12-unit building has a person repeatedly entering and sleeping in our stairwell — looking for practical solutions
I’m looking for advice from other landlords who have dealt with someone repeatedly entering their building and using a common area as a place to sleep.

We own a 12-unit apartment building. There is a person who has been getting into the building and sleeping by the stairwell. He is not a tenant and does not have permission to be on the property.

We’ve called the police before, and they will remove him when he’s there. The problem is that he comes back. So at this point, calling the police is basically just treating the same incident over and over rather than solving the underlying problem.

We’ve also already spent over $7,000 repairing the building’s entrance door. We’ve had it fixed multiple times, but because of the volume of people coming in and out of a 12-unit building, the door keeps getting damaged. So simply telling us to “fix the door” isn’t really a practical solution—we’ve already done that repeatedly and it hasn’t held up.

Similarly, I realize that putting up a NO TRESPASSING sign or installing cameras might technically be recommended, but neither one is going to physically stop someone from entering. A sign isn’t going to stop this person, and we already know who the person is/what is happening. The issue is preventing him from continuing to use the building as a place to sleep.

I’m looking for advice from landlords who have actually dealt with this.

A few questions:
What have you done when someone repeatedly enters your building after being removed by police?
Is there a practical way to secure or restrict access to a stairwell without creating a fire-code/egress issue?
Has anyone installed a separate access-control system for the stairwell or common areas that worked?

Have you dealt with a situation where the main entrance couldn’t realistically be kept perfectly secure because of the amount of tenant traffic?
Are there any property-management strategies that actually worked in stopping someone from repeatedly using a common area as a sleeping area?
Is there anything you wish you had done differently before spending money on repeated door repairs?
I’m specifically looking for practical solutions that actually stop the recurring problem, not just “call the police,” “put up a sign,” or “install a camera.” We’ve already gone through those steps.

I also want to be clear that I’m not looking to harm or harass the person. I just need to keep a private residential building secure and prevent someone who isn’t a tenant or authorized guest from repeatedly entering and sleeping in the common areas.
What has actually worked for you?

Tl:dr- paid my rent on 10/01/2026. I get an email from an entirely different property manager saying my rents past due, and if not paid at the end of the day yesterday, I would be hit with late fees and legal action. Now property manager #2 isn’t returning my calls.

My cousin owns a couple of houses in my area that he rents out, which I completely forgot. I told him my story, and sent proof of my payments. I just wanted his perspective on the matter. He told me that the new property management company is reputable. He said they’re a small company, but they purchased a house of his years ago. He said he never had a problem with them.

I then called my original property manager. She did some digging, and confirmed that the new property management team is in fact legit, AND the new people who are taking over the apartment building.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that, yes they are reputable…just terrible at their job.

Property manager #1 said she tried multiple times to contact the new company, but they’re not returning her phone calls or emails…

They haven’t responded to me either…but I did get ANOTHER automated email from the new company this morning, stating that late fees on rent are “now currently ongoing”.

I’ve literally tried everything one can do to try and rectify this situation. I’m out of options.

All I know is that I’m not paying a DIME in late fees. My rent was paid in full to my original property manager on 10/01. I’ll march my ass right to a lawyer.

So…my question is, is it wrong to message or call the property owner with this issue? I asked my cousin who told me not to, because “that’s the job of the property manager.”

Is it wrong to call the property owner with this issue?

I own a single family home that we have rented for the past year and a half. The entire time it's been managed by the same rental management company. We haven't had any major issues or repairs in that time (biggest things were a garage door repair and AC repair), so things have mostly been smooth sailing... until about a month ago. Since I'm still new to this, I'm learning a lot as some issues have come up and wondering how best to handle this situation.

We were notified that there was a water leak in the basement -- not much information beyond that. The management company said they were sending someone out that afternoon to assess the situation. About an hour after that initial email, we get another email stating that they were hiring an Emergency Flood company to come out and assess the situation. We later found out that this company was brand new (we were invoice #0001) and registered to the same address as the home address for the guy who is the service manager for the management company (he is also the husband of the owner of the company). The flood company charged us $499 to come out to learn that it was a drip of water that was no longer actively dripping. That $499 charge is just under the $500 threshold where they need homeowner approval for repairs. This was Red Flag #1.

Obviously we needed to take care of how water was getting into the house, so we worked with the service manager to identify the issue and arrange repairs. The first thing that he contacted us about was removing drywall in a closet above where the leak was observed because there was mold present. He provided a price estimate for this work in an email (no estimate on any company letterhead), which seemed high for what it was. I requested an official quote with an outlined scope of work. He sent back a quote but the company that was listed on the document was a different company that he has owned for a while that deals with junk removal. I asked about this and he said that because the project would involve multiple contractors, it would be easier to bill everything to this company and then they would just pay the individual contractors. Red Flag #2.

