If you rent or are a landlord?

[Juniper]

I have a question for you. On average how many times does your landlord/do you visit your rental property?

[Annie G]

When we were landlords we only visited to collect rent that was more than a week past due or to do maintenance on something the tenant reported. Oh, once we visited because a neighbor called to tell us there was a dog on the roof of our rental house. Yup, they were right- there was a dog on the roof.

[I.Dup.]

Not often at all. We have rented for 10 years. Some visit more than others but never more than once every few months.

[6packofun]

We rent and usually do not need to call the landlord more than 2-3x a year. (It's a 135 year old house, lol) We've had the landlord stop by to tell us something (he's preparing the new lease or to give us the date that the house is having outside work done, etc.) but he never expects to come in.

 

Our previous landlord wanted to inspect the property twice a year and she was *paranoid*.

[meggie]

He comes in the spring to turn the water on for the swamp cooler. He comes in the fall to turn it off. He comes in between to fix a leaky faucet whenever it's leaky. He comes in the late spring/early summer to see if we plan on renewing our contract and has us sign a new one. That's about it.

[Guest inoubliable]

Hmmm. We rent. Been here 2.5 years. Our landlord has shown up a few times. To try to collect the rent several days early. Once he showed up to ask me if I'd mailed the check. I had. It wasn't late. He got it that afternoon. And once we had to call him because something happened with the plumbing and there was raw sewage in our washer. He refused to call us back so we called his office and told his secretary to shame him into calling us. And when we first moved in, the oven, washer, and dryer didn't work. Took 3.5 weeks of calling and stopping by his office to complain until he finally came by with new appliances, said he'd knock $50 off the rent and said it was weird that I complained so much since the stove worked okay and I could have fed the kids mac-and-cheese for 3.5 weeks.

 

I'd say if you're going by to collect late rent, that's okay. If you're going by to do maintenance that your renter tells you about, that's awesome. Other than that, why would you need to go by?

[TravelingChris]

I have rented houses and apartments about half my life and lived in my own houses or rented out my house about the other half. None of my landlords ever came to inspect the propery and I never inspected my house when it was rented. Only when there were repairs to be made did the landlords come or when we were getting ready to move out and they would either come or send someone to figure out what would need to be done before renting or selling. My representatives also just came when the renters were either moved out or about to move out.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I picked up rent every month. I didn't inspect but I get to see the living room and generally see that things were still standing and that there was no terrible pet odor or something when you walked in the house.

[Elinor Everywhere]

We own a rental, but we don't go there unless something needs fixing. That's only happened once in the year we've owned the condo. My tenant sends his rent check on time every month, and so far we've been lucky with no major problems.

[swellmomma]

When I rented, once a year unless I called for maintence or they were doing specific upgrades, like when I had all new counters and cabinets installed. I paid my rent in my house online, in my apartment before that I took it to the rental office. They came in once a year for an annual inspection that is it.

[swellmomma]

When we were landlords we only visited to collect rent that was more than a week past due or to do maintenance on something the tenant reported. Oh, once we visited because a neighbor called to tell us there was a dog on the roof of our rental house. Yup, they were right- there was a dog on the roof.

 

:confused1: a dog? on the roof? WTH?

[milovany]

I have a question for you. On average how many times does your landlord/do you visit your rental property?

 

We only go down there if they need something.

[TranquilMind]

I have a question for you. On average how many times does your landlord/do you visit your rental property?

 

 

I've been a landlord for almost 13 years now. I never go to the units without notice. I do go by with the HVAC guy twice a year, and also change (expensive) filters at that time, and usually once or twice more during the year.

 

I never go to pick up rent; it is incumbent upon the tenant to have it in my box on or before the first, and only 1 has been late in all these years.

 

If the tenant has a problem, I fix it within the same day if possible, after email notice (or phone call). I had the last problem fixed within two hours after receiving notice that the furnace wasn't heating, but the tenant knew I was coming, of course, as the tenant had called me.

 

That's about it. I might drive by once every few months (because they are close) after my yard guy has been by to do spring clean up of the yard, or to see the leaves have been removed.

[Parrothead]

I have a question for you. On average how many times does your landlord/do you visit your rental property?

In 3 years I've seen him two times when we didn't call. The first time was to winterize the house just after we moved in. The second when his insurance company told him to put a railing on the back steps. Lucky for him the second time I came outside to go to the store instead of sending Baxter out on his lead. Baxter would have tried to eat him.

 

When I was a landlord my tenants never saw us. We were half a country away.

[NotSoObvious]

Our property manager supposedly checks on our renters quarterly.

 

Our landlord only comes if we need something. They also love on the property though, so they are close and our kids play.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Our landlord has come once in 20 months. He came to get some of his stuff.

[Mergath]

We've lived in the same duplex for over four years now. Our landlord lives across the street, so we see him outside all the time, and just walk on over to pay our rent. I can count on one hand the number of times he's actually come into our unit, and it was only when something was broken, or one time when he had to walk through with a realtor to have the property appraised. He's never done an inspection, but he knows from repair visits that we take care of the place, too.

