Out of State Landlords

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

Has anybody in this community rented from, or are currently renting from landlords who live out of state? If so, did you have/are currently having problems with them?

Comments

[philbot.livejournal.com]

I rented from a couple who lived in D.C. They were awesome and I had no problems with them.

[ceo]

Likewise. (Was it a bizarrely laid-out two-decker on Cherry St, by any chance?)

[philbot.livejournal.com]

Nope!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I've been renting from a California resident for almost 9 years. It's worked out just fine. We tenants do a bit more work than most, like raking leaves and cleaning the communal basement, but he keeps our rent low because of it.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's a fucking nightmare.

We have a local management company, and we can't get them to do ANYTHING - and our upstairs neighbors are equally frustrating, and we have no pull with the landlord, because he's not in the area.

Avoid this situation.

[midsummernd.livejournal.com]

I subletted an apartment with out of state landlords and a management company, so since it was short-term it didn't really affect me too much. The management company was willing to fix things that were immediate dangers (say, electrical outlets), but slow to fix nonessential things (dishwashers/dryers), and probably would never fix cosmetic things. So, it depends on what you're willing to live with. . .

[xmasfruitcake.livejournal.com]

i'm currently renting from a landlord living in cali. no management company. our heat had been broken from friday until today with no response from her over the weekend. it was a nightmare. there have been many problems during my time here and generally we get a fast email response that she'll get "someone" right on it (the problem) but usually a significant amount of time passes before the issue is resolved...and in many cases, we're still waiting.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

I always preface my responses with the fact that I'm now a Davis exile. However, I did rent for all the years that I lived there, and knew many people under many different landlords.

Dare I go out on a limb here and assert that ones experience depends not as much on the geography as it does on the personality of the landlord?

Some are horrific, some are good. Some live locally, some live far away -- I've never seen any correlation between geography and quality, but that's just me.

tenant law

[atg77.livejournal.com]

Massachusetts tenant law is very favorable to the tenants as opposed to the landlords. Things like heat failing and not being repaired immediately can be held as a claim against a landlord (not that you necessarily want to enter litigation with your landlord unless it's really bad). I'm not expert myself, but here is one helpful resource (among many) for knowing you tenant rights: http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=1190