Straight Talk!
The majority of landlords do not know their rights & responsibilities or applicable tenancy laws.
This could be a costly consequence for a landlord where a tenant decides to sue or arbitrate... and landlord responsibilities were not adhered to. Any landlord reading this and who falls into this category, should be sufficiently concerned that immediate action is taken to remedy any shortcomings in this regard.
Ah it'll never happen to me...if this is your attitude you are a victim of income loss waiting to happen. The odds are against you and as pointed out, it could be costly.
How many times have you heard this or even said it...I've been doing this for 20 years and never had a problem. OK fine, but why do you buy house insurance? Chances are your house will never burn down...you have insurance in case it does. If it ever did that would be a pretty big financial hit, now consider the fact that there is a greater chance that you are going to be stung by the tenant from hell than your house burning down.
Can you afford to lose 6 months worth of rent payments, or a multi thousand dollar court award to your tenant because," You didn't know"? Didn't think so.
Do This:
- Educate yourself http://www.landlordsresourcedirectory.com/AreaLinks.htm for state/provincial laws.
- Read free Landlord Articles that are informative http://www.landlordtalking.com/
- Have proper and up to date lease /rental agreement
- Know what to do legally when you want to evict a tenant. Become very familiar with State/Provincial tenancy laws on eviction process.
- Prevention! Prevention! Prevention! Screen your tenants before you turn over the key!
- credit check to determine credit worthiness
- criminal record check to determine tenant worthiness
- phone call to current landlord to determine tenant worthiness
- There is a liability/onus on landlords to conduct due diligence regarding prospective tenants. Should you have known about the violent history of the Individual you rented to? Yes...the degree of liability of course is dependent on the situation, but why take a chance? Screen your tenants.
Other landlords may not tell you the truth about the status of your prospective tenant, or you may be talking to a friend and not a landlord at all.
CriminalFraud.com will give you tips & advice on how to interview other landlords. You will have to be deceptive, it's kind of fun actually. Besides it's your business... protect it, know who you're giving the keys to. Determine the credit worthiness and the tenant worthiness before signing the lease or rental agreement.
Learn what the top 10 mistakes are that can sink your landlord business? Find out here... http://www.atenantscreen.com/article-217.html
Don't Do This:
Sign a lease/rental agreement before determining the credit & tenant worthiness of your prospective tenant. A banker does not give you a loan without checking to see if you're credit worthy does he? Why would you give the keys to someone you don't know anything about?
Allow the tenant to always pay late. If it happens once it will continue to happen and because you allowed it the first time they think it will be OK.
Feel sorry for the prospective tenant because they are down on their luck, his wife just left him or he lost his wallet and it had all the cash for the security deposit. I'll pay you next month!
Become your tenant's best friend... unless you're going to marry her. But you better be sure! You are running a business, treat as such. Tenants are not your friends, you can be friendly but you should not be a friend. Remember that some friends borrow stuff and never return it, friends will take advantage of you in many instances, its happened to all of us. Tenants are no different, they will try to take advantage of you in many instances.
Now if you're a tenant reading this and you don't think that the above noted statement is fair or applies to you, know this...
Not all tenants take advantage of landlords, in fact there are landlords who take advantage of tenants and don't treat them very well. Tenants and landlords need to treat each other with respect and they each need to know their Rights & Responsibilities' http://tenantsinfo.com/ is an informative website for landlords & tenants.
Did You Know? That reporting tenant pay habits benefits landlords and tenants.
Landlord benefit: Where tenant pay habits are reported on the 3rd day of each month to a Credit Reporting Agency and a tenant is made aware of that via Notice to Tenant (Sample) rent payment is likely to be made on time. Why? Because it advises the tenant of the consequences for a tardy tenant history. This will certainly minimize late payments and risk of non payment.
Tenant benefit: Tenants benefit when rent payments are made on time because they can create a good tenant history for themselves and obtain a Certificate of Satisfactory Tenancy. (sample) In many instances tenants do not have a stellar credit history and tenancy is denied.
A good tenant history and the Certificate of Satisfactory Tenancy can open new doors and make renting easier. This is a tremendous benefit for good tenants who pay rent on time but have a poor credit history.
Did You Know: That educating yourself with respect to Rights & Responsibilities, reading informative landlord articles, and screening your tenants...will serve to reduce rental income loss and to prevent fraud where a tenant has a track record of such with landlords and intent to do so.
Did You Know: That there are tenants out there who take advantage of landlords who do not know their Rights & Responsibilities and who don't complete the proper forms? A landlord in Toronto Ontario Canada can attest to this as she lost $18,000.00 when the court awarded that amount to her tenant. Her excuse? " I didn't know".
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