On the Level

by Terry Meany

The San Francisco Tenants Union, as is its right, has no problem pointing out a landlord’s obligations to tenants—and there are many. Although the SFTU does discuss just causes for evictions, their logo showing a clenched fist pounding the head of the awfully familiar-looking banker character from the Monopoly board game (as a stand- in for all landlords) clearly indicates where their interests lie. Interestingly enough, the SFTU warns its members and website readers not to call the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection if a renter lives in an illegal unit, as this can result in an eviction from that unit. Apparently, some illegal or questionable practices are acceptable as long as the tenant benefits.

In the SFTU’s discussion on repairs and maintenance, they point out, again correctly, that tenants have a right to “safe and habitable homes in exchange for the rents we are paying,” adding, “If your landlord is not making repairs, he is violating your ‘Warranty of Habitability’ and you should force him to make the repairs.”

As a landlord, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of either a tenant’s ire over an ill-maintained unit or any city agencies citing or giving you grief in general over repair issues. There are plenty of attorneys advertising in and writing for this publication. I will not pretend to know the nuances of an owner’s legal requirements, but in general, the rental units you provide must be safe, have adequate heat and ventilation, be sealed from the weather, provide sufficient hot and cold water, supply reliable power, and be clean and orderly. Although any of these can be open to definition, most reasonable people can agree to acceptable definitions for any and all of these provisions. Let’s take them one at a time.

Heat and Ventilation
Heat is normally provided by a central furnace or individual, electric room heaters. Although the latter are often ignored, they should be checked at least once a year and, if nothing else, be vacuumed thoroughly. Accumulated dust affects a heating unit’s efficiency. Turn on all heaters and check that they’re getting sufficiently hot; replace any faulty thermostats. You want to do heating maintenance during the warm months when heat isn’t needed instead of getting a holiday surprise: a call on Christmas from a cold, angry tenant. Reusable furnace filters, which should be cleaned every couple of months during active use, should definitely be vacuumed and washed now; disposable filters should be changed every four to six weeks. If your furnace hasn’t been professionally inspected for several years, do it now. Fire boxes take a lot of heat (unintended pun) and are susceptible to cracking after enough years of service. The motors in older units can require periodic oiling. Exhaust ducts can corrode, requiring individual sections to be replaced, so be sure to check these as well.

Ventilation in San Francisco’s mostly non-air-conditioned housing stock usually means safely working windows. Every room should have at least one window that opens and closes easily and locks securely. This isn’t just a matter of ventilation, but also egress in cases of emergency. I have written exhaustively on the subject of window repair elsewhere and will only say here that wood windows are always repairable and sashes can be replaced if necessary. You don’t have to do wholesale replacement unless it suits your budget and future building use. Aluminum and vinyl windows can be cleaned—aluminum with bronze wool (which is less likely to shed than steel wool) and Naval Jelly, and vinyl windows with liquid automotive polish—for easier movement and protection. Paste wax, spray silicone or even Pledge furniture polish can do wonders to smooth the operation of most windows.

Protection from the Weather
Unless you have gaping holes in the roof or missing panes of glass, you’re most likely covered on this one. Some tenants will complain about drafts around windows and doors, but that’s a different issue. Each category of opening—entry door, casement window, double-hung window—calls for a different weather-stripping solution, most of which are inexpensive and simple to apply. They are not all equally pretty, but none is especially ugly or detracting, either. Be aware that improperly chosen or installed weather stripping might make doors or windows more difficult to open or close, therefore negating any heat savings.

