I just moved into a new apartment in a new city yesterday and I've noticed a couple things that need to be fixed. I know I could do them myself with very little money spent on parts. On the other hand, they're things that should have been fixed before I moved in. I can't decide whether I should do them myself or put in a maintenance request. I'm a bit cynical and assume that the management is going to try to spend as little money as possible and will therefore do a shitty job. Plus it means possibly waiting and needing to have some stranger come into my apartment. If I do it myself, it's done on my schedule and I can be assured of the quality of the work.
What's your take on doing maintenance on things that you technically shouldn't have to?
If you're renting, frick em. They should pay for it.
If you own, do it yourself unless if you'll make it worse
Get building maintenance to do it and docunent the repairs yourself since they were flagged issues before you moved in. Management companies are notorious for double billing people for maintenance, the previous tenants no doubt paid for it from their security deposit and you might also pay if you fix it yourself since it might not meet their exacting standards.
Absolutely no reason to ever do repairs yourself on a rental unless you can bill the landlords for your cost + time. Take the money you'd spend on materials and talk to a lawyer
See
Also if they want to call a plumber and make me take a day off work for something that would cost <$50 for me to do myself and take an hour, I’ll gladly do it myself because losing a day at work costs way more. Also the landlords love to drag ass and try to find the cheapest guy who won’t be able to fix the shit for another 4 days.
Plus most landlords, assuming it’s not some big corporate entity, are more than happy to deduct the parts cost from the rent. I needed a new washing machine at my first house I rented and the landlord was actually happy when I said I’ll install the thing instead of having somebody come out. Did a toilet at the second house I rented too and they had no problem with me installing it and taking ~$200 or whatever off the rent
I saw it and I still disagree.
>I don't want some scuzzy guy in my apartment
Meds. Also who just leaves the maintenance guys alone? I sit in the room with them and make sure they do it right and don't take my shit.
>landlords love to drag ass and try to find the cheapest guy who won’t be able to fix the shit for another 4 days.
Have a tenant attorney send a letter in their offices stationary. The only parasite worse than a landlord is a lawyer, and they know it
>inb4 israelite
Gotta fight fire with fire.
>Plus most landlords, assuming it’s not some big corporate entity, are more than happy to deduct the parts cost from the rent.
Lol.
"Lmao," even. Nice anecdotes
>watch them and make sure they do it right
Jesus, the level of pathetic smugness here…
Sorry that I don't trust Meth & Sons Drywall Finishing and Framing to install a garbage disposal because they were the cheapest quote the LL got. But I'll also be fricked if I'm spending my money and time fixing it. So I just pull up a chair and a 6 pack and observe and ask them questions about the process so that I know that they know what they're doing.
Don't like it? Don't care.
Explaining the method by which you are pathetic doesn’t make it less so. When you rent you have no agency over your the property. You live with whoever they chose. You accept what they give you. Meth and Sons has no contract or requirement to you. And let’s be real, you’re renting, you don’t even have anything worth stealing that’s more valuable than a 15$/hr drywall job.
>So I just pull up a chair and a 6 pack and observe and ask them questions about the process
Based beyond my understanding
I’ve rented two houses over the past 10 years, both were as I described above. I sat around one day waiting for a second quote from a cheaper roofer who was a no-show and missed a day of work and that was sort of the last straw waiting on shit. Like my water heater was acting up, the kit with new thermostats and heating elements was around $30, installing it was maybe an hour. Even if I cared about the $30 in that case, I could’ve easily had it deducted, but that’s sure as hell going to be cheaper than having lawyers get involved.
Plus I like dicking around with the stuff sometimes. If the house needs to be painted or there’s mad water damage, I’m not going to put that labor in, but like when I needed a new toilet handle or wax ring or the shower door came off the rails because of a busted screw, why would I wait days for the landlord to find somebody when I can run into Home Depot after work and fix the shit in 20min?
And the landlords were definitly happier to save $500+ on labor when I did want parts reimbursed for the toilet or washing machine or sprinkler control box and valve. Most landlords aren’t big corporate entities with property management guys on speed dial.
