Overview

Tips for Landlords
Choosing a Tenant
Landlord/Property Associations

Tips for Landlords

Simple suggestions to help your landlord or property management business run smoothly.

1. Screen tenants. Don't rent to anyone before checking credit history, references, and background. Haphazard screening and tenant selection too often results in problems -- a tenant who pays the rent late or not at all, trashes your place, or lets undesirable friends move in.

2. Get it in writing. Get all the important terms of the tenancy in writing. Beginning with the rental application and lease or rental agreement, be sure to document important facts of your relationship with your tenants -- including when and how you handle tenant complaints and repair problems, notice you must give to enter a tenant's apartment, and the like.

3. Handle security deposits properly. Establish a fair system of setting, collecting, holding, and returning security deposits. Inspect and document the condition of the rental unit before the tenant moves in, to avoid disputes over security deposits when the tenant moves out.

4. Make repairs. Stay on top of maintenance and repair needs and make repairs when requested. If the property is not kept in good repair, you'll alienate good tenants, and tenants may gain the right to withhold rent, repair the problem and deduct the cost from the rent, sue for injuries caused by defective conditions, and/or move out without needing to give notice.

5. Provide secure premises. Don't let your tenants and property be easy marks for a criminal. Assess your property's security and take reasonable steps to protect it. Often the best measures, such as proper lights and trimmed landscaping, are not that expensive.

6. Provide notice before entering. Learn about your tenants' rights to privacy. Notify your tenants whenever you plan to enter their rental unit, and provide as much notice as possible, at least 24 hours or the minimum amount required by state law.

8. Oversee managers. Choose and supervise your property manager carefully. If a manager commits a crime or is incompetent, you may be held financially responsible. Do a thorough background check and clearly spell out the manager's duties to help prevent problems down the road.

9. Obtain insurance. Purchase enough liability and other property insurance. A well-designed insurance program can protect you from lawsuits by tenants for injuries or discrimination and from losses to your rental property caused by everything from fire and storms to burglary and vandalism.

10. Resolve disputes. Try to resolve disputes with your tenants without lawyers and lawsuits. If you have a conflict with a tenant over rent, repairs, your access to the rental unit, noise, or some other issue that doesn't immediately warrant an eviction, meet with the tenant to see if the problem can be resolved informally. If that doesn't work, consider mediation by a neutral third party, often available at little or no cost from a publicly-funded program.

If your dispute involves money, and all attempts to reach agreement fail, try small claims court, where you can represent yourself. Small claims court is good for collecting unpaid rent or seeking money for property damage after a tenant moves out and the security deposit is exhausted.

Choosing a Tenant

Q: How can landlords go about choosing tenants?

A: If you are offering a place to rent, have the prospective tenants complete a rental application. Standard application forms are usually available at stationery stores.

The two most important elements of the application are the employment history and the rental history. Get information for the past three or five years. Then contact each of the applicant's employers and landlords for that period. If the applicant has worked at the same job and lived in the same apartment for that time, you have as good an indication as possible of a quality tenant.

A prospective tenant who undergoes such a check might well be thankful. The landlord will have checked the building's other tenants as well, and so the neighbors will probably be reliable people.

Q: Are there any legal pitfalls in choosing a tenant?

A: Landlords need to take special care to treat all prospective tenants in the same way. The law prohibits many kinds of distinctions that landlords used to make in selecting tenants. Fair housing laws forbid discrimination on the basis of race, of course, but go far beyond that. See the section on fair housing.

Q: How else can landlords evaluate prospective tenants?

A: Many areas have companies that specialize in tenant records. They can tell you if someone has been evicted in the past or failed to pay the rent.

General credit bureaus can supply a history of credit payments to landlords if the prospective tenant authorizes a search of the records. This credit information will include the timeliness with which car and credit card payments have been made, bankruptcies, judgments against the tenant, and adverse information from other creditors.

Landlord/Property Associations

A landlord or apartment association is an organization made up of individuals including landlords, property owners, and property investors who live in a certain town, city, or county. Whatever the name or locality, landlord and apartment associations are formed and maintained with a number of goals in mind, including:

• Providing updated information to landlord and property managers regarding such things as new and ongoing local eviction proceedings, developments in landlord-tenant and property law, vacancy rates, public housing issues, and properties for sale in the area;
• Creating an opportunity for landlords to organize their efforts to impact local and state landlord-tenant, property, and land-use legislation and regulations; and
• Giving landlords an opportunity to network with other local property owners on such topics as reputable contractors and vendors.

Getting Involved

Landlord or apartment associations usually hold regular meetings at local establishments or meeting facilities, and may take further communication steps including publication of newsletters and online resources. If you are a landlord, property owner, or property investor in a mid- to large-size city, you may have the opportunity to get involved in a landlord or apartment association. To find out more, talk to your fellow property owners, or contact your city or county housing department.