Rental home/landlord question

[kjcba8101]

I have a rental home and had an issue where my garage door was visibly damaged (large dent) and caused the door to come off the tracks

The college age renter "has no idea what caused the dent/door to come off the tracks".

The mom says I should pay for it because her son doesn't know how it happened.

I believe they did something to cause the damage but I cannot prove it.

Who should be responsible for paying to fix the garage door?

 

[hollywood]

Depends.

First things first, you need to look at the lease carefully for all provisions that discuss liability for damage. That will generally control.

Next, I would be looking at whether or not the tenant had insurance coverage (or perhaps his parent's homeowners policy may extend to him) and file a claim with them (assuming that the lease doesn't hold you responsible for damages of an unknown origin.)

 

[FMPoke]

If they have no idea how the door has a dent in it they are either lying or were drunk when they hit it. How many kids are living there? One of them knows. It impossible not to notice the garage door is broken. If insurance is going to pay more then likely it would be their auto insurance. Is there any matching paint on the dent you can match to anyone's car. I would show up unannounced on morning when everyone is home and take a quick look at cars for dents on paint on the bumper.

Bottom line is you can keep their deposit. If the damages is more then the deposits you are probably screwed. But make sure everyone in the house understands you won't rent to them next years unless they cover the damages. Someone might suddenly remember who did it.

 

[boxter]

i only had one rent house and I was fortunate enough to rent to adults who were empty nesters. The last guy was a good handyman and did some upgrades. He only wanted me to pay for the materials usually. After renting from me for 10 years, I talked him into buying the house. Hell, he had already paid it off for me.

Renting to younger people seems like a risk. I wouldn't do it unless I was hard up.

good luck proving who was at fault. The best you are going to do is get to keep the deposit.

 

[kjcba8101]

I guess I should clarify
-the service call to get the door back on the tracks was $130
-there is still a sizable dent in the door that hasn't been fixed

The garage is located way off the street and is in a location that makes it highly unlikely that someone (not a resident) was back there and actually did the damage.

I'm going to have a dogfight with these people.

I just don't see how a tenant can claim ignorance and the landlord be required to make repairs.

What if they burn the house down and claim they have no idea how it happened?

That's kind of blowing it out of proportion, but the scenario is very similar

I appreciate all your responses.

 

[HighStickHarry]

What's the time frame from when they noticed it to when you were aware of it?

 

[boxter]

What does your contract say about damages? How often are you doing inspections for damages? Do you have pictures of every room and the outside of the house from a bunch of different angles in your files?

I just didn't have the time or energy to be a landlord. I quickly realized that I wouldn't have a positive cash flow because 1) the money made always went into repairs to fix something. 2) I was stuck paying a mortgage payment in between renters because it took around a month to clean up/ repair something between renters.

I only had 2 renters in my house in 12 years. First guy was a mechanic and must've wore hit greasy boots all over the house because they trashed the carpet. The second couple were a dream couple. Paid a week early and treated the house as their own. That's why I eventually sold it to them.

After my experience with the first family, I got picky on who I rented to. I repainted the whole house and recarpeted before putting it on the market. I interviewed several families. I had 1 family who had to find a place that weekend because they were here from tennessee and had 4 kids. I decided to rent to the empty nesters instead of the family even though they offered to pay an extra 100 per month. I felt like the 4 kids would cause more damage in a 1400 sq ft house than the extra money.

Good luck. It's looking like you will have to evict the current tenants and roll the dice that you will get a better tenant.

 

[Air_Thurman]

Isn't that kind of the downside of renting houses? Ultimately things get messed up and at the end of the day you have to fix them?

 

[tcpoke]

As has been mentioned, none of the details, circumstances, locations, etc matter at all. It's all about the contract you had them sign. What does the contract say?
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[EvilPOKES]

Would renters insurance cover things like this? Maybe requiring the tenants to have it would help. Honestly not sure as I am not familiar enough it and what it covers.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[GratefulDave]

I have many rent houses...a lot of them are located around OCU. My strategy was if these kids can afford to go to OCU, they (or their parents) can afford to pay and keep up with rent. Been at it for several years and have had decent luck.

All of my properties in that area are oldish, so I'm having to replace hot water tanks, occasional condenser unit, etc. Mechanical stuff happens, but garage doors don't get dented by themselves. One of this dude's friends probably got drunk and ran into it. It depends on the lease you had them sign and the verbiage therein. I've had to edit said language a couple times in my leases. Any legit "damage" that occurs while the tenant is in possession of the property is the responsibility of the tenant. Problem is, if the cost to fix said damage is greater then the deposit, then youre probably SOL, unless you got the parents to co-sign the lease (which I do if the tenant is dependent on the parents).

 

[TPOKE]

If you end up having to pay, just take the ohd panels out of the tracks then take your time having the new ones installed.