Water
You have to provide clean water under adequate pressure. This is primarily a matter of pipes being sized correctly for the number of fixtures in a building. If bathrooms and kitchens have been added to a building over the years and the piping, especially service lines, have not been changed to handle the increased demand, you’re going to have complaints. The same is true if you have galvanized pipes that have corroded and narrowed over the years, restricting water flow. Major repiping, if called for, is expensive, but good planning can minimize the disruption for tenants. One plumber acquaintance, who was bidding against much larger companies to repipe a 1920s apartment house, said he would run new lines parallel to the existing pipes, thereby keeping all the tenants supplied with water until he was ready to do the switchover. When it came time to connect the fixtures to the new copper, the water was shut off one unit at a time for less than a day. The old galvanized pipes remained in the walls; there was no point in removing them. The other bidders had planned on gutting entire elevations of apartments, yanking the pipes, and pulling the new copper through the old holes in the framing, which meant less drilling, but a lot more down time. Guess who got the bid?

You’re most likely paying for water, so be sure water-saving showerheads are installed in every bathroom. If a tenant has removed the water saver and replaced it with something more fun—meaning an old showerhead that uses more water—you’ll have to explain the water conservation facts of life and reinstall a water saver again.

You also have to supply sufficient hot water. “Sufficient” is another one of those relative terms, but it’s safe to say it means enough to do the dishes and take a couple of showers without depleting the tank. Your hot water tanks need to be in good working order. Check their ages and maintenance records. For the most part, hot water tanks just keep working and working until a thermostat or anode-rod or pilot-light problem occurs. Like most appliances, you can patch and repair hot water tanks for some time, but service calls are costly. If you’ve gotten 12 years of life out of a tank, consider replacing if it’s beginning to lose steam (another unintended pun). As an aside, all hot water heaters must be secured and double strapped, with all pressure relief valves, shutoff valves, and vent connectors in place and operational.

Reliable Power
Your units do not have to meet every condition of the most current electrical code, but all devices and wiring must be safe. This means grounded receptacles must be truly grounded; you can’t replace an old two-prong receptacle with a new three-prong if the receptacle isn’t grounded (although you can install a ground-fault circuit interrupter receptacle as long as it’s marked with a “NO EQUIPMENT GROUND” sticker, which comes with a GFCI). Loose receptacles, not uncommon after a series of tenants have plugged and unplugged cords over the years, should be replaced or at least tightened if still usable. If you didn’t check the condition of each unit’s electrical system when you bought your property, do it now. Some owners have odd ideas when it comes to wiring and never found an available run of wiring they didn’t like; they thought nothing of adding a light or receptacle without bothering to check if the circuit could support the extra load.

You are under no obligation to replace existing knob-and-tube wiring with new, grounded cable, but your system must support its loads without blowing fuses or circuit breakers haphazardly, overheating at a device or shorting out. Have an electrician do a walkthrough with a volt/amp meter for your protection as well as your tenant’s.

Clean and Orderly
Common areas must be swept, vacuumed and mopped regularly. Trash must be picked up. This is not a complicated concept and most landlords keep their buildings clean. The frequency of repainting, window washing and carpet shampooing are subject to the amount of complaining you might receive. A regular maintenance schedule, posted for tenants and followed scrupulously by you, provides both notice and fewer grounds for whining.

Bedbugs
Once again, these annoying critters are making the news with bedbug outbreaks in all 50 states. This global village routine clearly has its drawbacks as these nighttime party animals hitch rides in luggage and end up at some of the finest hotels in the world. According to Meredith May (San Francisco Chronicle, April 8, 2007): “Nearly 300 bedbug infestations were reported to San Francisco health officials in 2006, more than double the number in 2004. Most of the cases involved travelers discovering bedbugs in upscale hotels.”

Let’s keep this in perspective: 300 reported cases, along with unreported infestations, is not a major invasion. Many reports in San Francisco still center in SRO hotels. Stay alert, educate your tenants and scrupulously inspect every vacant apartment before renting. If bedbugs show up later, you want to show you did your due diligence.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or SF Apartment Magazine. Terry Meany is a former contractor and landlord. He is now a full-time writer and author of Working Windows: A Guide to the Repair and Restoration of Wood Windows, from Lyons Press. He is cost conscious but not cheap, and he knows deferred maintenance always costs more in the end. He can be reached at tfmeany@msn.com. Copyright © 2007 by SF Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.