Your priority as a landlord is to protect your property from potential risks, but you also need to protect your tenants from injury and harm while they are living in your rental home. Be aware of your liabilities and responsibilities when you’re renting out a property. Your property needs to be safe and habitable.
Property Inspections
It’s important to regularly inspect your property. This allows you to closely examine the condition of the home and respond quickly to any maintenance issues or repair concerns that you find. Document everything and make a list of what needs to be done so you can schedule the proper professional vendors and contractors.
Following Up with Maintenance
Your lease should address all the details of how maintenance is handled and what the tenants should expect. Include your procedures for how the tenants should report maintenance and give tenants the opportunity to discuss their concerns with you. Decide how these requests will be handled and what kind of recordkeeping you will establish in order to document when the issue was reported, what you did about it and when it was fixed. If there’s ever a dispute over the habitability or safety of your home, you’ll need to be able to prove that you didn’t leave the problem to get worse.
Avoiding Deterioration
You need to take note of any deterioration or wear to your property that could be problematic or unsafe for your tenants. Legally, you must take reasonable care “in respect of dangers not readily apparent on inspection.” That means that even if your tenants don’t report a problem, you need to be proactive about keeping the home well maintained and in good shape.
Professional Inspections
In addition to your own inspections, have professionals look at your systems on a regular basis. Have a plumber, electrician and pest control contractor visit the home at least annually. Have the pools and fences checked and get your heating and air conditioning contractor in to check the furnace and the cooling system.
When you work with a professional property manager, you have a qualified expert taking care of all these things for you. Please contact us at Legends Realty so we can tell you more about how to ensure your rental property is safe and habitable.