Cool, send a bill to your landlord for your time wasted or just deduct it from your rent. You are literally just giving money away by doing maintenance and repairs on rental properties where the landlord is contractually obligated to cover maintenance and repairs, there's really no counter argument to that. If you can make a profit or at least break even by doing your own work, then by all means go for it. But you need to have the worked out with your landlord (NOT property manager) before you put your time and money into it.
>Most landlords aren’t big corporate entities with property management guys on speed dial.
Sounds like a skill issue. Don't cover maintenance and repairs on the lease if you can't cover maintenance and repairs. Simple as, and I'll take you to court if you can't.
You still live with your mother, don’t you? Or your parents pay for your apartment maybe and you won’t even change a light bulb?
That’s not how the real world works. Try sending that invoice for lost time to the landlord and your rent will be an extra $800/mo if you want to sign another lease. You don’t seem to understand how the real world works. This isn’t anon’s upper crust middle school playground where kids yell “I dare you to hit me so my mom’s boyfriend can sue your dad!”
>"y-y-you still live with your mom!"
The absolute seething. You are the real world example to the "don't forget to tip your landlords" meme
>This isn’t anon’s upper crust middle school playground where kids yell “I dare you to hit me so my mom’s boyfriend can sue your dad!”
Anon, legal consultations are like under $50 if not free. But yeah, have fun "being a man" by getting cucked by your landlord and fixing his house for free kek.
>"but muh anecdotes"
Yeah well my rent at my college apartment was free because I bullied the basedboy land b***h into giving me the privilege of housing me. Sounds like you got ripped off even at -$500/m
I kneel. You have totally BTFO'd me
>rent at my college apartment was free
Yup, we get it, you don’t pay your own bills. Pretty obvious from “just get your lawyer to send a letter to the landlord whenever a light bulb burns out and bill the landlord $250/hr because the electrician with a lightbulb said he would be there between noon and 3pm”
Fwiw, the last 2 years I was at that house where I didn’t mind replacing a thermostat myself, my rent was like $500/mo less than comparable houses in the neighborhood.
Now I bought a house and I don’t need to pay some random guy $1800 every two months to keep my wife satisfied because I learned how to do shit on my own. Keep being the smart guy and try to hold out on rent payments.
I always did stuff myself in apartments because I don't want some scuzzy maintenance guy in my house
OP here. Another reason I like doing stuff myself even if I'm renting is because sometimes it's new to me, so I get to learn something. And I'm just stubborn and want to deal with as little red tape as possible, so I figure I'll just so it myself be done with it. I totally get where some of you are coming from though because it's absolutely not my responsibility. If it were something big I would leave it to the landlord, but if I can do it myself and avoid having to contact them, schedule a time, etc., then I'll happily do that.
I think one experience that helped shape that attitude was when I lived in an old building with steam heat. There were no individual thermostats in the apartments and my radiators wouldn't warm up and my apartment was freezing. I called the landlord and he asked me if I was sure I'd closed all my windows and locked them because "sometimes if they're not locked, they can be drafty." I told him yes, the radiators aren't even fricking warm and he needed to check them out ASAP. He dilly-dallied and I ended up taking it upon myself to learn more about how steam heat works since I'd never had it before and I replaced the little vents on my radiators because they were cheap and I was fricking freezing. I told him I fixed it and he still sent a maintenance guy out to "double check" and all he did was take off the vents I just fricking bought and replace them with new ones.
Thanks for reading my blog.
What the problems you're thinking of trying to fix?
The stopper on the bathroom sink doesn't work and I'm pretty sure just needs the new hardware which is super cheap, and there's a sizable gap between the floor and the toilet, and it rocks fore/aft, so I was going to check the seal ring/bolts/etc. The toilet one is a little more involved or course, but it's something I've never done and I kind of want to check it out. I JUST turned in my sheet where I marked everything wrong with the apartment though and the woman said the maintenance people would come in ASAP. I regret putting those things on there now because they'll probably just try to shove more shims under the toilet.
The risers for the toilet or just a new wax ring if the old one is shot is super easy. The stopper for the sink… take a look in thetr and see if it’s broken or disconnected. The toilet parts are like 90% interchangeable assuming it’s not a fancy toilet, and I think the sinks in the rental are going to be like 60%-70% chance generic parts will fit, but the last bathroom faucet I got from Home Depot had a bit different stopper mechanism and the cheap generic one may not fit, if anything maybe I would have to change out the drain pipe.