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Protect Yourself as a Landlord With These Five Tips from the Pros

Protect Yourself as a Landlord With These Five Tips from the Pros

Owning and renting property is a good way to make some extra income, but if you want to be a rental property owner it’s important to know about protecting yourself legally. In this article we discuss five easy things to help make your landlord experience a good one.

1. Always Get a Written Agreement

Most legal experts agree that contracts that are not in written form are useless. People can forget some parts of a conversation, or hear one thing when you in fact meant to convey another. If relationships turn sour and you end up in court, a verbal contract can be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce in a legal proceeding.

2. Make Your Lease Fit Your Individual Situation

You can find any number of “boilerplate” leases available for little or no cost online or in stationery stores. These forms may be a good place to start, but it’s important to personalize the agreement to your particular own tenant situation and your way of doing business. Make sure you cover issues such as who is allowed to occupy the rental property (ideally only the people specifically named on the lease); whether or not the tenant can have pets, and if so then what kinds, how many, and possibly a size or weight limitation; what changes the tenant is or is not allowed to make; whether or not subletting is permitted, and if so under what certain conditions; who is responsible for maintaining the property; and any other conditions.

3. Do Background Checks

Do you plan to rent to a habitual criminal who is thousands of dollars in debt and has been thrown out of the last two or three apartments where he lived? You might, but only if you are aware of the risks and make your decision with them clearly in mind. A quick background check before you accept a tenant can save you a lot of pain.

4. Know the Discrimination Laws in Your Area

Statutes at state and Federal levels protect renters from discrimination based on such factors as sex, marital status, race or ethnicity, age, source of income, religious belief or affiliation, sexual orientation, and more. As a landlord it is your responsibility to know the anti-discrimination laws and be careful not to violate them.

5. Take Care of Problems Quickly

Don’t ignore problems, especially situations like tenants getting behind in their rent or violating some provision of the rental agreement. Some people need a help to form good habits. If the tenants are ignoring some requirement of the lease, remind them of as soon as you see it and don’t give in until the problem is fixed. Eviction, which is your final solution, is something that you don’t want to be forced into doing.

Renting out property is not a get rich quick scheme. It takes patience, intelligence, and a good measure of luck to make it as a landlord. Following these rules will protect you from some of the troublesome perils that some landlords.

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