[Amira]

We have rented in many different states and have only seen the landlord/manager/maintenance when we have had a problem that needs to be taken care of or for routine maintenance. We've always mailed our rent in or paid online and haven't had any personal interaction relating to paying rent. I would not be interested in signing a lease that allowed anyone to make regular visits to the house/apartment except for routine maintenance like changing filters, winterizing, cleaning gutters, or things like that.

 

When we've rented overseas though, it's a totally different story. It's so much nicer to rent where there are decent landlord/tenant laws.

[Slartibartfast]

:confused1: a dog? on the roof? WTH?

 

I used to have an earth contact home, I chased a dog off of our roof a few times.

 

:lol:

 

 

 

We are renting atm, our rental agency inspects the properties every 4 months.

[Annie G]

:confused1: a dog? on the roof? WTH?

 

 

Yup, on the roof of a 2 story house...with 10 foot ceilings AND an attic, so the roof was quite high. No idea how the dog got there- tenants didn't fess up. The fire department that rescued the dog didn't even bother to ask.

 

That wasn't really the most weird thing tenants did. We had some Iraqi guys- really nice guys- raise and butcher chickens IN THE BASEMENT. Well, the house was in the middle of town and local ordinance prohibits raising chickens so they did it in the basement. It was the butchering that freaked us out. We didn't know they were raising chickens in the basement so when dh went down there to do maintenance and saw the blood, he and his business partner nearly trampled each other trying to get out of there.

[moonlight]

We haven't even met our renters because we are half a world away!

[sewingmama]

Our previous landlord wanted to inspect the property twice a year and she was *paranoid*.

 

Twice a year is paranoid - I would call it super relaxed. :laugh:

 

Our landlord comes every three months -with clipboard in hand for a thorough inspection and marks down every scratch they see. :glare: For every inspection we have to do a deep clean -windows, oven, carpets cleaned, garden weeded and lawn mowed.

 

It's more then a little annoying -but thats typical of renting in Australia.

 

In fact we have an inspection due next week - 5 days before Christmas :cursing:

[idnib]

We're landlords and we head over when something needs to be fixed at the tenant's request. We live 4 blocks from the property so we drive by all the time. We make annual inspections as well, just to check the unit nd also because we are required to provide working CO detectors and smoke alarms.

[sassenach]

We rent. The LL only comes when something needs to be fixed. Every 4-6 months or so?

[sassenach]

Twice a year is paranoid - I would call it super relaxed. :laugh:

 

Our landlord comes every three months -with clipboard in hand for a thorough inspection and marks down every scratch they see. :glare: For every inspection we have to do a deep clean -windows, oven, carpets cleaned, garden weeded and lawn mowed.

 

It's more then a little annoying -but thats typical of renting in Australia.

 

In fact we have an inspection due next week - 5 days before Christmas :cursing:

 

That's terrible. I couldn't live like that.

[Laura Corin]

Once a year or so unless something came up? There were safety checks (gas supply usually) that had to be done periodically, and we would try to visit when the gas man came.

 

Laura

[JeneralMom]

Twice a year is paranoid - I would call it super relaxed. :laugh:

 

Our landlord comes every three months -with clipboard in hand for a thorough inspection and marks down every scratch they see. :glare: For every inspection we have to do a deep clean -windows, oven, carpets cleaned, garden weeded and lawn mowed.

 

It's more then a little annoying -but thats typical of renting in Australia.

 

In fact we have an inspection due next week - 5 days before Christmas :cursing:

 

 

 

Same here in Western Aus. It is in our contract that we get inspected every 3 months and they send out a complex list of things that need to be done. I just had my inspection yesterday even though it was only 2.5 months because they didn't want to bother us over the holidays. Unfortunately, I thought she was coming in the afternoon so I went out in the morning to buy stuff to scrub the walls and toilets (usually I just use vinegar and tea tree oil, but wanted to be thorough) and she came while I was out. I bet we get nailed for marks on the wall and cobwebs.

[mumto2]

When we were landlords we never inspected unless asked to repair something. We now rent. Our landlord watches the house while we are in the states for us. Huge help. He trys to do repairs while we are away. While we are here we rarely see him unless socially.

[kolamum]

Never. They, legally, aren't allowed.

 

However, the company we rent through comes by every 6 months to check & make sure we are keeping the place in good order. I suppose if we weren't they'd come by sooner. The owner did send his father around recently, but that's because he was worried the real estate company wasn't in touch with him.

[amy g.]

In Austin, we had a landlord who lived on the same street I swear, it felt like that guy was at our house every day.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

I am a renter and our landlord only comes by when I call about a problem. I really wish he would come out more and make monthly or even seasonal checks and do typical upkeep of the house (cleaning gutters shed and fence falling down, large ice sheets on roof, things like this).

