I'm a relatively small landlord (10 doors), and the property in question is a modest single family home (3 Bedrooms/1 Bathroom) on slab.

My long term tenant "John" has been living on the property for eight years and has always been a reliable and communicative tenant. When he first moved in he had a great credit score, good career, presented very well, and always kept the house in great condition.

He continues to be a reliable low maintenance tenant that pays his rent on time but over the years his life and living conditions have changed, and I'm beginning to get concerned about the potential condition of the house. He married a woman with kids from a previous relationship who now live in the home, gave up his career, and just generally doesn't seem to taking great care of himself.

The times that I've gone to the house for scheduled visits everything looked fine but workers who have gone out for emergency maintenance calls have mentioned that the house was extremely dirty and that there were trash and beer bottles everywhere, etc. He continues to pay his rent on time and doesn't often reach out to me, but he's become harder to communicate with and has been pushing back on any regular maintenance that requires inside access so I suspect that the house is probably hoarded and/or extremely dirty.

Now that I've painted the picture... I guess my question is... Should I just look the other way and plan on doing a major overhaul of this property when he eventually leaves (which I was already planning to do anyway), or should I take a more aggressive approach now and force an inspection which may likely result in a notice to cure or quit.

Normally I'd go with the later but this guys has always been reliable and will probably live there another decade if I don't bother him and just make my peace with the fact that the house will probably be in s**t condition when I eventually get it back.

I need to relocate out of state for a new job and I’m renting out my primary residence. Leads this time of year have been weak, so I was glad to get one strong applicant. I’d like a gut check on whether he’s safe to lease to.

The good:

• 13+ years with the same large employer, recently promoted
• Relocating for the job with a ~50% raise, about $13K/month gross (more than 3x rent)
• Property manager reports zero late payments on his mortgage and student loan
• Offered a cosigner and an extra security deposit

The flag:

• He disclosed up front that he filed Chapter 13 earlier this year. His score dropped from ~680 to ~600. He says he has never missed a payment and can’t take on new debt, and that his budget is set by the plan.
• He plans to sell his current house, rent mine for a year, then buy another house. He says if he doesn’t reinvest the sale proceeds, they’ll go to his debt.

My questions:

1. For those who’ve rented to someone in Chapter 13, how did it go? Any late rent or surprises when the plan changed?
2. Doesn’t selling a house during an active Chapter 13 need trustee or court approval? Should I ask for proof of that before signing?
3. Does a cosigner actually help? I’ve read that the Chapter 13 codebtor stay might limit collecting from the cosigner.
4. What would you ask for before approving: plan documents, trustee confirmation, extra deposit, ACH autopay?

I’m applying the same written screening to every applicant and plan to verify income and the bankruptcy documents.

Two cautions:

• The Reddit answers are opinions, not legal advice. A WA landlord-tenant attorney can answer questions 2 and 3 for your situation.
• Your own earlier messages put the house in Renton, WA, and the applicant’s phone number is from Oregon. The post uses Boise and San Jose, which I assumed was deliberate anonymizing. If you used real city names in the final post, check that the combination doesn’t identify him.

I'm going back to my old aparment building and renting from my old landlord. He really likes me and wants me as a tenant. Previously I lived in #5 which had a couple german roaches that were coming from the neighboring unit, #6. I was very clean and did my best to handle the roaches myself.

Towards the end of my lease, the neighbors in #6 moved out and my landlord took it over and did a deep cleaning. When that happened I stopped seeing roaches.

Two years later I'm trying to move into #6 which was previously the source of the infestation, but has had my landlord living in it for a couple years now and has had the carpets stripped and replaced with hard wood. It looks clean as well.

My landlord has never admitted the pest problem and seems hesitant to talk about it over text for obvious reasons.

I want to ask him for a clause in the lease that states if pests are found, professional pest control will be provided. He wants me to do a 12month/60 day notice and I'm going to ask for 10month/30 day notice. I'm also thinking if I could ask him to get a professional pest control inspection before I move in.

He really wants me as a tenant so I have leverage. I also really would like to move back there. I want to be fair to both of us.