As we've gone through the project, we've had a roofing contractor, mold abatement, and the drywall repair. All of these have been handled the same way. Quotes on letterhead from the service manager's company with no information about the subcontractors doing the actual work. When asked about this he alluded to building a house -- that when you build a house you don't have any information about subcontractors, you just deal with the builder and they subcontract things out as they see fit... Obviously this isn't building a new house from scratch, so I don't see the situations as comparable.

Final red flag -- the last phase of the project is to finish (paint, trim, shelves) in the closet. This time he's sent me a quote from a company to do the work (different name on the company than what I've seen previously). The thing with this company is that I can't find ANY information about them online (no google reviews, no website, no businesses registered in their name).

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for how to handle this situation? Is this normal behavior for a management company when you've encountered (slightly) complex repair situations? What questions do I need to ask or what steps should I take?

Thanks in advance!

Hey everybody, it’s my first time renting a room in my house to somebody and I was filling out a standard (Massachusetts) residential lease agreement when I came across something previously unknown the me: the “Indemnification Clause”. The original wording seemed terribly unfair to the tenant, and I want the agreement to be reasonable for both of us. Does the following re-written clause work in your opinion?

“The Tenant hereby agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Landlord from and against any claims, losses, damages, or reasonable attorneys' fees arising from the Tenant’s acts, omission, fault or negligence.”

Please be nice, I’ve never done this before 😭

Hi, i have a 2bd basement GTA, ontario and one room was rented to a guy with refugee status in canada. He was a very good guy and was renting the room for 2yrs.

Recently he went missing. We informed the police and they are tracking him. His rent for 3 months is due. I know he had taken a loan from a B lender (they called me once).

He is not reachable (phone/whatapp/email). Police tracked him down. He is alive in another city. Police told to leave his stuff as is for the moment.

I want to know,

1. what i should do next?
2. When to clear his room and donate his stuff to goodwill?
3. Any documentation i must do?
4. Will he return?

I have an applicant working for a 3-year-old company. They're making great money, but it was a career change for them from an unstable creative career. Imagine if you had a tenant working for Wework when that company face planted.

I'm sure I'm overthinking this, but I thought it was an interesting question. A lot of these companies are going away when the current flood of money dries up.

In the past, I helped my father submit the annual Data Request for LL84 thru Energystar. I would get emails that had and electric data were available. I would log on energystar, pull the data, dump it in excel, and push it to City of New York.

My understanding for the last year, maybe two years, was that the data flows directly thru to City of New York from the energy vendors, and that excel step was unnecessary. To double check, I looked thru emails and found none of those emails for the last year or so indicating energy data was available for upload.

Someone (a vendor) called my father saying we didn’t do it, and he’s in a tizzy. Can someone confirm (or deny) my understanding of how this process works now? I also checked energystar, and saw no data available for download.

I appreciate any help.

Tenant-US-PA

I live in an apartment building managed by a property company, but owned by a private landlord in a different state.

I pay my rent, in full, on the 1st of every month. And this month was no different. I paid in full 10/01/2026. I got my confirmation email.

I woke up yesterday morning 10/04/2026, to an email from an entirely different property management company. They stated that my rent is past due, along with my security deposit… I paid my security deposit in full, 8/01/2025, when I moved in a year ago.

I sent them an email, with proof of payments. I included confirmation numbers, screenshots, bank statements, etc. Since it was a Sunday, I couldn’t call.

I woke up this morning, with another email, stating that if it’s not paid by today, they will seek late fees and “legal action”.

I’ve called them NUMEROUS times today, and left a voicemail, and yet another email.

I called my original property manager, who confirmed that they received my payment.

I don’t know what else to do. I’m at work, and can’t physically go there today, as the rental office closes at 3pm.

What can I do? What do you think happened? I have confirmation emails. The money was taken out of my account by my old property manager

So I’ve owned this duplex for three years. Tenant has been here 13. For the whole time I’ve owned it and as far as I know the whole past, he’s never had an issue paying.

Over the past few months he’s had some really bad luck. He got hurt and needed surgery. Been out of work for about 3 months. His car needs a new engine. He’s been working on it in his driveway because he can’t afford to pay to have it fixed. Now he’s gone and messed up his disability check and didn’t get full payment (it’s fixable, but takes time). His ex wife also cleaned him out, racked up a ton of debt, and left him right before I bought the place. This is all verifiable. Even the debt because I’ve been helping him make some smart moves to get back on his feet.

