Landlord seeks advice renting pool property to family with small children (renters, credit check)
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Already went into that with my insurance agent, don't want to get into the details but end result is that I'm in a situation that I can't qualify. Don't ask.
The house is recently built. About 2000.
Do you owe on the home? If not, it might not be a bad idea to consider forming an LLC that owns the home so as to shield yourself from any personal liability.
Already considering the LLC approach. Except I'll need 4 of them. Haven't looked into the cost yet.
This landlord business is not as fun as I thought it would be.
You could have one LLC own all the properties. It would be simpler and cheaper, but then if the LLC was sued because of what happened at one house, the other three could be in jeopardy. Another option would be to explain your situation to an attorney who specializes in LLC formation. Since all the homes/LLCs would be for the same purpose, they should be able to draft up a template or something similar, and then all the pertinent information for each property could be imported into that template.
Maybe I can do the LLC work myself. One thing I found out for sure, I did incorporate in California with no legal help and it worked out fine.... Except I ended up spending a lot of extra time doing required record keeping and my income taxes had to be done by a CPA and it was such a big hassle that I dissolved my corporation a few years later.
The umbrella thing was my insurance agent in California. I'll have to ask the same question to my insurance agent in Arizona, maybe I'll get a different answer.
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men. Gang aft agley.
Maybe I can do the LLC work myself. One thing I found out for sure, I did incorporate in California with no legal help and it worked out fine.... Except I ended up spending a lot of extra time doing required record keeping and my income taxes had to be done by a CPA and it was such a big hassle that I dissolved my corporation a few years later.
The umbrella thing was my insurance agent in California. I'll have to ask the same question to my insurance agent in Arizona, maybe I'll get a different answer.
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men. Gang aft agley.
If you're reasonably adept with legalese, you can do an LLC yourself. Your local library should have books (NOLO is popular) on LLC formation. With something this big though, I'd at least have an attorney review it.
Why are you making a big deal not renting to kids just do not rent to them if they ask why just say you felt another person was better qualified. I see so many people get into trouble by offering up a big story I tell everyone two things
Sorry I felt another person better matched my criteria if I have anything come up that I think you would like do you want me to call you.
Or if another landlord calls with a question
Yes they were my tenants from ??/??/??? to ??/??/?? thats all the info I have.
Already considering the LLC approach. Except I'll need 4 of them. Haven't looked into the cost yet.
This landlord business is not as fun as I thought it would be.
I put every 4 house in an LLC with a couple million dollar liability policy for the LLC so my homeowners insurance is lower. If you only have 4 houses I would do 2 LLC so you would only lose 2 houses if things went bad.
The art of picking the right tenant is 99% to what makes your life easy. The other is you if you read this board a big percent is landlords do not fixing things fast. If you have happy tenants you will be much better off so learn how to train them.
In addition to fencing the pool area, why don't you get one of those heavy duty covers. You've probably seen the commercials where the elephant stands on the pool cover. The holders for the cover are drilled right into the concrete so the cover is stable.
Thank you for the info on "repel." It was a bad idea anyway. Actually, just putting that in the listing would probably be a violation.
Looks more and more like the fence. I guess I can leave the doggie door since it will be on the opposite side of the fence from the pool.
I'll just fence in the patio, get good pictures. Then when my photographer leaves they can store the fence in the garage and if their kid drowns it's not my liability.
It's great to have this forum and all the helpful advice from C-D members! I'm narrowing in on the correct strategy.
You really think this is going to remain legal and you will have zero liability?
There will be photos dated after your "fence photos" and it will show the fence not being there and I bet there will even be photos of the fence being stored somewhere.
Then you will have more liability than you ever fathomed.
Why not drain the pool and leave it drained with it written in the lease that the pool is not accessible to the renters. Put up a solid fence, put a lock on it, keep the keys and be done with it.
Why are you making a big deal not renting to kids just do not rent to them if they ask why just say you felt another person was better qualified. I see so many people get into trouble by offering up a big story I tell everyone two things
Sorry I felt another person better matched my criteria if I have anything come up that I think you would like do you want me to call you.
First, I'd just like to point out that you are the same person expressing such moral outrage about disabled people "screwing" landlords to whom they couldn't make rent to, demanding they "do the right thing". You are now advocating another poster violate state and federal laws.
You're so hypocritical, it's almost funny.
Almost.
Moving beyond that, your advice is resoundingly terrible as well. Let's say the OP takes your advice and denies some well qualified couple because they have a kid or two. Say that couple has a feeling they were discriminated against. It takes one call to a civil rights attorney (many who work on contingencies, meaning little to no money up front) to have a lawsuit filed. Since this is regarding a federal law as well as a state law, they are almost certain to file in federal court where the rules of discovery are much stronger than in most states.
And lets say that the couple the OP discriminated against has a really good lawyer who not only files for discovery requiring the OP to turn over documents such as the prerequisites for prospective tenants and the applications/background results from other applicants, but also files interrogatories requiring the OP to disclose things like this:
- The address of discussion forums such as this that the OP posts on as well as the user name.
- The ISP(s) used (so they can subpoena the ISP to determine if the OP lied about the forums they post on, at which point they'd be in even MORE trouble).
Long story short, it wouldn't take a whole lot of work to expose the lie, especially for people like yourself who are so unwise as to brag about it online.
And the fines and penalties render under the FHA can be steep, especially for deliberate and willful violators.
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