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Landlord Tips
Program Purpose: The Housing Choice Voucher program is
designed to assist eligible families with rent so that can
afford decent, safe and sanitary housing.
Landlord Training Brochure
It is the Landlord's responsibility to collect the tenants
share of the rent and to enforce the lease.
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"Top Ten" for Successful Property Management |
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1. |
Before you rent, check credit history,
references, and background.
Learn what type of tenant you are renting to before
you offer a lease! Once they are in your unit,
you will have to evict or wait for the end of the
lease term to remove a bad tenant, putting you
investment at risk. Checking these items may
take a little time and cost a few bucks, but isn't a
few dollars upfront worth saving potentially
thousands in repairs and missed rental payments?
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2. |
Put it in writing.
Keep good written
records of all your transactions and dealings with
your tenants. The first place to start is your
rental application and lease, which should lay out
the important terms of your rental agreement with
the tenant. Also document tenant complaints and
your response to those complaints, as well as any
agreements you may make that are not listed in the
lease. If there is a disagreement, a written
document can be extremely valuable in a court
dispute.
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3. |
Collect a security deposit.
You are agreeing to
rent a piece of property to someone. A good way of
ensuring that the tenant has a stake in the
maintenance of your property is by requiring a
security deposit. For damages to your unit beyond
normal wear and for missed rent payments, the
security deposit provides you with some protection
against financial loss. If a tenant cannot pay a
security deposit, there are assistance programs that
may be available to help that household. You may
also choose to allow the tenant to make payments
towards the security deposit, rather than requiring
the money at lease signing, but you should collect
and hold the deposit. Also, do not allow the tenant
to convince you to use the deposit to pay for
repairs or late rents while they still occupy the
unit, or you run the risk of having no deposit left
when the tenancy ends.
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4. |
Respect the privacy of your
tenants.
Remember, you have agreed
to rent your tenants a home. In their minds, your
rental unit has become their castle. Respect that
point of view by providing as much advance notice as
possible when you or workers need to enter a unit
for inspections or repairs. Failure to do so may
alienate your tenant and even lead to claims of
harassment, trespassing, invasion of privacy or even
theft. Even if you give notice properly, a nice
gesture is to bring along a note describing what was
done while you were there, the times you were in the
unit, and whether the job task is completed or will
require further visits.
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5. |
Make repairs promptly and keep
up with regular maintenance.
Making property maintenance a priority will cost
money, but will save you money and aggravation later
on by stopping problems before they happen or before
they become a crisis. For example, an
investment of $70 - 100 for furnace servicing at the
start of winter may save you calls in the middle of
a winter weekend night from a tenant with a furnace
that won't light. Keeping a property in good
repair allows you to justify higher rents, attracts
better tenants, and provides some protection from
legal action.
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6. |
Purchase enough and
appropriate liability and other property insurance.
Make sure that your investment is protected from
loss caused by physical damage to the unit through
storms, fire and criminal act, as well as personal
injury and discrimination. Insurance protection
should be a key part of your property management
strategy.
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7. |
Hire employees carefully.
If you hire a property manager, maintenance or other
employees, do background checks and use a
well-written job description and training to ensure
that your property and practices are followed.
A person who commits a crime while in your
employment may make you financially responsible for
damages.
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8. |
Protect your property from
crime.
No defense is fool-proof, but efforts to prevent
your tenants and property from being victimized by
criminals will help defend you in case you are held
liable for a criminal act. Activities can be
as simple as having working locks in good order on
doors and windows, pruning vegetation that may hide
intruders, as well as contracting with private
security and/or local law enforcement to provide
extra patrols.
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9. |
Address hazards in the home,
such as lead.
Health department and HUD are both making greater
efforts to make homes safer from hazards such as
lead. Health departments are expanding test
for children to detect lead poisoning, and HUD has a
goal of eliminating housing as a source of lead
poisoning in America. Follow appropriate
disclosure requirements for rental properties and
take appropriate measure in dealing with lead,
carbon monoxide and other home hazards.
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10. |
Talk to your tenants.
Before problems become a conflict involving lawyers
and courts, attempt to discuss these issues with
your tenant. If the problem can be solved
informally, you may avoid being sued, or you may be
able to get the tenant to change a behavior before
it becomes an issue for eviction. Again,
document what you discuss and agree to in case the
problem re-surfaces, but attempting to resolve a
problem informally may save you money. |
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