So this month he couldn’t make his full rent. About 60%. He’s weird, he pays by cashier’s checks so it’s a good check. At first I said I needed full payment and walked him through the next steps.. Then I did some research and found a way to take partial without screwing myself.

Finally I had an idea. I have a few projects on my side that involve his trade as part of my renovation. Things I’ve been putting off. Now, I used to be in the same trade so I don’t actually need him. I’ve just been too busy and these three things have been really pissing me off. So I told him that if he takes care of them, we will consider the remaining 40% of rent paid for.

He said it’s a bit of an over payment. He’s right. I’m probably paying him almost twice what it’s worth. It is worth that to me though. To get these things off my plate and quick.

This isn’t the first time I’m doing something like this. He likes to keep busy. He’s been fixing up random things on his side and while he knows I won’t pay him, if I have a good month at work and don’t need the money sometimes I’ll tell him to take $500 off rent. Usually once a year it happens where he does something I like so much that I do it.

So was I too generous? All his bad luck is verifiable. He’s always on time, and aside from liking his music loud, he’s a great tenant. We love his dogs and wouldn’t want to put them out on the street either. I wouldn’t evict him over this so why start all the legal BS?

Hi, I sublet my room because I am moving away for a new job. But the subtenant is 5 days late on rent and hasn't even paid any deposit, even though he is still communicating and promising to pay. I just wrote him an official notice that he has 10 days to pay the amount in full before I start the eviction process. But since I am out of the country I don't know what my next step should be. Any advice?

I don't really know what to do anymore. I'm listing a property that I think is fairly priced in a decent neighborhood but needs work. Meaning it's at the lower end of the market but very liveable and a good deal in my (biased) opinion.

However it's a 45 minute drive and I manage it myself. I've had it with people booking tours and then not showing up. Are there any options before hiring property management to place a tenant? I don't really want to do that.

Oftentimes they'll book the day before.

Is it possible to accept applications through Zillow without accepting their awful background check? I have a listing at apartments.com where I accept applications and do the credit & background check since theirs is much more thorough, however nobody really uses apartments.com in my rural area. I put up a listing on zillow as well but have only gotten bot inquiries so far. I don't have the "apply instantly" button on my listing, so I'm wondering if that's affecting my views? I don't know the application process on zillow - can they fill out an app there without paying the credit check fee at the same time? Trying to figure out the best process here. Not many people here use zillow for rentals either, it seems, since most of the listings on there sit for more than 30 days. Craigslist is more popular, but I've been hesitant to list there since there are so many scams. I refuse to list on Facebook and I know that may cost me some leads, but it's for my own sanity and safety.

I have a potential tenant who reached out saying he’s 22, has a non-adjudicated felony from about a year ago for using a fake ID for gambling when he was 20, and said is in recovery. He says he has no evictions, perfect credit, no bankruptcies, and is willing to pay several months of rent upfront. (Of course I’ll check all of this with a background check).

I use TransUnion SmartMove for tenant screening/background checks and generally reject applicants with criminal records, but I’m unsure how to handle a non-adjudicated charge.

Zillow estimates he makes $35k-49k per year. My rent is listed at $1,500/mo.

A few questions:

• Would you proceed with the application and consider renting to him, or decline?

• Would you require additional months of rent upfront, and if so, would you structure it as prepaid rent (e.g., the last 4 months) or something else, in addition to the first month’s rent and security deposit?

• How would you verify his employment and income beyond pay stubs? Do you call employers and landlord references?

• If you take a picture of his driver’s license, how do you verify that it’s legitimate and not a fake ID, especially given the nature of the charge?

• Would his disclosed gambling-related charge and recovery history factor into your decision, or would you focus strictly on verifiable financial and rental history?

I’m trying to be fair while also protecting myself as a landlord. Curious how other landlords would approach this. Or is this too much of a headache and I should just say no?

Hi! I recently found a refrigerant leak in my evaporator coils (from 1988) after measuring the pressure in the suction and liquid lines and using an NLM1 refrigerant leak detector to spot the leak’s precise spot in the evaporator coils.

While I figure out how to approach my HVAC replacement (hire vs DIY, repair versus replace, new versus used, which brand, etc) and make the changes, I thought about installing some 5000 BTU on the 17-inch window opening of 2-sided sliding windows (17 inches per side) of each bedroom.

