Posts Tagged ‘property management’

Tenants Rights: When Your Property Manager Forecloses On Your Rental Home

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

The foreclosure crisis that started in 2006 in the Melbourne Florida real estate market has brought extreme changes in the lives of many renters and renters. As more mortgage loans started to go into default, more renters found themselves being evicted by banks and new owners all across the States. As Americans, we live on the belief that “home is where the heart is.” That suggests that thousands of foreclosed renters were continuously getting their hearts ripped out suddenly, all over the country. Thanks to the pro-active and reactive decisions made by President Barack Obama on May 20, 2009, renters in foreclosure can sleep well again.

Who is Your New Owner After the Foreclosure?

Once your property owner defaults on the mortgage of your home, one of 2 things will happen:

– The property will be sold at public auction, in which case the highest bidder becomes your new owner.
– The mortgage holder, customarily the lending bank, will become the new owner, as well as your new landlord.

If the bank retains possession of the property, they may hire a pro to deal with the property. Don't feel relieved just yet, though. This person’s job isn't about maintaining the property. They are involved with how to help the bank get back their loss. There are also companies who focus on buying troubled loans from the banks, foreclosing on the defaulting house owners, expelling the renters and reselling the property. Either way, no matter who ends up being your new owner, they are possibly real estate pros that could not care less about your family’s stableness.

Your Lease Must be Honored

On May 20, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the historically huge “Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009″ bill. This home saving legislation included the new rule that tenant leases take concern in foreclosures. To put it in simple terms, this implies 2 great things to renters who’s owners have gone thru foreclosure:

– The leasing tenant is legally permitted to remain in their home until the end of their original lease term.
– Month-to-month renters are legally entitled to have a 90 day notice and then was responsible to move.
– Exception: If the new buyer plans to live on the property, they may end the current tenant’s lease with a 90 day notice.

Renters who are renters in cities that practice “rent control” are also shielded from foreclosure evictions by city ordinances. This protection is known as “just cause”, which is a catalogue of reasons, permitted by local laws, why a renter can be expelled. The simple fact that a foreclosure occurred isn't “just cause” by itself for ejecting the renters.

What is the Recourse for a Foreclosed Renter?

If you are a leasing tenant who moved out of your rental home so the new owners can move in, you may have a recourse. There’s a good chance you can sue your old landlord in little claims court. Here is how it works:

The Landlord’s Secondary Default

When you and your landlord signed your lease, they were agreeing to supply your rental till the end of the term of the lease. This is sometimes known as the “covenant of quiet enjoyment”, and must be honored. When your property owner defaulted on the mortgage loan on the property you were living in, they violated that covenant because the foreclosure starts proceedings that can cancel the lease early. Because of this, renters can sue foreclosed landlords for damages, including moving costs, looking costs, application charges, and”the difference, if any, between the new hire for a comparable rental and the rent under the old lease”, according to nolo.com.

Article written by Stuwart B. Warder a Viera FL real estate agent. You can learn more about tenant’s rights when a landlord forecloses by visiting Stuwart’s Cocoa Beach Florida real estate internet site.

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Tips on Preparing For Natural Disasters For Florida And Coastal Residents

Monday, December 26th, 2011

Florida residents are no strangers to natural tragedies. Actually the people of Florida know them well. Floods, tropical hurricanes, hurricanes, and tornadoes aren't out of normal in Florida, and the better you're prepared the safer you and your family will be. Each catastrophe does not just do the damage by itself because waves of panic can make things worse. Preparing for tragedies some way ahead will enable you to be ready at a moments notice, and get your family to safety as fast as possible. These are some tips from a professional Merritt Island Florida real estate for sale agent:

Have an exit method. Discover the fastest and best way to safely exit your home. It's a sensible idea to have multiple routes in case several are blocked, and deciding on a place to meet once you have exited the home is necessary. Regularly studying the plan together as a family can be something that may help you remember what to do under stressful conditions.

Prepare the mandatory info for your insurance company. Take some photos of insured items, and buy a fireproof box to hold insurance papers and any other crucial documents. Reporting missing or damaged items after a situation can become puzzling and exasperating, so that the better prepared you are , the easier the experience will be.

Assign responsibilities for each family member. This can minimize the amount of time it will take to be ready. If you have got a pet, make it someone's responsibility to gather them, have somebody get the supplies, and so on. Make certain that every person in the family is accounted for, and you are in constant communication thru the entire tribulation.

Have lots of non-perishable food stuffs stored in a safe place. Flash-lamps, batteries, a radio, and blankets are a great start for an emergency kit. Every family will have different wants so if you have an animal make efforts to store food for them too. Keep your emergency kit in a safe place in your home that is easily reachable.

Find out where the emergency shelter in your neighborhood is ahead of time in the event you are in need of one. When you are in the middle of a natural disaster it can be difficult to think rationally, and this mixed with panic will make you not want to leave the area, but if you totally need to leave, you have to know where to go. Find the website of your city or town, or call them to discover where you can go in the case of an emergency.

