Robert Darrow, @properties

Posts Tagged ‘apartments’

One of our regular readers wrote to ask:

Do you have any advice (guidelines) for me when you have 2 tenants that are always complaining on each other?  The biggest problem I have is that it is usually hear-say with no supporting proof.  How do I handle?  How do I get this to stop?

Ahhh, feuding tenants.

If you feel like it, watch a couple episodes of “Super Nanny” to bone up on your parenting skills.  Sometimes keeping tenants is like having two-year-olds.  Don’t you wish you could have a “time out?”

Try to keep it simple, and try to stay out of it.  You are not a referee.

1. Tell your tenants that their first recourse if there is a disturbance that is serious is to call 9-1-1.  The police should break up a loud party, a domestic argument, super-loud stereo blasting.
2. Tell the tenants that they need to work it out amongst themselves.  Tell them you are not their parent.  And tell them to get it straightened out soon before you start receiving complaints from other tenants.
3. Finally if the two steps above don’t work, tell the tenants that if the complaint is serious, to write you a letter.  With specific details.  The day, the date, the time, and a very accurate description of what the other tenant did to disturb them.    With a detailed written complaint, you can issue a “10 Day Notice.”  You will write a “10-Day Notice” and deliver it to the offending tenant.

A “10-Day Notice” is a scary looking notification that basically tells the offending tenant that they have 10 days to “knock it off.”  If there is another disturbance within the 10 day time period from when you give the 10-day notice, then you can cancel their lease and tell them to move at the end of the month.  But if the offending tenant doesn’t cause any disturbance in the 10 day period, then the notice expires.  And then you start all over again.

The “10 Day Notice” is a specific form. (Email me if you need your own copy of a 5-day/10-day notice.) Some highlights on the form for you to pay attention to:

• you will check box #2,
• date it approximately midway down
• Sign where it says “Lessor.”

On the “Proof of Service section:

• Fill in your name (or the name of the person you hire to deliver the notice)
• Date the next line
• Check the box for “By delivering a true copy…”
• And EVERY TIME you visit the property to try to give this “10 Day”, you will write in the date and time under “Attempts at Service” including the time you actually deliver the notice.
• Sign the blank line at the bottom.

You will bring TWO COPIES to the building each time.  1 copy in case the tenant is home.  Leave 1 copy with the tenant.  Take one copy with you.  They need to be the same. 

And if it turns out you will want to terminate one of the leases, you will need your copy to bring to court and show the judge to prove that you gave the notice to the tenants.

The City of Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (RLTO) requires the City Comptroller to set the rate of interest to be paid on security deposits held by landlords. The rate is calculated annually based on a formula tied to actual market rates.

The new rate for 2010 of 0.073% applies to all residential rental agreements in which the lease term begins from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. The amount of interest paid on security deposits is determined by the rate in effect on the date the lease term commences.  Owner-occupied buildings of six or fewer units are not required to pay interest on security deposits.

City code requires that a general summary of the RLTO and a separate summary on security deposits, including the required rate of interest, be attached to each lease.  Revised summaries containing the new rate of interest are being printed and will soon be available from CAR. Copies of the revised summary will be sent to each CAR office as soon as they are printed. These revised summaries should be attached to each lease executed during 2010.

Your Guide’s mind reels knowing that there’s an entire city bureaucracy devoted to making sure Landlord don’t screw their tenants out of their 66 cents (on a typical $900 security deposit.)

Your Guide accompanied an appraisal at a Bucktown Three Flat this morning.  During the course of giving notice to the current residents of the building the question was raised whether the building was for sale?  And what might happen to the leases?

I almost dismissed the topic without giving it much thought since the topic has been covered before and we thought it was thoroughly explained.  But with the anxious undertones in the voice of the tenant that posed the question, it seems that the subject is worth visiting again.

Leases stay in place

Tenants, if you are in the middle of a lease, your lease stays in place.

Even if the building sells and a new landlord takes over, the current lease terms transfer to the new owner.  Your lease is simply signed over to the new owner, and the terms all stay the same.  The original landlord will customarily write you a letter telling you of the sale and giving you the information for the new landlord.  This is so that you know where to send off your rent checks after the sale.

The sale does not give the new owner the opportunity to “kick out” all the current tenants.  You may remain in your apartment for the rest of your lease.  The sale does not give the new landlord the opportunity to raise the rents, either.  You make the same payment amount – simply to the new owner.

Top Ten Tips for Tenants during a sale

1. Yes, you have to let your landlord show your apartment to prospective buyers.
2. You can ask for proper notice – typically 48 hours in Chicago.
3. You can’t demand that showings only take place when you are home.  Most of the time showings will occur during the day, during the week.
4. Typical showings will only take a few minutes in your apartment.
5. But when the building sells, there will be appraisals and inspections.  These appointments will take longer – as long as 45 minutes in your apartment.
6. The expiration date of your lease stays the same.  You can’t get kicked out.
7. The amount of your rent stays the same.  The new owner can’t raise your rent during the current lease.
8. Your security deposit gets transferred to the new owner.
9. Your old landlord should send you a letter notifying you when the building sells so you know that you should send your rent to a new landlord.
10.   Tenants can read the Chicago Landlord Tenant Ordinance at http://www.chicityclerk.com/tenantsVRSlandlords.php