I manage a triplex (and a few other properties) in addition to my own rentals. The triplex has two inherited tenants from the owner. One has been a pain and I need to start putting some pressure on him to shape up or get out. The other I assume to be to some extent mentally disabled. The disabled one hs been a perfect tenant in every way and has caused no problems whatsoever. He has never paid late, cuts the communal grass outside, and even takes care of basic maintenance on the place.
The problem is that these two tenants are the only tenants I have that aren’t on my lease. My lease has late penalty provisions and is pretty clear about what happens if you don’t pay on time, whereas the owners lease is very simple. I don’t want to ask the one not causing trouble to sign a lease because the lease is five pages long and I don’t know his comfort level with a document like that. I want the other guy on a lease so I have a firm case for enforcing rules (this is different from the policies of the owner). I could also just adopt a late fee policy for month to month leases but am also concerned this may be interpreted badly by the disabled tenant.
I am sure that it must be discriminatory to treat these two differently. How do I create rules for the one without creating problems for the other? I am afraid a letter about late fees will make him uncomfortable because he has never paid late. I just don’t want my intent to be misintrepreted.
I would take the letter to the disabled tenant and talk to him. Let him know that you are very happy with him and you have this legal technicality that you have to give him. Down play the letter and talk up his good performance. Don’t try to do it by mail letting him interpret it in his own head without your commentary.
This is what Ive been thinking of doing. I just hate to take any chances that this can be construed to be something other than what it is. For instance, the good tenant recently made a very legitimate maintenance request. I’d hate for him to somehow associate the two. It doesn’t help that I don’t know what his functioning level is. He doesn’t have an advocate and carries a steady job, so it’s not severe.
Regarding the lease - there is a lease in place but it’s not MY lease. I’ve been managing for a year and a half - the other three units this owner has have all been switched over to my lease by now, but I’ve left these two alone for this reason but now I need to fix it. The lease in place doesn’t allow for late fees among other shortcomings, and the owner who managed these himself allowed bad behavior so me trying to fix these things is a change in policy. In effect, I’ve had one policy for tenants on a lease and another for tenants on a month to month with the owners lease.
The moment we become emotionally involved in the transaction we lose control.
We’re complicating things, thinking we’re simplifying things. If we’re managing more than one tenant, every rental agreement should be identical regarding policies and procedures. This is especially true when we’ve got more than one tenant in the same property.
It’s a management nightmare, at a certain point, if our policies are not uniform and predictable.
Worrying about hurting someone’s feeling…? Really? Come on…! :anon
Everybody plays by the same rules, regardless of the past agreements. However, how we frame the changes makes a lot of difference.
Our approach would be, to simply drop off a new lease agreement to “approve” [sign and return]. Give the tenant 3 days to make a decision and return the agreement, or commence with a Notice to Quit (depending on what we’re attempting to accomplish).
We do this routinely when we take over a project. It’s our “Approve or Quit” lease offer. Some folks quit, some folks complain, and the rest “approve.”
Discrimination is not a problem. We all discriminate or we would let anybody and everybody that applies in. What you worry about is illegal discrimination. We can’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status, or disability. In this case I would assume this guy’s mental state makes him disabled. I see this as a personaly relationship issue not a discrimination issue.
I asked because one guy is mentally disabled and the other guy is black. Both are protected groups. They are also the only two on the different lease. Jay is correct that the lease is the problem. I could get tough with the guy and not allow late fees, but then I wonder if I am in a discrimination situation. I would assume so because I am treating them differently.
I just never saw the need to update their lease until now.