Landlord considering counterclaiming - is it too late to do?

[diamante67]

Originally Posted by Febtober

I'm working on the lawn care section of my lease right now - what was wrong with yours, and what would you change about it?

I like what Rabrrita said. Our problem was that the contract said that Landlord was to provide yard maintenance. Our intention was to relieve the tenants from duties such as mowing, trimming etc but they took it as it was ok for them not to provide water to the lawn by turning off the sprinklers. Keep in mind that we did not ask them to go out and water the yard and plants by hand, which I think would have amounted to asking the tenant to participate in the yard maintenance. We just asked (verbally, multiple times) to not turn off the sprinklers. Also, we did have a provision in the contract saying that actions by the tenants damaging lawns and plants would be their responsibility but that did not hold either. Maybe the problem was that we did not ask for the damage right away (although the tenant asked the judge if the request was admissible and he said yes). I think it was more because of the language in the contract (the yard maintenance verbiage).
We now changed the wording to say that the landlord is providing "basic gardening services", spelling out that these are, for example, mowing, trimming, pruning etc and that the tenant is responsible for providing water to the lawn and plants. Next time around, if there is another time around because I am not enjoying being a landlord at all, I will copy what Rabrrita said

[Lovehound]

Join the club of unhappy landlords. I'm phasing my business out over the next few years because the stress isn't worth the money, and until I sell my properties I won't even know if I'm making a profit. I know for sure my business is not turning a positive cash flow. It will have been a whole waste of time and money if the proceeds of my sales minus taxes do not show a net gain.

I think I would have been better off to just put the money in a money market account. Oops, too late.

[diamante67]

^^^we decided to rent out because when we changed house the market was very depressed. We should have sold within three years though, to avoid paying capital gain taxes, given that we already had a couple of bad experiences. The market had finally come back so it would have been a decent way to get out. Husband wants to wait until kids go to college... other 7 years!!! I am not sure I am going to make it

[Lovehound]

Sadly, all the information you need to successfully plan your tax future is obscured by the gods of fate. I'd be pleased if I could make 2016 tax decisions in 2017, but alas the IRS requires all transactions in any given tax year must be complete by December 31st, and after that your decisions cannot be changed.

The only way to come out well is by combining contingency planning with good luck.