Landlord Forum

01/09/2022

Housing Opportunities Made Equal Act
The passage of HB 231/SB 53, effective October 1, 2020, establishes a new protected class in Maryland housing: source of income. As part of the Housing Opportunities Made Equal Act, are prohibited from denying a rental application solely based on the applicant’s use of federal housing vouchers.

Landlords may still deny applications based on an applicant’s income, creditworthiness, and other nondiscriminatory qualifications. Similarly, landlords may deny a tenant’s application if the tenant’s source of income is derived from criminal activity.

In your optional resources, we’ve provided you with a copy of the bill as enrolled if you’d like to read it in its entirety.

04/11/2020

With the virus this is what we have put out for are tenants that have contacted us with job loss or slow down: We understand that we are all in uncharted times. We have been property managers for over 39 years and have never experienced anything like this economic shut down. The owners we work for, and ourselves, are in the same situation as everyone else. We all depend on incoming payments to pay our mortgages, utilities and basic life essentials.

During this state of emergency we are not assessing late fees. We request if you can not make full payment to provide us with a written payment plan and to make routine partial payments throughout the month. We encourage you if you are laid off to file for unemployment benefits and any other assistance (churches etc) that may become available.

If you have been laid off or had your income reduced, we ask that you obtain a letter from your employer documenting your situation. If you are self employed, we ask you send us a letter describing your business and the current impact of the closures. We may need copies of your bank statements or financial records to show your reduced funds, this may be required if our government offers aid programs to help us all recover from this shut down.

We are all striving to do our part in reducing the spread of this virus and look forward to resuming our lives as soon as possible. We wish you and your families well during this challenging time.

02/22/2020

Good article

Whether you lease out a single family home or apartments in a multiplex building, there are many landlord responsibilities that come with the territory.

01/05/2020

I am finding out that a my commercial tenant who was ask to leave because of Breach of Lease, may be a Sovereign Citizen. They are now sending 40 page documents to me and claiming to file against us a Commercial Lien. We have an attorney. Start to read up on this, it is apparently a big problem even with HUD. Learn the signs of this movement before you sign one up. The sign I missed is when they signed the contract after there name wrote "All Rights Reserved". FYI Beware!

01/05/2020

https://www.hudoig.gov/sites/default/files/2019-04/Sovereign_Citizen_Scams.pdf

12/04/2018

I had an applicant give me the song and dance about problems with previous Landlord. On her application, address did not match her address on the pay studs. I found the number to to the previous LL and got the real story. Also I checked Case Search this applicant has Failure to Pay rent filing for the past 3 years at different address! Landlord make sure you check everything and in Maryland if you deny an applicant you must do this is in writing with certain wording.

11/14/2018

Be careful with Direct TV. They do not get written permission to install dish from Owner/Landlord, they only ask person ordering if they gotten permission to install from Landlord, then proceed to install Dish on your roof!!!!! I have include in my lease no installation of any type of equipment on roofs.

09/17/2018

I have a tenant, that wanted to buy the building they were leasing. My owner made them an offer to buy, but was higher than they wanted to pay. He said that they were good tenants and paid a fair amount of rent to date. I have had tenants tell me this before that they were "Good Tenants" as if this should extend something extra. I explain to them that the lease agreement does not have any thing in it about good or bad, but each parties obligations and responsibilities. I explain to this tenant the owner provided a building for there use to run there business. I have the same thing told to me by my residential tenants and my response is I have provide a home for them and made all repairs per the lease agreement and they paid the rent per the lease. To all my Landlord and tenant friends, I have not seen a lease that states "good or bad", just owner will provide property and repairs as listed in the lease, tenants gets the use of the property for an amount of time.

08/27/2018

Landlords should understand what is a rent-to-income ratio and how to apply this rule of thumb to inform decisions about tenant selection. Learn more.

08/09/2018

Landlords beware, if your applicant does not fill out current landlord or there phone number be careful. Check all phone number tenant gives you! Also check tax records to make sure the name on form matches tax records! I have applicants go as far as giving me one of there friend numbers to call and pretend to be the current landlord.

06/27/2018

For Failure to pay rent court, if you need a licence to operate a rental, it would be best if you bring the licence to court. Some jurisdiction throw out your failure to pay rent case without the licence.