I started on my annual rounds of inspecting the smoke detectors in my rental properties the other day.    I have learned that I must check them myself, as I cannot depend on tenants to accurately report back to me if there is a problem.  Smoke detectors are one of those little maintenance items that you don’t want to ignore, as they can prevent a much larger problem in the unfortunate event of a fire.

During my inspections I found several smoke detectors that had the batteries missing.  When questioned, the tenants of course had no idea how they went missing.  Smoke detector batteries are something that are checked before move-in, so I know they were working when the tenants moved in.

This means that the tenants removed the batteries themselves.  Either the batteries went bad and the smoke detector chirping was annoying so the batteries got pulled, or they needed the batteries for something else and conveniently used the detector batteries.  Either way, I see this as a dumb move.  Needing a battery or being annoyed by a chirping sound is nowhere near as inconvenient as burning to death in your sleep because you were not alerted to a fire in the house.  What’s even worse is that one of the houses with non-working smoke alarms had several small children living there.  It’s one thing to be careless with your own life, but when you have other people you are responsible for, don’t take those kind of chances.

I made sure everyone had working detectors with fresh batteries.  Those with missing batteries got a lecture about keeping them working.  Let’s hope the message sticks and the tenants will realize the importance of having a working smoke detector.

Today’s Fun Friday Story is about a hidden treasure in one of our rental properties.  The particular property in this case is a two-story duplex.  When we bought it, the only entrance to the upstairs unit was a staircase that was on the exterior of the building, leading to an exterior door.  This set-up seemed perfectly logical.

The upstairs tenants moved out and we went in to see what improvements and repairs needed to be made.  We noticed that part of the wall in the living room seemed like it was moved in closer than necessary.  I guess we didn’t notice it before when the tenants were living there with all their furniture in the room.  We thought that they just had an extra long closet, but when we went to look in the closet the room was really small.  That did not make sense, as it left a good ten feet of what looked like covered in wall space.

When you knocked on the closet wall, it sounded hollow on the other side.  There was definitely something behind the wall.  Curiosity got the best of us so we got a saw and cut a hole in the closet wall.  It turned out there was a full staircase to the lower unit that had been closed in.  This was exciting to find.  Ok, maybe it is not all that exciting, but it is not everyday you stumble upon a hidden staircase.

There was not much more to the staircase besides a non-working light fixture and some old food wrappers.  It was still a fun find.  I think I will try to find a way to turn it into storage space for maintenance supplies.  Bonus storage space is a treasure find if you ask me.

Today’s Fun Friday Story is about my favorite way rent has been paid.  

I had a tenant that had gotten behind on rent payments.  I had already given notice to vacate and filed for eviction.  By the time the court date was due, the tenant was behind several months of rent.  At the 11th hour though, they came through and managed to come up with all the back rent that was due, including late fees.  This was a relatively large amount.

The tenant asked if they could pay in cash, which I said was of course fine.  We made arrangements to meet in person so that I could be sure to get it (never trust the mail with cash).  We met up in the local mall parking lot.  When the tenant came out to meet me, they were looking around the area nervously.  They then said that they had a big stack of cash and hoped it was ok.  Cash is cash, so I said it was fine.  The tenant then brought out a huge bag filled with the thousands of dollars of rent owed – all in 10 dollar bills.

The tenant apologized and said that was all the bank had available.  The stack of money was huge.   The tenant was understandably nervous because if any shady person saw us with that money we would immediately be a target for robbery.  They handed the money off to me underhand style.  It felt like I was conducting some illegal deal in a parking lot.  It was actually hilarious.  Even though it was all tens, it was fun to have a stack of money that big in my possession for a while.  It is of course not the recommended way to pay rent, but was kind of awesome.