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1. I am renting rooms in my house. Orally I agreed with my renters that they need to help out cleaning (it is a big house and I just cannot do the cleaning alone). They ignored my requests since they moved in (so I had to clean if I didn't want to live in a dirty house). Can I charged them a reasonable fee for cleaning that I take off from their deposit? There is nothing on the rental agreement that they need to do or pay for cleaning. At the same time they use all areas of the house (except of course other people's bedrooms) so things get dirty by all of us. As a landlord am I required to be cleaning lady too?
2. I live in a cold state (MN) and I do not want my tenants move out in some of the winter months. Is that legal to put that on the lease? When I was renting I my landlord specified one month when I was not allowed to move out (January). Can I extend that for 3 months (and say only in emergency or of it is pre-arranged well advanced)? Otherwise the rental agreement is just month-to-month.
The cleaning should have been part of the lease agreement for the common areas, not complying with the agreement would be a breach of terms and reason for you to issue a violation give them the opportunity to correct the problem, and if not, reason for you to terminate their agreement according to the lease or what state law requires as termination notice.
Another thing you could do is raise the monthly rent to cover your cleaning time and discount that amount for the willing and able, a little incentive. Because the lease is not fixed and month to month you can legally adjust the rental amount with a 30 day notice, any tenants not in agreement are free to give their termination notice, but you want to check your state laws or even do a consultation with a Real Estate attorney to make certain.
Security deposits are just that, and many states require those monies be kept in escrow accounts until move-out, at that time you can make reasonable deductions and follow state law. Do not deduct for cleaningfrom deposits for not meeting your verbal monthly/weekly requirements.
Some LLs don't like their units vacant during winter months when the market is slower, so they'll do an extended lease term of over twelve months, but this is restricted to fixed term leases and not an option on month to month agreements.
State Landlord/Tenant law are rental practices and statutes landlords have to abide, it would be advantagous to become familiar and not rely on a forum for answers. There are also books and guides published for landlords, some you can view thru the web.
Thank you for your post. I did read the law you posted a link to already. Unfortunately, it does not go into much detail and also it mainly deals with rental of a whole apartment /house and less about not rooms. It seems like you must be a lawyer to be able to write up a proper rental agreement.
Concerning my second question it seems to me from the law that I can specify a notice requirement (of min one full rental period) even if it is a periodic lease. In this case I assume I can say that for the winter months I require 2 months notice (or more?)... which would help. As I live with my tenants problems can arise from both sides (or should say 6 sides!). I don't want them to feel restricted to live here if they don't like it and also I don't want to live with someone if it is not working out. If that makes sense...
Thank you for your post. I did read the law you posted a link to already. Unfortunately, it does not go into much detail and also it mainly deals with rental of a whole apartment /house and less about not rooms. It seems like you must be a lawyer to be able to write up a proper rental agreement.
Any state landlord/tenant law that applies to an apartment, applies to renting rooms, the laws vary by state. There a 3 types of agreements, a verbal ...month to month lease and a fixed term lease agreement.
Concerning my second question it seems to me from the law that I can specify a notice requirement (of min one full rental period) even if it is a periodic lease. In this case I assume I can say that for the winter months I require 2 months notice (or more?)... which would help. As I live with my tenants problems can arise from both sides (or should say 6 sides!). I don't want them to feel restricted to live here if they don't like it and also I don't want to live with someone if it is not working out. If that makes sense...
You'd need to be specific about what months and if state law is 2months (60days) notice, it would be illegal to exceed the law, if this were written in your lease, it would be void.
Why don't you have an attorney construct a lease with your specifics to insure you're within state law. It would be well worth the money.
State law does not specify how many days / months notice need to be given. It just says that if notice period is not stated in the rental agreement it is one rental term plus one day.
I wonder why oral agreements are not valid in connection to a rental agreement? As far as I understand in most states you can make a verbal agreement and it is binding. I verbally agreed that tenant can put up shelves in her room if she wanted to. So is that a binding agreement or not? I think it is (or if not she needs to pay for damages to the walls), but then why wouldn't my agreement with her about cleaning be valid??
Good idea about using a attorney to construct a lease.
What I would do is hire a cleaning person through a company and have them come weekly. Split the fee between all the occupants and add it to their rent or utility bills. That way, nobody is doing 'more' than anyone else.
I got that suggestion from someone on this forum a long time ago, but wish I would have thought of it myself when I lived with 5 other ridiculously messy people.
Well maybe but I don't want to pay for cleaning I want everyone to take the responsibility to keep the house clean. I wouldn't say they are messy but it's a 3 story 7 bedroom house. It usually takes at least 4-5 hours of work per week to clean the common areas... if 6 people would share it it would be just a 1/2 work for everyone. I am an owner of a house but not a maid service.
Well maybe but I don't want to pay for cleaning I want everyone to take the responsibility to keep the house clean. I wouldn't say they are messy but it's a 3 story 7 bedroom house. It usually takes at least 4-5 hours of work per week to clean the common areas... if 6 people would share it it would be just a 1/2 work for everyone. I am an owner of a house but not a maid service.
That's a big if. . .I think it would be difficult to get 6 different people (renters) to keep a house clean unless they are held accountable somehow, jetjockey suggestion is spot on, otherwise it seems you will be doing most of the cleaning.
kotkoda: The advantage to having a written agreement is precisely for the reason you're writing on this forum. An oral agreement can be broken (as obviously it has been in this instance) and other than an oral agreement you've nothing to fall back on - and oral agreements invariably become a "he said she said" routine. It doesn't take an attorney to write up a simple room renting agreement and you can google and find plenty of free templates you can use as a base and then add to those depending on your own particular situation.
I can't, either, figure out how on earth you can get six people to work in tandem to keep a house clean. It sounds simple on paper but just isn't practical. As said earlier, cleaning responsibilities should have been written into a rental agreement but again with six separate people it just won't work.
Since your tenants are on a month to month agreement your best bet is to find out what a cleaning lady would charge to come in weekly to clean the common areas (tenants should be responsible for keeping their own rooms clean) and then give your tenants written agreements to sign with the rent now upped to incorporate the shared cost of the cleaning services. This should be done with a 30 day notice.
I'm guessing you're a new LL so good luck. It would probably be a good idea to read through this forum as much as you can to see the frequently encountered pitfalls and how to avoid them.
This is the problem when you bring other people into your home.
I imgine your idea of clean is probably more than the typical renter who's not living with a landlord would keep the place. Not to say other people are slobs or woud damage your house but many people probably wouldn't dust and stuff on a weekly basis.
Honestly if its not in the elase you cant realy force these people to clean. I understand you dont want to pay a cleaning lady but the only way the house will be cleaned is if you hire a cleaning lady and split it amonst the 6 of you, like you said sharing that among six people woudn't be bad just as the time woudn't be bad if split amonst six people. Your going to have a tough tiem getting 6people together at a common time to clean.
Also, if your doing month to month I believe its assumed 30 days notice is required by both parties, not sure if you'd be able to say 60 days in the winter.
I think people who rent out their own homes tend to be too demanding. I was considering renting out my home but I put a lot of time and effort into getting it ncie and I'm not objective enough to be able to step back and say its their house and as long as nothing is being damaged I really dont have much of a right to speak up. Thats part of being a LL
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