Post by pyramidsloth on May 6, 2015 14:32:12 GMT -5
We recently moved to Colorado (military), and we're renting a home. We were in kind of a tough spot when we moved, and to make a long story short, we put down a security deposit on a rental home without seeing it first. I know, that was a mistake. Fortunately, we're 95% happy with the house and neighborhood, and while I think our landlords are pretty useless, I get that's kind of par for the course with a lot of places.
My main complaint has been the yard. When I was viewing the listing for our home, it showed a beautiful, lush, perfectly manicured lawn with a fenced in backyard (huge plus since we have a dog), and even a small little rock pond. We LOVED it. Yeah, then we actually did a walk through...turns out those pictures were from the original owners, and the previous tenants did squat in terms of lawn maintenance. The yard is a disaster; weeds everywhere, long grass, a rotted out tree, the pond is nasty and scummy, overgrown hedges, etc. At first my DH was all, "no problem, I'll take care of everything! I love doing lawn care!" Only problem is, with his job in the Army, he's gone all the freaking time. He leaves by 6am every morning, and frequently isn't home until 7pm. And that's when he's actually home at night; he's frequently in the field, or going on month-long training missions. I hate yardwork with a vengeance, plus I'm 25 weeks pregnant with #3 and I have degenerative disk disease. It hurts to pick up my 2-year old, let alone do any kind of manual labor.
I talked to DH, and he agreed we should hire a professional to do a one-time cleanup of the yard; that way, DH can handle mowing and trimming on the weekends (and if he's gone, I can hire a teenager to do basic lawn care). I found a local company with good reviews, and the owner responded to my inquiry. He said that a 2-man crew charges $70/hour for every hour of cleanup, and a 3-man crew charges $90/hour. He said most yards in our area take 1-2 hours (I should also add our yard is small, I'd say less than 1000sq feet). Does that sound like a reasonable price? Should I tip the workers, and how much? This is the first time we've ever had to worry about lawn maintenance, so I'm a little clueless.
I'm also starting to feel like that a-hole neighbor right now; our yard is THAT bad. I know it's our fault for not demanding to see recent pics of the property, but I think it was pretty shady of the rental company to not give us an accurate picture of the yard. Or, you know, take care of it before we moved in. Lesson learned.
Yeah, that actually sounds reasonable. I had some overgrown bushes and stumps removed from my beds a few weeks ago. These were some majorly overgrown bush stumps. It was like $250? But now my 2 beds (about 6 feet by 10 feet each) are totally clear. Renting the equipment needed to do the job would have been close to $200 anyway, you know? I also have a herniated disc and sciatica from that, so no way was I going to help my husband dig out stumps - he probably would have had to get a friend to do it and then buy him lunch.
If you WERE to do it, think about what you would need. Trimmer? Chain saw? Truck rental? wet vac? How much would that cost to rent? How would you get rid of the debris? Then factor in the amount of time it would take you guys (more than 1-2 hours, for sure).
I know there's no way YOU would do it, and I don't blame you, but thinking about what's involved often helps me think about whether it's a fair price, if I can price out the individual items pretty well. Home Depot/Lowes has tool/truck rental, so you can call and ask if you're really interested.
Long story short, it sounds like a decent price, and like it will be worth the money to you.
I, personally, would ask the landlord to pay for the one-time cleanup, then you pay for the periodic upkeep. Or at least ask the landlord to cover half. They can't expect you to pay to fix what their previous tenant failed to keep up, and it's in THEIR best interest to have the work done. I'd say something like "Mr Smith, we are disappointed with the condition of the yard not matching the photos we were shown. We have found X company who will charge $Y for a one-time service. After that, we will maintain the yard in that condition. Would you like us the schedule this service and deduct that amount from next month's rent?"
I get putting a deposit down on a rental sight-unseen. We're military and have had to do that too. (-and were also moving to CO -- where are you, Carson? ). It is what it is. Where we are now rentals move so fast it's practically a requirement....
Yeah, that actually sounds reasonable. I had some overgrown bushes and stumps removed from my beds a few weeks ago. These were some majorly overgrown bush stumps. It was like $250? But now my 2 beds (about 6 feet by 10 feet each) are totally clear. Renting the equipment needed to do the job would have been close to $200 anyway, you know? I also have a herniated disc and sciatica from that, so no way was I going to help my husband dig out stumps - he probably would have had to get a friend to do it and then buy him lunch.
