4 year tenant, has been decent so far.

On Friday night (of course, always Friday night with the government notices so you can't call until Monday) I get a letter in the mailbox from the City. You are hereby ordered to remove the "garbage" from the property within 3 days or we will refer it to court and fine you a minimum of $150. The address is the rental.

So I immediately drive across town having no idea what to expect. Ok, the tenant has thrown their couch out in front of the house. I knock on the door, and some girl answers I've never seen before (obviously a relative). A dog barks, even though there is no pets on the lease. OK. I show her the notice, and tell her the couch needs to be removed by Monday. I'll tell her, she says.

I then text a screen print of the notice to the tenant saying the same. She immediately replies. I have it scheduled for pickup by Habitat for Humanity, she offers. Never mind that they don't open until Tuesday, and you're not supposed to put items outside until the day of pickup.

I'm just here to express my frustration how hateful city governments are to rentals, you're expected to force other people to do things with their own furniture, control their actions or you're the one who has to pay the fines. You call and get excuses.

Insane that they fine you instead of the people who are doing it.

Un authorized pets people living there you don't know and furniture on the curb. Red flags all around.

I suppose the "girl" could just be a visitor.

But the dog?!

Had a nasty letter about trash around the garage of my property.

But that property has no garage.

Went in to talk to the guy personally and he just said oops. But what if I was taken to court over it? Then my business comes up as allowing trash at my places.

On another occasion I went over to check on something and saw a chair across the tracks but near my properties. I recognized the chair because the tenant had a full set that matched.

Knocked on the door, she admitted it was hers but it wasn't on my property so why did I care.

I made her drag it back and break it down so it would fit in the trash bins since she had no money to have it hauled off.

JP, tenants whine. Landlords act.

The city sent that notice to you because you are the person of record. Remove the couch. Habitat may or may not show up and it will still be on you.

The whole is equal to the sum of the parts. Take a knife and cut open the couch. Stuff all the fabric and cushioning into yard waste trash bags. Remove the springs and any metal to a couple of five-gallon buckets. Take the wood and put it at your campfire ring for your next marshmallow fire. Put the trash bags out with your trash for the weekly pick-up. Take the metal to recycling the next time you go.

Total time = two hours. You just made $75.00 per hour in savings of money not spent.

We tell all our renters... "if it doesn't fit in the toter and the toter lid doesn't close completely, let us know and we will take it away. We don't want any fines from the town for the place looking like a 3rd world country.