Five Things Residents Try to Get Away With

As a landlord, finding the perfect resident to rent out your property is the most vital step in leasing, and you need to spend significant time checking references and income and performing background checks. However, regardless of how much due diligence you do, you can still encounter issues with residents. Here are five common things that residents try to get away with.

1. The first is not paying rent on time. Residents will try to exploit landlords and come up with excuses on why they have not timely paid their rent. Popular excuses vary from “I’m waiting for my paycheck from work to come in” to “You haven’t repaired damages in the house, so I shouldn’t have to pay rent until they are fixed.” The best way to prevent these excuses is to hold records of rent collection so your residents can never claim they paid you when they have not, always keep up with necessary repairs on your property, and perform routine evaluations of the property to make sure everything is running smoothly.
2. Up next, residents try to get away with a person living at the property who is not on the lease. Most people rent in areas where they know people or have friends, which is not a concern until your resident has a friend living with him or her who you had no idea about. If someone is living at the property and isn’t on the lease, many problems could develop, from damaged property to noise complaints. The best way to avoid this is to make sure to state in the lease that no other person may live in the property except those on the lease and that failure to comply will result in eviction.
3. The third thing residents try to get away with is keeping pets in a “no pet policy” property. Most residents will wait weeks or even months after moving in to try and sneak a pet into the property with no consent from the landlord and without paying a pet fee, if applicable. Avoid this by maintaining regular evaluations on your property and checking whether any pets have emerged.
4. The fourth thing is damages. Accidents happen and items break, but who ends up paying for the damages? If your lease is in order and you do assessments before and after with the resident, you won’t have to be the one who pays the price. Make sure to make a list and do a walk through the property together on the first day your resident moves in, marking all preexisting damages. Then, the day before your resident moves out, walk through the property with the same list that has all the preexisting damages so your resident can’t claim that they did not cause the new damages to your property.
5. The fifth and last thing residents try to get away with is escaping eviction. Residents will try and argue, occasionally even taking legal action, that they are being evicted unfairly. To avoid these problems, have a clear and concise lease that states the rules exactly and states what qualifies as terms to evict. This way, if the resident tries to take legal action, you have a good chance of winning your case, and if the resident refuses to move, you can take legal action to get them off your property and get it back on the rental property market.

Don’t want to deal with the hassle of bad residents? With Real Property Management Investment Solutions, you won’t have to. We can handle everything from damages to complaints and evictions, keeping your identity secure and keeping your mind sane. Don’t stress yourself out over a bad resident; let us do the work for you.

If you are interested in having your property managed by Real Property Management Investment Solutions, have more questions or just want to speak to one of our team members, then contact us online or call us directly at 616-419-8880 today!

We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.