Re: $100 fee if Tenant unable to open the door - Landlord Forum thread 358706

Re: $100 fee if Tenant unable to open the door by AnonymousFL on October 26, 2018 @11:39

It may be helpful to know what state you are in?

As far as the $100.00, as long as that fee does not violate any state statutes and is not excessive, you have a good chance to collect it. Now, I think a $100.00 fee is a bit excessive myself, but if you can justify the amount, you will be better off.

The way we handle fees that tenants ignore is that when it comes to renewal time, we will make the renewal contingent on taking care of the fees. We suggest the tenant either pay the fees by the end of the current lease or to sit down and discuss them with us. Sometimes we will hold them to the fees, but occasionally they will have an explanation that we can empathize with so we may drop some or all of the fees.

I do want to ask though...don't you have keys to all of your rentals? The way we do our maintenance requests is that in our rules, we state that when the tenant makes a maintenance request, that in itself gives us permission to enter the unit during normal hours to make repairs. If a tenant asks to be present, we will attempt to accommodate them if their scheduling is reasonable. However, if they miss appointments or waste our time, we will let them know that we will have to make the repair according to our schedule. Sometimes, we will charge back the 'wasted time' on a case by case basis at an hourly rate, but that happens infrequently. Of course, we do have that 'penalty' written into our lease.

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Re: $100 fee if Tenant unable to open the door by Jannie1 on October 26, 2018 @18:39	[ Reply ]

Two different situations - one tenant had no interest in being present - so we went in either made the repair ro scheduled with the repair person & was there when they repaired. Second person - we tried to arrange around her schedule, but if not she was fine with us going in to repaired. If it was hired we always made sure we were there when the repair was made.

Re: $100 fee if Tenant unable to open the door by Ann on October 27, 2018 @21:09	[ Reply ]

I tried both; but it did not work out. If I tried to schedule an appointment matching Former Tenant's calendar, Former Tenant cried to make an appointment with Contractors. If I let Former Tenant making appointment with Contractors, then Former Tenant refused and/or delay the services. Then, post the delay on me. If I tried to enter Property for emergency and/or scheduled requests with property notice, Former Tenant accused Landlord's enters. My lawyer suggested me simply: Landlord made appointment directly with Contractors, sent enter notice to Tenant, Landlord opened the door to get the requests done in time matter. Now, I still wait for my lawyer about $100 collection.

Re: $100 fee if Tenant unable to open the door by Ann on October 27, 2018 @21:41	[ Reply ]

$100 can be charged by Insurance company and contractors. This fee is not something that is fully under my hands. My lawyer agrees I can collect in this case b/c there is solid financial loss. I would go further to collect $100 if I were there to prevent this type of charge by Insurance Service Provider, kept my Insurance policy alive, avoid any delay, etc. Also, My case is many my maintenance requests based on Lease agreement had been refused by Former Tenant: Gutter cleaning, HVAC maintenance, etc. Some Former Tenant's repair requests were done, but many got delay, refused, or unavailable to open the door for scheduled requests but further accusing my enter even with property notice. For many times, my lawyer communicated with Former Tenant, sent email notification for me to enter the house.