[mazakaal]

We've been renting for the past 12 years. The first house was rented through an agent (for 11 months), and we never met the landlord. Neither the owner nor the agent ever stopped by. I don't think we ever had a maintenance problem there.

 

The next house we rented from a friend. He used to stop by when he was in town, and he did all the garden work in the summer. He would actually just let himself in the house whether we were home or not (just one knock, then open the door and shout 'hello'). I found it slightly awkward, but he was a really nice guy so I never said anything. I think he just didn't realize that it wasn't appropriate. We'd give him dinner at times and let him use the shower after he'd done the garden work. So definitely not a normal landlord sort of relationship.

 

The next house we rented from someone who lived in the same town. She would stop by a several times a year, usually just to ask us a question or something. She was also planning on renovating the house after we moved out, so had had to stop by with surveyors and architects. I would have preferred if she had phoned first, but didn't make a thing about it.

 

The house we're in now is owned by someone who was an acquaintance. They live out of the area, but stop by once in a while because their family lives nearby (their brother owns the other half of the house we live in, which he also rents out, and he farms the surrounding land), and they store their camper van on the property. They never really knock on our door even if they're nearby.

 

None of the owners of our houses ever did general upkeep type work. They just come if there's a specific problem that we call about.

[Mynyel]

Never.

 

We have been here 6 years and haven't seen our landlord since we signed the lease.

 

However, he does have his own handyman that he sends out for issues that need to be fixed. So he could look at the place while he is here to report back to the landlord but he only comes out if you call him. If we never had a problem with anything we would never hear or see from them.

[bobbeym]

We've been in our rental for 4 full years now and just renewed for a 5th year. Our landlord lives in our subdivision so he drives by daily but he only actually stops at the house if he needs something from the storage shed once or twice a year, or if he's there to fix something we reported. He never comes by to pick up rent; we take it to his house, late or not.

 

I felt bad for him last month b/c we'd had to report a termite-infested tree that was leaning less than 6" away from the roof. He came out with his guy the day after Thanksgiving and it took them 4 days to cut down the tree. And then that last day, we woke up to find out our window heater unit had gone out so he had to fix that too.

[Tess in the Burbs]

 

That wasn't really the most weird thing tenants did. We had some Iraqi guys- really nice guys- raise and butcher chickens IN THE BASEMENT. Well, the house was in the middle of town and local ordinance prohibits raising chickens so they did it in the basement. It was the butchering that freaked us out. We didn't know they were raising chickens in the basement so when dh went down there to do maintenance and saw the blood, he and his business partner nearly trampled each other trying to get out of there.

 

Oh my gosh, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. I am trying to retell this to Dh and I can't get the words out, I just laugh hysterically. Next time a landlord tries to withhold deposit for something I just have to tell them at least we didn't butcher chickens and let them stew on that!

 

Thank you for the laughs

[Tess in the Burbs]

When we rented a house we didn't live nearby. We were across the country. I set up the home warranty and they called that for issues. Worked well.

 

But we rent now and have a lot in our marriage. We usually have a rental company we are going through and call them for issues. Our current place the owners had a grandson come by to get a car off the property. Then they came a month later to get Christmas stuff out of a storage building and winterize the sprinkler. We are through a company so this wasn't cool in my opinion. You hire the company to check on the renters, not show up. They were nice enough.

 

Our last rental was awesome. The lady had everything on maintenance. Rodents/bugs, the Hvac system. She replaced the faucet when it was dripping. She never came by otherwise and it was ideal. She was on top of things and wanted the place well maintained. Never had a landlord like her.

 

Again current people will be coming by again they said to check on landscaping(which isn't happening) and set up sprinkler in spring. It's weird. But oh well. They obviously care about the house which is better than a landlord that never does anything.

 

We had one place infested with silverfish and they wouldn't do a thing. So I just squished them, lol. I know that place is full of them in the walls/attic. I couldn't believe they didn't want to spray their own property.

[Amy in NH]

Never. We had an agreement with our landlord to fix things ourselves, with a fixed dollar amount monthly for supplies to knock off the rent. We got a reduced rate for doing the work ourselves. He only ever came to mow the lawn, and never entered the house in five years.

[Mommy22alyns]

Once a month to collect rent and check on things. He also comes at other times to seal the driveway (which he still hasn't finished), blow leaves, clean out gutters, etc. He's a good landlord.

[Mommy22alyns]

 

 

 

That wasn't really the most weird thing tenants did. We had some Iraqi guys- really nice guys- raise and butcher chickens IN THE BASEMENT. Well, the house was in the middle of town and local ordinance prohibits raising chickens so they did it in the basement. It was the butchering that freaked us out. We didn't know they were raising chickens in the basement so when dh went down there to do maintenance and saw the blood, he and his business partner nearly trampled each other trying to get out of there.

 

 

 

OMG, hilarious! I needed that laugh!!