"jJim McLaughlin" wrote in message
. ..
DerbyDad03 wrote:


SNIP HAPPENS
(S)He could look at the repairs, and even if they are perfect, charge
you for them anyway. Some landlords are like that.



What is there to charged if its perfect?


Theres a fun way of dealing with landlords who start with holding deposit
money for thigs like nail holes and wall anchor patches.


I had a tenant with hundreds of holes which maybe ok if he didn't patch it
up. But than he butchered the walls with patches so bad that you need to cut
it out and refinish (patch, texture and paint) the wall correctly.



The landlord (not he manager or management company, but the landlord
who actually owns the buildng) is without fdoubt depeciating the building
on the landlord's federal and state income taxes.

Among other things, that depreciation covers ordinary wear and tear, and
small items like the kind of repair the OP is talking about. A 3 foot x 2
foot hole
punched into a gypsum wall is a different isssue, but wall anchors and
repairs for wall anchors are normal wear and tear


I consider a few ok but what do you do when a tenant use 3" nails every 6"
apart on you fascia boards all around the exterior of the house for Xmas
decoration? The repair by a licensed painter may exceed the deposit.

I had a tenant rip off the structural wall bracing and repatch it so you
couldn't tell and another one replaced the plywood subfloor with OSB. What
can you do when you find out long after they moved out?


Its always fun, in the cases where I represented a tenant being screwed
this
way bu a management company or landlord to remind the landlord and
the property manager that bull**** deductions for ordinary wear and tear
will result in a certified mail letter the local IRS district office and
the state
income tax folks about the obvious tax fraud being perpetrated by the
landlord
in taking the deduction for depreciation each of the years you lived in
the rental.


Actually it should be deprecated from the day placed in service. In any
case, what do you report and how is this a tax fraud? Depreciation is not a
free ride, its recaptured at 25%. Even if the property is fully depreciated,
he is entitled to the value of repair within reason. Tenants and landlords
have two different definitions of wear and tear - this is what pictures and
small claim is for. This is my experience of ware and tear, and as you can
see, its really accelerated in a rental:

Interior paint - house, 15 years
rental, 4 years

Carpet - house, 20 years
rental, 5 years

Landscape - house, 15 years
rental, 7 years


Amazing how quickly sense overtakes the greed of the management
companies and landlords.
taxing


I couldn't see how management companies benefit from being greedy - they
make a percentage from rent collected, not how much they rip you off from
the deposit.