If you WERE to do it, think about what you would need. Trimmer? Chain saw? Truck rental? wet vac? How much would that cost to rent? How would you get rid of the debris? Then factor in the amount of time it would take you guys (more than 1-2 hours, for sure).
I know there's no way YOU would do it, and I don't blame you, but thinking about what's involved often helps me think about whether it's a fair price, if I can price out the individual items pretty well. Home Depot/Lowes has tool/truck rental, so you can call and ask if you're really interested.
Long story short, it sounds like a decent price, and like it will be worth the money to you.
I think renting the equipment would probably be around the same amount of $$. We would need a lawnmover (we plan on looking at Craigslist for used ones after we get the initial cleanup taken care of), clippers, protective gloves to pull out all the weeds, weed killer, ferilization for the grass, etc. I have absolutely no idea what to do about the pond. I wouldn't even know where to start.
I, personally, would ask the landlord to pay for the one-time cleanup, then you pay for the periodic upkeep. Or at least ask the landlord to cover half. They can't expect you to pay to fix what their previous tenant failed to keep up, and it's in THEIR best interest to have the work done. I'd say something like "Mr Smith, we are disappointed with the condition of the yard not matching the photos we were shown. We have found X company who will charge $Y for a one-time service. After that, we will maintain the yard in that condition. Would you like us the schedule this service and deduct that amount from next month's rent?"
I get putting a deposit down on a rental sight-unseen. We're military and have had to do that too. (-and were also moving to CO -- where are you, Carson? ). It is what it is. Where we are now rentals move so fast it's practically a requirement....
Yes, we're at Carson. We really do love it here, and I feel very fortunate we were able to get this house. My DH got his orders pretty late, then we had an earlier than expected report date, and we were maxed out on our hotel stay (our good friends very graciously put us up in their home for a week while we waited for the previous tenants to move).
I tried talking to the landlords about it; I was very polite but firm, and said-in a nutshell-"the pictures on the listing are not an accurate description of the current state of the lawn. You have our word that we will keep it clean and tidy, as we enjoy a well-maintained lawn as much as the next person, but the previous tenant's mess should not be our responsibility." Their response was basically, too bad, so sad, you already gave us the security deposit, and if you back out now you're out almost $1400. Like I said, they're pretty useless. Our fridge died not once, but twice, and both times we lost all our groceries. Instead of sending a repairman out right away, they waited SIX DAYS to send someone. (Fortunately this was in the winter, so we put a cooler outside and we were able to save a few things). It took me calling repeatedly and eventually going apeshit at the landlord and threatening to report them to city hall before they finally sent someone over to fix our fridge.
That sounds reasonable to me. We just had our yard cleaned up by the service that does our snow removal, and they charge $49/man hour. All told, it was a bit over $500 for about half an acre of serious clean up. We weren't home to tip anyone.
So, a three-man crew should be able to get your yard tidied in 2 hours? That's an easy $180 to spend in this situation. I'd tip the crew $30 ($10/each), and call it done.
It's the downside to renting. We're serial renters, too, and we are again in a rental with a yard to care for. I'm not invested in this yard - we'll be gone in 2-3 years, so I mostly want to keep it decent enough that it won't cause issues/garner complaints. It sounds like the prior tenants at your place didn't even bother doing that much, which bites, but so be it. This is relatively petty, in the grand scheme of things, to go after your landlord for.
The appliances, on the other hand, are a _much_ bigger issue. Frankly, if you have any more issues with the landlord responding to issues like that, don't threaten to go to city hall, threaten to go to *housing* (on base). If the housing office is worth it's salt, then this type of behavior can get a landlord on their shit list. I've never seen a landlord completely blacklisted when CONUS, but we have been given "strong recommendations" to avoid certain landlords based on previous issues.
Also, get USAA renters insurance. It's cheap, and valuable. That should cover loss of food due to landlord's giving you crap appliances. (OK, I'm guessing at that, but I know we've had food losses covered in the event of power outages with our USAA renters policy, so it's not completely out of possibility.)
The last bit of unsolicited advice - save up for your next PCS so you can afford a longer hotel stay. We have almost never found a place to rent that is ready to move in within the 10 days or so the military gives you for temporary lodging. Having some money to hand for a few extra days (or weeks!) gives you more flexibility to avoid renting a place sight-unseen. Yeah, it sucks to spend an extra week in a hotel, especially on your own dime, but it sucks even more to end up in a place where you won't be comfortable for the duration of the assignment in one location.
