As I tend to try to not step in a bunch of dirty crap, and I try to wipe my feet on the doormat before I enter a house, I wouldn’t even think of taking my shoes off until I saw you remove yours. If you mentioned that you’d just had the carpets cleaned I would probably lift my feet and check to make sure there was nothing on my shoes, but removing them would not be my first reaction.
Not to mention that unless it’s cold out, I usually wear sandals, and it feels very odd to me to walk around a place that I don’t know well with no shoes on.
If this is really such a big concern, why not put down plastic runners? Professional cleaning isn’t the same as throwing a ton into new carpeting. Does the lease also state that nobody entering the joint can wear shoes? I can see if someone has mud caked on their shoes and tracking it, but if it’s normal dust that enters the windows anyway, I just don’t see the problem.
Not to mention the fact that if a landlord were that paranoid about “respecting the property”, I’d think he’d probably be someone who’s going to nickel-and-dime me out of my security deposit when I moved out.
Robin
Be careful what you wish for.
I knew this would devolve into a debate about shoes off indoors, but since we’re here: the take-off-your-shoes crowd needs to get right over itself.
Besides the very good reasons that have already been offered, another reason not to take your shoes off is plain modesty. My feet aren’t diseased like Mr. Fungus Guy, but they’re not particularly pretty, and if they’ve been stuffed into socks and shoes all day, they don’t smell great either. Out of consideration for anyone present, I’ll leave them fully covered, thanks.
If you’re that worried about your carpet, maybe you shouldn’t be renting it at all. People do spill things, and dirt gets tracked in with or without rules (what, the appliance delivery guy is going to take off his steel-toed boots because you asked?) It’s just not reasonable. Carpets get walked on, and they get dirty, and you vacuum them often and once in a while you wash them, and every few or several years you actually replace them. That’s how it works with carpets. Priceless handmade Oriental rugs should be hung on a museum wall. Anything down on the floor – it’s gonna get walked on, that’s all.
I’m trying to picture someone (other than a doctor) telling my grandmother to take off her shoes. She’d laugh; she wouldn’t even consider doing it because it’s just tacky. One doesn’t remove one’s shoes in public. Once she realized the request was serious, she’d be terribly offended, almost as if she were being asked to take off her blouse. And rightfully so, IMO. We do wear clothes in my family, including shoes.
We had our pet deposit reduced because the tenants previous to us had destroyed the carpet (pulled it up at the walls to run wires underneath and not tacked it back down and spilled red wax or kool aid in several places.
We also got to move in a few days early (a real lifesaver) because we agreed that they didn’t need to replace the carpets. Stains don’t bother me, and they’re mostly covered by furniture anyway.
The shoe thing is absurd.
The rental company for my last place had some interesting rules about income and the like. My monthly income had to be four times what I was paying in rent. That’s a LOT of money… and any roommates’ income had to ALSO be four times. So, if two of us are living in a two bedroom renting at $500 a month, we had to EACH be making $2000 a month. That’s not so easy when you’re a full time student.
OK, not in response to anybody in particular, just thought I’d share this:
I was looking for a place of my own, after too long with my parents…found a place, went through the visit/early paperwork without a problem. As seemed reasonable, I told them at the point they discussed finances that I was on long-term incapacity benefit. A noncomittal response ensued.
A week later, I am told that the landlord refused my application.
To cut a long story short: I then threatened them under disability discrimination legislation, they admitted guilt, we asked for more, they offered more, they paid up.
Hey! My complex just did this to me and I was complaining about it in The Pit or something. We’re getting a concession on our rent (which is how they say “Move out and you’re screwed”)…but we each are supposed to make 3 times rent. Not so bad, right? Except that they’re calculating it based on the market rent, which is like $200 a month more than we’re paying. And it’s not my girlfriend and I, it’s ONE of us. So they’re basing their decision on our ability to pay rent on a figure that we’ll never actually be paying.
Here is something that no one has mentioned yet.
When the rental market is really hot, applicants can be screened just by the phone messages they leave. Ten people might call for one apartment over a couple of days. Right away the messages can be deleted for anybody who is stammering and uncoherent in their message. Also, anyone with a dog barking or kids yelling/crying in the background gets deleted.
It’s also true what posters have said about just mentioning a credit check is enough to scare off many bad tenants.
Since you’re all here I’d like to ask a question:
How do you landlords prefer to be approached regarding a problem the tenant is having? Personally, I love my apartment and think I have a pretty good relationship with my landlord (along with some kick-ass low rent), the relationship extending to the check I mail in once a month and the occasional call “Hey, I noticed your empty apt. door is open and it’s 10 pm - do you want me to close it?” and stuff like that.
However, there are a few things that were never finished before I moved in last year and I am really getting worn down with waiting.
For example - I have a hole in my bathroom wall where the sheet rock did not come down far enough to meet the baseboards (everything is new in the bathroom) and the dishwasher is not attached to the counter so it keeps trying to run across the floor. There are other minor things. I have mentioned them but nothing has been done past saying that it would be fixed.
My main goal is that the work be done without making the relationship awkward in the future should I need anything else.
PS - please don’t think my landlords are slum lords. I live in a building that was totally renovated with the original hardwoods restored and new wiring throughout, lots of improvements. I just think that with so much being done to every apartment that some things are getting overlooked.
No smokers, no pets.
I have a question for rental folks, too.
Do you pull the entire credit report, or just the scores?
I have one strange thing on my report, an unpaid bill to TXU for soemthing like $900 that I JUST found out about. I asked them to shut off my electric when I moved across the country, but they never did, and I never got a bill or collection notice or anything.
And I moved out of my first apt complex over two years ago(same move), and had to pay off the lease. We did, but it’s on the report as “collection.” We owe nothing now. We’re getting an excellent reference from this complex, cause we’ve been good lil’ tenants.
