The landlord/tenant relationship is just as important to the landlord as it is to the tenant.
If entered into with care, the lease agreement will protect both you and the renter.
Following are basic tenant rights you, as the landlord, should be aware of when preparing to rent a property.
1. A Positive Landlord Review from the Beginning
Savvy landlords will have current and previous tenants willing to talk to prospective renters about living conditions in the rental unit and area.
Prospective renters have the right to an understand of what it’s like living in the rental and dealing with you as a landlord.
For example, potential tenants may learn that a landlord responds quickly when the rental needs repairs or the building needs maintenance.
It is like free marketing for the landlord.
2. Conduct a Walk-About
Before your tenant signs the lease, you are wise to make sure the tenant does a thorough walk-through of the premises.
Some landlords will accompany the potential tenant on a property tour to document in writing and take pictures of anything broken, damaged or worn.
In some cases, the landlord may give the potential renter a key to let him or her do a walk-through alone. You must change the locks once the property is rented.
A professional landlord documents damages and wear before the tenant enters the apartment alone.
Prospective tenants can document any damage or wear-and-tear they find, and the landlord and tenant will agree to a final reconciled damage list.
You and the tenant should sign and date the document to make it part of the lease package.
3. Landlord and Tenant: Know Thy Lease
Renters must read and understand the lease.
It is advisable to sit down with the tenant and review the lease clause-by-clause.
The tenant can initial each of the contract sections, indicating he or she has read and understands the terms.
Brief the tenant on privacy notification guidelines, conditions for the return of the deposit, and conditions for and consequences of breaking the lease.
4. Landlords: Know What You Can’t Do
Certain landlord actions are illegal, and it is important that you know they are illegal.
- Refusing to make repairs that affect a tenant’s quality of life or safety
- Demanding arbitrary rent increases outside the terms of the lease
- Threatening to evict
- Preventing tenant associations from meeting in the building’s common room
- Turning off utilities
- Locking out a tenant by changing the locks or putting a lock box on the doorknob
- Placing the tenant’s belongings on the street
Although it may be tempting to lock a tenant out when repeated damage is done to the property, or the tenant falls behind in rent payments or engages in illegal activities on the property, you risk a lawsuit for trespass, wrongful eviction, emotional distress, and even assault and battery, depending on the events.
In every case, you as the landlord must inform the tenant via some type of termination notice.
The names of these documents differ by state, but they may include the “Pay Rent or Quit Notice,” the “Cure or Quit Notice” or the “Unconditional Quit Notice.”
5. When the Landlord Wants the Rental Back
To avoid a claim that a tenant was wrongfully evicted, the lease includes a description of the process to be followed should you want the rented property back for personal reasons.
If the property is rented on a month-to-month basis, the landlord only needs to give appropriate notice to the tenant that the lease is terminated.
If the lease has a fixed term, the landlord must honor the term but does not have to renew it.
The only exceptions are in the rent-control states of New York, California, Maryland, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.
There are limits on your rights to evict tenants to move yourself, or relatives, into the rental.
For example, in San Francisco, the landlord can evict a tenant to move in a relative as long as the person rents within 3 months and lives in the rental unit for at least 36 months.