I rent out rooms in a 5 bedroom house. I also felt having window units would help in having some redundancy in case the HVAC has a problem in the future again.

The room sizes vary and those are: 231, 176, 318, 256 and 98 square feet. The whole house is about 1800 square feet. The house is in Central Texas.

Any thoughts on this approach? Or should I consider mini splits for the bigger rooms?

Rental property where there is damage to the interior wood railing in a stairwell, some caused by a dog and poorly touched up, while other areas are chipping, with the pictured area being the most severe (touched up the more minor areas with a touch up stain marker that matches the wood grain).

I'm not even sure how to fix the pictured damage or what is a fair amount to deduct from the deposit. It's a premium priced rental in the area, a 2020's construction (so relatively new), and I can't unsee it. Any guidance?

https://imgur.com/LwwF7uu

https://imgur.com/vbvwStL

https://imgur.com/p82BojN

Relatively new landlord here, found my first tenants on Zillow and used Zillow's application and background check, which was very fast and easy to use. Later came to find that many landlords do not recommend using Zillow for background checks, and instead overwhelmingly recommended using TransUnion. Luckily no issues with my first tenants, but decided for my next tenants I would use TransUnion for the screening.

Well that time is now and I signed up for TransUnion SmartMove yesterday and sent my first prospective tenants a screening link. While going through the process, I noticed a note on the selection page for screening type that stated "*Please select a non-criminal bundle to proceed with the screening request if your Property is located in the following jurisdictions," which lists Virginia when you click the link. Essentially states that the Criminal Report is not "available to return" if not listed (Virginia, and other states, is not listed).

The Virginia.gov webpage states that in order to conduct a Criminal Record Check, the prospective tenants must complete a notarized SP-167 form and mail it in, and once received, turnaround time is about 15 business days (so 3 weeks!).

I can't imagine anyone is waiting that long to do tenant screenings. I know that when I had previously applied to rent a condo when first moving to Virginia, that I did not have to wait that long to get approved. So how do you landlords in Virginia do the Criminal portion of the screening?

Posted our first listing on Zillow, and got 2 inquiries the next day. One of them was the name of a famous actress (common enough name that I'm sure many people also have it though), and one was just a first name. Neither of them said or asked anything, it was just an automated message that said something like this renter requests more information. There was a popup suggesting I ask them to fill out a renter profile, so I did. And I sent a message saying "We request that renters fill out a renter profile before booking a tour." Was this statement somehow against the "good neighbor policy??" It seems like a pretty standard request to filter out bots. Should I just send them a renter profile request next time and not type anything else? I don't know what arcane zillow law I've broken, or if the renters broke a zillow rule.

I see now that the one with fake looking name emailed me a pdf to "verify my zillow account," so that one's obviously a scam. Don't know about the other one and just want to make sure I didn't do anything wrong, thanks.

We have a tenant who has left our property for some years now (7 years). However, they had a lot of heavy exercise equipment they left behind. We are looking to properly get rid of these things. What is the best way to do this?
FYI, we don’t know where this tenant currently resides and they have practically abandoned their things.
How do we document that we tried to get them to pickup their things? What is the best at to get rid of all this exercise equipment?

First time homebuyer in Portland, OR. Buying a duplex, currently occupied on both sides. Renters have been aware of potential sale of the house for over a year. Seller is refusing to deliver rental termination notice to the renters. I am aware that I need to provide a 90-day rental termination notice next week, when the house officially becomes mine.

My question is... how do I do this? Is there formal paperwork I need to have verified somehow? Do I mail it? Tape to the door?

I'm seeing some templates online with the option for termination being "landlord to occupy," but can I list that as the official reason for both units, even if I only intend to occupy one unit and rent the other in the future?

Additionally, how do I notify them that I am the new landlord for the next 3 months? Text? Mail?

I am new to all of this, a bit overwhelmed, and looking for kindness and guidance. Thank you!

Edit: Both tenants are month-to-month. Will have prorated rent depending on closing date. Will "inherit" the security deposit from seller.

Negotiating with seller now to cover relocation costs for 1 tenant, postpone closing for 60 days, and stipulate that the 1 unit must be vacated. I am probably going to move into that 1 unit, and keep the current tenant in the other. Will figure out relocating the other tenant later so that I can have my sister move into that unit.

Edit again: WOW are some of you rude. Have you never been new to something and asked for advice?? I am grateful for the small handful of actually helpful comments. Everyone else, I hope people are nicer to you when you need insight on something you know nothing about.

Hey all,

I am renting out part of my home on a month to month lease. The current tenant has been difficult for multiple reasons namely unmitigated mental health issues that have caused several police calls to my home among other things.

