Here is a glimpse of legal vandalism looks like

[metta]

Have you considered just putting curtains in the windows, so it does not make the neighborhood look bad?

 

[Kahaih]

I'm kinda surprised that your insurance doesn't cover damage done to your property by tenants.

If you don't have that sort of coverage, maybe you should look into it.

 

[rareboy]

^ I don't get this either.

It would seem to be standard for insurance on rented premises. We certainly have it for the dwelling we rent to residential tenants.

 

[Dominus]

I'm kinda surprised that your insurance doesn't cover damage done to your property by tenants.

If you don't have that sort of coverage, maybe you should look into it.

Good news. Just talked to them. They will cover for all the damages.

 

[Dominus]

^ I don't get this either.

It would seem to be standard for insurance on rented premises. We certainly have it for the dwelling we rent to residential tenants.

It actually never occurred to me to file for insurance claim until a few days ago. I'm still relatively new to this business.

 

[rareboy]

It actually never occurred to me to file for insurance claim until a few days ago. I'm still relatively new to this business.

Seriously?

You aren't new to this business. You've been at this for several years now...certainly before COVID.

Insurance must be one of the largest outlays for each building each year after taxes.

And I know that right at the outset of this thread there was a reference to contacting the insurance company...although to be honest I half expected to find out you weren't carrying insurance at all.

It is even more puzzling, because I know that there is a direct line between financing properties and demonstrating that there is sufficient insurance on them to cover a lender's loss.

It might be good for you to see if there are any property owner/property management programs that you could enroll in. You sound like learning some basics would be valuable to help you protect your assets and operate them effectively.

And since you were complaining about boredom a few months ago, this would be putting your time to good use for your business.

 

[fredroy]

Enrolling in a class sounds good. But wait! There's more! We had a storm come through a few years ago. Not quite a tornado but I had rain come in all of the windows at the same time. It passed, tore up some trees along the fence line, jumped about a 1000 feet and moved and crushed a guy's little tractor shed a couple of hundred feet.
A tree crushed the pump house. A huge Red Oak, three 12" trunks went down. Just barely touched the house, no damage. We called some folks that do tree removal and yeah, $1200 was sort of ok. Someone asked if we had called the insurance company. Never thought about that. But hey, let's call Travelers.

The estimator (?) said you have never in 15 years filed a claim, why not? Oh, I dunno, I just fix the problems because I figure the insurance is just in case of fire or something.

So, oh, "you have roof damage". If you say, it looks fine to me.

They covered a new roof, rebuilding the pump house, and tree removal. About nine grand total. They gave us an advance to get things started. Paid the rest once we were done.

We kept the old roof, added 1x4 slats, filled the gaps with R-6 or 7 foam board and then a metal roof.

The next year Travelers doubled our insurance rate. Yeah, Bye. I've paid 16+ grand and get back 9 and nope, I can do math.

 

[metta]

Enrolling in a class sounds good. But wait! There's more! We had a storm come through a few years ago. Not quite a tornado but I had rain come in all of the windows at the same time. It passed, tore up some trees along the fence line, jumped about a 1000 feet and moved and crushed a guy's little tractor shed a couple of hundred feet.
A tree crushed the pump house. A huge Red Oak, three 12" trunks went down. Just barely touched the house, no damage. We called some folks that do tree removal and yeah, $1200 was sort of ok. Someone asked if we had called the insurance company. Never thought about that. But hey, let's call Travelers.

The estimator (?) said you have never in 15 years filed a claim, why not? Oh, I dunno, I just fix the problems because I figure the insurance is just in case of fire or something.

So, oh, "you have roof damage". If you say, it looks fine to me.

They covered a new roof, rebuilding the pump house, and tree removal. About nine grand total. They gave us an advance to get things started. Paid the rest once we were done.

We kept the old roof, added 1x4 slats, filled the gaps with R-6 or 7 foam board and then a metal roof.

The next year Travelers doubled our insurance rate. Yeah, Bye. I've paid 16+ grand and get back 9 and nope, I can do math.

I live in a high fire risk area and insurance companies have been dropping my neighbors policies for over a decade. I have had Allstate for the last 21 years, and they told me that the only reason they kept me was because I never had a claim. Each year I worry about being canceled. Rates jump year after year. It is one of the reasons why I plan on moving. I don't want to have to stress about potentially losing it. When I first moved here, it was $600-700/year. I have increased the deductible, and it was $2500+ this year plus $1500 for basic earthquake (deductible is over $120k). Neighbors that have been forced to use a combination of public/private policies are paying $13k-16k/year.

One thing I learned is that using the insurance on a property stays on the property history, even with the new owners. So if you buy a home that was rebuilt from a fire, it can result in really high insurance costs, if you can find one that will insure it.

 

[rareboy]

^ It isn't always like that...but deductibles and risk assessments are all part of the insurance game.

Frankly, in this case, with the property fully paid for, I likely would suck up the costs of repair without insurance and then finance against the property and then bake those costs into the rent, amortized over a ten year span if that worked.

American insurance companies are the worst.

Although I remember when our insurer years ago dumped us because we had a farm....even though that was part of their business.

I raised righteous hell on that one up to the executive offices with the suggestion of hitting the news...even sent them the draft of the press copy I was looking to send out to the papers and local TV. hahaha

 

[Dominus]

Seriously?