Educating your folks are extremely important in the case of a disaster, and because you may not be together when the difficulty strikes it is important they know what to do. Tell them of where to go if they aren't in the house, and tell them where it's possible to find the emergency kit in the event you aren't there. Being prepared for a tragedy increases the prospects of a positive outcome.

Brooding about a disaster of nature in your neighborhood is scary, but the better prepared you are the less frightening it's going to be. Your best defence against a tragedy is being prepared, so if it happens you won't be caught off guard. Regularly making a review of your plan will make it go easier, and you may even be well placed to improve it each time you do.

Information provded by Brenda M. Welkenson an experienced Satellite Beach FL real estate agent. If you have an interest in learning more about safety readiness for natural disastors, you can check out Brenda’s Scottsmoor FL real estate website.

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3 Details You Ought To Know About Your Vendor’s Insurance Coverage

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Being a property manager, focusing on how suitably your building is covered is extremely important. You need to be sure that you have insurance covering damage as a result of fires, flooding – or any combination of unexpected things that can occur. That’s why an effective property manager actively works to find good insurance with plenty of coverage that’s budget friendly while concurrently allowing for peace of mind.

On the other hand what about the vendors you deal with? Is he or she insured? Do they possess the insurance needed to cover damages if things don’t go right?

To figure out the answers to these questions, you’ll need to initially keep in mind insurance provider scores are grades provided to the individual insurance companies in an attempt to rate how well these companies are able to take care of claims. Whenever you are a property manager and want your vendor included, taking note of the ratings given to insurance companies ought to be an important part of your vendor hiring process. But before making any kind of selections, give thought to these three key facts.

1. The grades work just like they did in school.

That’s right: this component of the process is really easy. An “A” rating for the insurance company indicates that the insurance company is typically capable of paying out claims and does a good job with its clients. You’ll see individual rating scales that each and every company has, but across the entire spectrum, you can anticipate that an “A” rated company will do considerably better than a “B” rated company. Not too difficult, right?

You’ll more than likely find a few more specific sorts of ratings from particular rating companies. As an example, you know A is better than B, but you’re not really sure what to make of AA, or maybe BBB. While it may be based upon the individual insurance rating agencies themselves, generally, expect the “AAA” is preferable to an “A,” which is better than a “BBB,” and so forth. But check up on the ratings from your vendors first and you’ll have a sound foundation to build a functional relationship on.

2. Grades mean something.

When you were in grade school, for those who received a B versus an A for your sixth-grade social studies project, it wasn’t exactly the end of the world. But once you start looking at insurance “grades,” or insurance company ratings, you’ll have to remember these ratings unquestionably mean something.

Commonly, the ratings make reference to the ability of the insurer to provide finances in the claims people file – to paraphrase, how good the insurance company is at offering coverage. You need your vendors to have more coverage, obviously, therefore it normally follows that you’ll also want vendors who have insurance companies with better ratings.

3. Ratings aren’t the whole picture.

Despite the fact that ratings are definitely an essential component of the system for property managers to find good vendors, that is not the entire picture. Do not hire companies based around their insurance alone – preferably, ensure that the insurance they provide is a starting point for potential work, but not the only determinant in who you contract.

Here you’ll find some help on finding a great vendor or for more info on vendor insurance check out the links.

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Property Manager Maintenance Log Books Are a Life Saver

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

Property maintenance is one of the responsibilities that is at the top of every property managers list. It is very important to consider what your property firm requires of you as far as maintenance goes.

Too many property managers get fired due to maintenance issues, so it is very important to consider the following tips to make sure that you can ensure your job security as a property manager.

One of the first things you should do it talk to your firm about how often they would like things to be serviced. Most firms will have a log book with a designated time of year that something should be serviced, but if not make one.

With this list, you can create a check list or log so that you can mark the dates when things were maintenances and keep a record. This record will come up often as it will be there to save your butt in case anything catastrophic breaks. When something bad happens, the firm will ask you when you had it serviced. If you have a log book with dates and signatures, the firm will take full responsibility for the damaged item and pay what they need to in order to fix it without giving you a whimper.

On the flip side, if you don’t keep good records, you will have a hard time explaining yourself to the firm. Often this leads to firing depending on the amount of damage, or it can lead to probation and pay cuts that are never fun. Because of the he said she said issues that can happen, do yourself a favor and have a great log book.

These tips will help you to do your best as a property manager to be able to take control of the maintenance that needs to happen on the properties that you manage. This will help you to be more accountable and also keep the firm accountable for issues that arise. Do yourself a favor and get a log book with a scheduled maintenance plan.

Mike writes about property management jobs and about property manager jobs

categories: real estate,property management,management,rent,landlord,rent payment,property damage,property insurance

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