Post by polarbearfans on May 6, 2015 18:36:40 GMT -5
I had a good yard deal from angies list. 4 workers for 2 hours for like $300 or $400. Best money we spent. No way we would have been able to get ahead of the weeds without their work. They got more done than we could have imagined. Our yard was a disaster. I was nervous they were going to quit when I saw them standing around looking at the super bad section near our shed, but after a couple minutes one grabbed his tool and dove in. Over 20 yard bags of weeds.
So, a three-man crew should be able to get your yard tidied in 2 hours? That's an easy $180 to spend in this situation. I'd tip the crew $30 ($10/each), and call it done.
It's the downside to renting. We're serial renters, too, and we are again in a rental with a yard to care for. I'm not invested in this yard - we'll be gone in 2-3 years, so I mostly want to keep it decent enough that it won't cause issues/garner complaints. It sounds like the prior tenants at your place didn't even bother doing that much, which bites, but so be it. This is relatively petty, in the grand scheme of things, to go after your landlord for.
The appliances, on the other hand, are a _much_ bigger issue. Frankly, if you have any more issues with the landlord responding to issues like that, don't threaten to go to city hall, threaten to go to *housing* (on base). If the housing office is worth it's salt, then this type of behavior can get a landlord on their shit list. I've never seen a landlord completely blacklisted when CONUS, but we have been given "strong recommendations" to avoid certain landlords based on previous issues.
Also, get USAA renters insurance. It's cheap, and valuable. That should cover loss of food due to landlord's giving you crap appliances. (OK, I'm guessing at that, but I know we've had food losses covered in the event of power outages with our USAA renters policy, so it's not completely out of possibility.)
The last bit of unsolicited advice - save up for your next PCS so you can afford a longer hotel stay. We have almost never found a place to rent that is ready to move in within the 10 days or so the military gives you for temporary lodging. Having some money to hand for a few extra days (or weeks!) gives you more flexibility to avoid renting a place sight-unseen. Yeah, it sucks to spend an extra week in a hotel, especially on your own dime, but it sucks even more to end up in a place where you won't be comfortable for the duration of the assignment in one location.
$10/each sounds good-thanks!
Hmm, good call about contacting housing...I wouldn't have thought of that. We actually didn't find this place through AHRN, but a civilian website. I'm sure they're listed on several military housing websites, though. Rentals go crazy fast here.
We do have USAA renters insurance, and I didn't even think of filing a claim for loss of food. Thanks for the tip-I'll remember that if we (unfortunately) ever have to deal with this again.
Normally we're really good about saving up for a PCS; unfortunately, this last one was one of the most financially draining we've ever had. DH was enlisted for 11 years, then did Green to Gold and was commissioned as an officer. We spent the last year at Benning while he was at BOLC, and after two years of scrimping and saving so DH could finish his degree, we spent our entire time at Benning playing financial catch-up. Then after an almost immediate PCS, well, we didn't have a whole lot in our savings account by the time we got here! Not the ideal situation, for sure, but now we've finally paid off our credit card debt and we're putting a good amount of $$ into our savings account. We *should* (lol we all know how the military works, right) be here for 3 years, so at least next time we'll be prepared!
Depending on how long ago the fridge/loss of food issue was, it might still be worth contacting USAA. I'm not sure how back-dated they would be willing to go, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Call 'em up, and say "hey, I heard you guys might do this". Worst comes to worst, you waste a bit of time on the phone. Best outcome, they deposit some money into your account in a few days... Assuming they will process a claim, they'll ask how much dollar-value of food was lost, so I'd be prepared with a rough idea on that before you call.
Well that sucks. Do they not know that it's a bad idea to piss off military renters? Even if the base doesn't blacklist them, word of mouth can be horrible. A lot of tenants get referred by friends or coworkers ("hey, my buddy is moving out right before you move in, you should see about renting her place!").
Does your lease say anything about lawn maintenance? I'd be tempted to do the bare minimum required to keep it liveable for you.
Do you really think it will only take 3 men 2 hours? We have a larger yard, but the two of us have spent days getting things cleaned up for the spring/summer. I'd still pay for the work, but I would be prepared to end up paying a little extra.
If a 'fridge is included in your lease, I'd absolutely pursue that (I know it's not what you asked). It's not acceptable to leave you without one for 6 days on 2 occasions.
I also think you have an ethical right to the lawn as pictured, but you'll probably have a harder time legally with that one. I think $90/hr for 3 people sounds pretty reasonable. Did you ask them to estimate how long it will take?