You aren't new to this business. You've been at this for several years now...certainly before COVID.

Insurance must be one of the largest outlays for each building each year after taxes.

And I know that right at the outset of this thread there was a reference to contacting the insurance company...although to be honest I half expected to find out you weren't carrying insurance at all.

It is even more puzzling, because I know that there is a direct line between financing properties and demonstrating that there is sufficient insurance on them to cover a lender's loss.

It might be good for you to see if there are any property owner/property management programs that you could enroll in. You sound like learning some basics would be valuable to help you protect your assets and operate them effectively.

And since you were complaining about boredom a few months ago, this would be putting your time to good use for your business.

Let me make something clear.

(1) I own most of my properties outright.

(2) ALL of my properties are fully insured.

(3) 3 years into this business is not that long.

(4) I try to stay away from filing insurance claim because I don't want my rates to skyrocket.

So, it's just not part of my instinct to file for claim. When this happened, I just wanted to pin the guy to the wall. Yeah, the topic of insurance came up, but I forgot about it pretty quickly. Anyway, I recently remembered about insurance and filed a claim. Etc.

For the most part, I'm wandering in the dark pretty much.

 

[backagain]

Let me make something clear.

(1) I own most of my properties outright.

(2) ALL of my properties are fully insured.

(3) 3 years into this business is not that long.

(4) I try to stay away from filing insurance claim because I don't want my rates to skyrocket.

So, it's just not part of my instinct to file for claim. When this happened, I just wanted to pin the guy to the wall. Yeah, the topic of insurance came up, but I forgot about it pretty quickly. Anyway, I recently remembered about insurance and filed a claim. Etc.

For the most part, I'm wandering in the dark pretty much.

You live and learn. Remember, it is a business, protect yourself and and your property from all kinds of events.

 

[rareboy]

As I wrote, you might want to consider learning more about the business of property ownership and being a landlord if you feel you are wandering in the dark.

There are likely conferences you could attend where you could learn more about everything from financing, through writing more effective lease agreements to developing a capital asset management plan to ensure your properties are kept in optimal condition.

 

[Dominus]

Good news gays. The DA just filed charges for 3 felony theft and 1 felony criminal mischief. Seeking enhanced penalty. They put out a warrant for him. Thing is he is currently serving a 5 year sentence in another county.

 

[rareboy]

You'd think they would have known where to serve him the warrant?

Glad to hear that the justice system is going to deal with him on these charges...but not hopeful that he will serve more time or ever be able to pay restitution.

Oh well. Hopefully you have been working on fixing the mess and getting the house re-rented.

 

[Dominus]

You'd think they would have known where to serve him the warrant?

Glad to hear that the justice system is going to deal with him on these charges...but not hopeful that he will serve more time or ever be able to pay restitution.

Oh well. Hopefully you have been working on fixing the mess and getting the house re-rented.

The warrant is a formality. They already served him while he's serving in his sentence. I think the idea is once he completes his sentence over there they will ship him to the next place that has a warrant out for him.

 

[rareboy]

Have you started to fix the place up or are you leaving it.

 

[Dominus]

Have you started to fix the place up or are you leaving it.

Yes, have started. Even dug out the sewer line and replaced it with new pvc. But too many other projects going on. I'm aiming to have the place completely redone by the spring.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

who knew there could be a downside to exploiting another human's need for shelter?

 

[PrinceCory]

Good news gays. The DA just filed charges for 3 felony theft and 1 felony criminal mischief. Seeking enhanced penalty. They put out a warrant for him. Thing is he is currently serving a 5 year sentence in another county.

Is the theft charge from intentionally (never intending to pay from the beginning) not paying the rent? Or from items stolen from the house?

As far as I know, my State does not have a "criminal mischief" statue. The action has to be more defined such as, damage to property, trespassing, assault, etc. Does your State consider the intentional damage to your property as mischief?

 

[Dominus]

Is the theft charge from intentionally (never intending to pay from the beginning) not paying the rent? Or from items stolen from the house?

As far as I know, my State does not have a "criminal mischief" statue. The action has to be more defined such as, damage to property, trespassing, assault, etc. Does your State consider the intentional damage to your property as mischief?

The theft charges are from stolen tools (he knew where I was storing the tools) and the missing appliances. Everything inside the house that he could take he took.

Now, normally the missing appliances was always considered a civil matter. Meaning I would have to sue them. My lawyer tried to push the prosecutor office to consider the missing items as theft because he obviously had intent to steal from the fact that he broke into my warehouse and stole sets of tools. Prosecutor finally agreed. Hence, one of the 3 felony theft charges was for all the appliances and heaters.

With the damages in the property, again normally it's a civil matter when it comes to rental properties. A tenant could poke holes in the water pipes and flooding the place and pull out all the copper wires and the justice system would still consider that a civil matter. Meaning the landlord would have to sue and get a damage reward. Which in most cases are uncollectable anyway. Most people don't realize how hard it is to collect a judgment.

In this case, my lawyer argued with the prosecutor that what he did to the property was beyond a civil matter and coupled with all the thefts was actually criminal.

Last year I was advised to drop the civil case against him if I wanted a chance at criminal prosecution. So, I did. And woohoo now it will pay off.