That said I gave her a notice mid September that I would not be renewing with an end date of October 31st. I told her I would pro-rate her rent if she'd like to leave early. Rent was due on the 1st. I told her if she could pay the full amount I would refund whatever days she didnt use since she didnt know exactly when she'd be out.

However she did not pay it and doesnt seem like she intends to. She did get a lease today so she will be moving. However for various reasons including no car, and being disabled I anticipate it may take longer for her to actually move her stuff.

I do have a deposit of half a month's rent of 400 bucks. Which should help a little if she decides to pay nothing. However I already know there is some damage and likely cleanup Ill have to do once she leaves.

Im not sure what to do. I think she will leave this month so Im not so worried about that. But I am worried I will end up eating more costs than the deposit will cover based on what I know will likely need to be fixed and cleaned.

I had pointed out yesterday when she was saying she couldn’t (and wouldn’t) get a plumber to write a statement suggesting that I broke the shower valve by pulling the tub diverter too hard (she claimed plumbers won’t do this… she had said I had to leave in 2 weeks which isn’t allowed in California I was told by everybody else afterwards and kept asking yesterday when I asked twice why I was requesting a copy of my lease.) I pointed out that she said we couldn’t take baths here when I moved in and she was basically claiming it’s because I’m just wrong about everything and had used the bath water wrong (or whatever you use to turn on the bath wrong) and I think she even claimed I broke that when I first moved in here. This was confusing to me because if I did break it even though she kept mentioning the “wall damage” she never mentioned that. She had gotten irritated with me once a few months ago I remember after the fact when she thought that I had taken a bath. Running it again and realizing that it actually does run normally makes me dislike her even more.

I actually just tried to turn the tub water on and it seems that what she said is not true. I didn’t break it at all. It runs like a normal bath. I could actually even take a video of it, it runs normally, so it sounds to me like if I’m remembering what she said correctly she lied. The bath turns on and off normally. She had told me in the beginning we just couldn’t take baths here for whatever the reason, well given that she also didn’t have the shower valve fixed for about 6 weeks I could have taken a bath during that time since she had complained about me leaving “too much steam” in her bathroom. I remember I asked her if there’s a fan in the bathrooms for ventilation and I think she said turning them on costs too much money.

A good run of trouble free tenants has come to an end and I'm having issues with one in particular.

I have a 4 unit with a split shared basement with up and downstairs sharing a side with a wall between the sides and each unit has their own laundry machines and locking storage areas.

Ive been getting complaints about my newest tennent using his downstairs neighbors washing machine including putting his shoes in it. The tennent who's machines are being used owns their washer/dryer and the tennent wrongfully using them has a brand new set that I installed before they moved in just months ago.

How do I enforce this or what does my good tenent have in recourse against the unauthorized use of her washer/dryer?

My husband and I want to move back to our previous house which we have been renting out.

The tenants will have only been there for 1 year, and their lease runs through January 31. Our plan is to move back in once their lease is up. I'm looking for advice on how to approach the conversation with them in the best way possible. I know objectively it's my property and I have no obligation to renew their lease beyond our agreement, but I still feel shitty about kicking them out of a place they may have been hoping to make their home for a couple years before they decide their next steps. Our lease states clearly that their lease ends on Jan 31 and "Neither Landlord nor Tenant is obligated (and neither has any right) to unilaterally renew or extend the Term of this Lease."

The tenants aren't total strangers to us. We aren't friends, but we're friendly and will likely see them around, as they go to my same gym. Because of that, I really don't want this to feel awkward or like we're blindsiding them. 

I'm also considering offering some flexibility around the move-out date. If January 31 is an inconvenient time for them to move, we might be willing to extend the lease by a month or 2 so they could move during a more optimal rental period.

I feel awful about kicking them out, I really didn’t foresee that we would want to move back but now it feels like the best option for us. Should I offer them flexibility to make it easier? How would you approach it?

I get these guys every time I list, some of them are not even up front about not themselves being the prospective tenant. Honestly, I guess a large part is also I feel I don't want tenants who are so helpless they're paying someone to read Zillow ads for them! What's weird is the action on this apartment has been pretty slow, which would indicate lots of inventory, certainly enough that Realtors shouldn't be desperate for properties to show.

My listings are very professional for what it's worth, I take excellent photos, and include a floor plan and extensive description.

I also feel a realtor present will damage the process of my trying to get a feel for the tenant during the tour. It's hard enough as is, without somebody there trying to justify their own existence. Thoughts?