LLs need to know and follow their own states laws, because not everything in any given lease will conform to a give state's LL/T laws.

Re: Help!! Tenant stole property! by Joel on January 21, 2017 @10:38	[ Reply ]

Sorry G, I have to respectfully disagree with you. The LPA Lease is state specific and has the correct language to make tenants responsible for the appliances that may be left for the "tenant's convenience only". Why don't you read about it on the LPA website? I can tell from your postings that although you enjoy the free forum, you are not an LPA Member. Am I correct? The LPA Lease is not a large investment. You may want to watch John's video about the appliances clause... https://www.thelpa.com/lpa/videos.html

Re: Help!! Tenant stole property!

Re: Help!! Tenant stole property! by P-Bone (NY and OH) on January 25, 2017 @09:02	[ Reply ]

I respectfully disagree as well. I have done the same thing, allowed tenants use of appliances, but take no responsibility if they no longer function. In my case, they were very old appliances, with no depreciable value, and no estimated useful life. I also had other replacements, also very old that I would allow them to use, should one of the ones installed go down. If I no longer had anything available, it would be on them to provide their own. Again, I'm talking cheap like $40 units that are 10+ years old, where if they died, they died, no big deal. The tenants I had, who didn't have their own washer/dryer, appreciated it, but also understood that it was no guarantee that I would always have a replacement ready for them.