It’s hard to enforce your lease agreement when you’re not at the property every day. How can you know your tenants are doing what you expect them to do?
If you’ve screened them well and explained the details of the lease before handing over the keys, you should be able to trust your residents to pay rent on time, take care of your property, and follow the terms of the lease.
Wise investors suggest that you “trust but verify.” We like that advice, and we have some tips on how you can prevent and catch lease violations when you’re renting out a property in Roseville.
Careful Tenant Screening
Start with a good screening process. When you’re evaluating applications, look for residents who have a reliable and positive rental history. Talk to former landlords about how they performed. Ask if rent was paid on time and if any damage was left in the property. Find out if they got their full security deposit back and if they had any pets. Past evictions and debts owed to former landlords are huge red flags when you’re checking credit and backgrounds.
Discuss the Lease Agreement in Detail
If you want tenants to meet your expectations, you have to be clear about what those expectations are.
Signing the lease agreement quickly and electronically is easy. However, you want to make sure your tenants actually understand what’s in that lease. Schedule some time to talk together, either in person or online. This will give you the opportunity to discuss some of the most important parts of your lease agreement, including rent collection policies, pet policies, and how you expect maintenance to be reported. You can talk about smoking and whether overnight guests are allowed to stay indefinitely.
Leave room for questions and make sure you document that this discussion took place. You don’t want any doubt that your tenant understands exactly what is and is not permitted in your property.
Be Proactive with Routine and Preventative Maintenance
Responding to maintenance and repair needs right away does two important things: it protects the condition of your investment and it keeps your tenants happy.
There’s a third benefit – it gives you an opportunity to take a look around the property and make sure your tenants aren’t in violation of their lease terms. You can do this yourself if you meet maintenance staff at the property. Or, you can train your vendors to keep their eyes and ears open for anything that might not be permitted.
Safety inspections should also be conducted at least once a year. This gives you the opportunity to get inside the property even if there hasn’t been any maintenance throughout the tenancy. You can check for deferred and unreported maintenance needs and you can also verify that the property is safe and habitable. More importantly, you can do a quick scan for unauthorized pets or people. You can make sure the lease is being followed.
The best way to hold your tenants accountable to the lease, of course, is to work with professional Roseville property managers. We can make sure your tenants are treating the property the way you expect them to, and following the lease agreement.
If you’d like to talk more about how to prevent those frustrating and potentially dangerous lease violations, please contact us at Action Properties.