Will either of these cause a problem?
This policy makes my life hell but I understand it. 
I was thinking about the credit check thing last night. I used to always be a few days late on my bills. I’ve never in my life been late with a rent check. I wish that was recorded somehow… I guess I have to rely on references.
Why don’t landlords and property manangement companies put “no pets/smoking” in their ads? The ability to have our pets is the number one priority in finding an apartment. After that comes size, price, location, amenities and everything else. I go through the paper circling hundreds of possibles, only to find out they only accept one dog under 10 pounds (which is more likely to do damage and cause noise complaints than my 60 pound dog, but that’s another thread) or don’t accept pets at all. It certainly would save me hours of frustration to find out no pets/small pets policies before I waste the company’s time.
FilmGeek - You can check pet policies online for most complexes, I’ve found. It’s made my life easier.
My sister and I will eventually inherit my parents’ house, and at the moment we’re kind of planning to mortgage half of its value, give the cash to my sister, and then I stay here with my wife and kids and pay the mortgage on the house myself.
Now, I hope to be able to cover the mortgage, council tax etc with my own income, supplemented by my wife’s, but as we know, life doesn’t always work that way. One obvious solution to this is mortgage insurance to ensure that it all gets paid off if one of us dies, but the other more likely scenario is that we’ll end up renting out the upstairs.
There are two rooms upstairs, one fairly spacey with a beautiful view, one on the small side with no view unless you’re over six feet tall, and even then you have to stand on tiptoe. There’s also a shower and toilet. You have to access it from inside the house, so it’s not a separate apartment, but it’s pretty close otherwise. This has all been rented out before on a fairly casual basis by my mother, who really just wanted people’s rents to cover their costs, because it was more or less a favour to folk in the church. We rented out a couple of the rooms downstairs too. This provided several people with the lowest rents in this part of the city. Also, at the time when the house was full, occasionally rooms would go to people we knew very well but who simply couldn’t pay it at the time. So I have a fair bit of experience of the “living with people” thing, but they were all getting a good deal and most of them knew it perfectly well. If I start asking more reasonable money, am I (gulp) going to have to be a reasonable landlord?
What should I be thinking about? How different are the rules on letting out rooms from those on letting out a whole apartment? I am in the UK, but any advice would be helpful. Do I still do credit checks, etc? I’m very interested in people’s advice here, and I’ll certainly mention credit checks just to see if people start screaming and dive out of the nearest window… but really, I’d much rather just let them do their thing and relax. I certainly agree that everything’s much easier if they consider you a friend, but there always come times when you have to put your foot down. How best is this done if I’m actually dependent on their contribution? Given that the upstairs is the most easily “separate” part of the house, should I look into installing separate electrity meters? They can be kinda pricey, but then one lodger from India took to sitting with a fan heater on all day rather than put on a sweater, so I feel I’ve had my fingers burned a little. Also, since I have kids, do I apply for a police disclosure form or something? Or is that illegal? How best can I ensure the safety of my children? People’s advice in here on how to ensure regular payment of rent has been very useful already. Given that these people will inevitably have to run the gauntlet of children and possibly dogs on the way to their rooms, should I mention that in the advert or wait till people come to see the place? Also, what sort of thing are people likely to sue over, and how do I avoid that?
Any other advice on this side of things? Is it absolutely necessary to do a Leonard Rossitter accent when I collect rent? Do you… um… do you think I should push off and start my own thread?
I am looking for a house with a few friends, but I have some pretty big hurdles. How do I deal with this situation?
Me: I have three jobs that all pay crap wages. I doubt I make enough to qualify for anything. But I’m used to paying 90% of my wages in rent and have never been behind on my (admittedly few) financial obgligations. I have a fairly large amount of money in the bank, but I also have massive student loans that will be paid off when a CD matures later this year. This CD is not in my name, so it looks like I have a fifteen thousand dollar debt and no way to pay it.
Friend 1: Friend One went through a period of depression where he did not pay his bills on time at all. He always got them paid (the water or electricity or whatever never reached the point where it was turned off) but they were almost always late. He has since reformed and understands the need for good financial planning. He barely makes any money, but gets a large monthly allowence from his spectacularly rich parents. He wants to make a fresh start, but fears he will never get anyone to take a chance on him again.
Friend 2: Friend Two once again makes horrible wages, but he sits on a mind boggling amount of money.
Probably the easiest way to deal with your situation even sven, is to have your roommates rich parents co-sign the lease. That way, if any of you screw up, the parents are responsible for the rent.
After your landlord sees that you are all responsible, and you have a track record, I’m sure they would be willing to convert the lease.
Why would walking on a carpet in your socks put you at increased risk of having your feet amputated? I’m confused.
Diabetics are prone to infections of the extremities because of decreased blood circulation. Walking barefoot is not recommended because you might cut your foot, get an infection, it turns gangrenous, bye bye foot.
If he has it in a bank or stocks or a trust, he can someone from the managing institution to write a letter guaranteeing that he has enough funds to cover the rent. My friend, who makes a low salary but has more than $500,000 in the bank, did this when she rented a $2,600/month apartment on a $30,000 salary. They quickly approved her application.
Actually, you can put “no pets” in the ad, but not “no smokers”. Doesn’t mean you have to rent to them. But sometimes you do. If smoking was the tie-breaker between to other-wise equal candidates, Puffy hits the bricks.
You can’t ask if they smoke on the application. Of course, the only way to tell is see them/smell them. Its remarkable easy.
Its really nothing personal, but they stink, they ruin carpets/fixtures/furniture/drapes, have higher risk of fire damage, often litter more than non-smokers (throw the butts in the grass just outside the door) etc. etc.