Being a landlord can prove to be an irritating and challenging job when dealing with irresponsible or unruly tenants. From battling maintenance and foundation problems, to managing property and liability insurance, a landlord has a strenuous list of duties to uphold as a business owner. So, the last thing you would want is to have a criminal living on your property. This can pose a threat to you in the future because you can be held accountable to a certain extent in certain situations of crime happening under your living space. Even further, one bad tenant can create trouble for others around them. This can jeopardize your profits if other tenants begin to move out. Even evicting a bad tenant to get rid of the problem can be a long and costly process So you may be wondering how you protect yourself from this situation. There are a few key points that may help you listed below:
Background check
This can prove to be the most useful preventative methods of tenant screening to make sure your business continues to thrive crime free. These can be done quickly and easily via the internet, where there are even have websites specifically designed for landlords. This will automatically give you a much better reading about who you are dealing with. From here you can make the decision on whether you would like to proceed with business as planned. A background check is your first and foremost priority.
Other forms of prevention include:
- Keeping rent and lease prices fair but competitive.
- Keep up the outer and inner appearances of your property. The outer appearance usually will attract a certain income of people. While a well kept inside of the property will reduce the chances of a personal injury lawsuit from a tenant due to lack of maintenance.
- Meeting with future tenants face to face before they move in. This can help you gather information about the person you will be dealing with, as well as forming a relationship with them.
- Check banking statements for the last 3 months
- Check for previous landlord references, as well as references from previous or current employers as well.
Sometimes a bad tenant may make it through the cracks even if you follow all of these guidelines. This is when you need to assess your next actions to be taken. Usually you have a few options if your tenant is not paying their rent, committing crime, or damaging property:
- Confront them about the issue you are having with them. If they still do not comply it may be time to soon take legal action.
- In the case of witnessing crime, it would be best to document the happenings and contact the authorities.
- If a tenant is not paying their rent and do not intend to pay it, many landlords will sue in small claims court. Many times this does not even involve hiring a lawyer, which as most know can be pretty expensive.
- Another option is to start eviction proceedings. Many landlords will do this if the cost of obtaining their overdue money will cost them even more money just to receive it through court and other legal processes.
Landlords are business owners, and the tenants are the customers and source of income. Do not wait around too long if the signs of a bad landlord/tenant relationship begin brewing. It is best to act as soon as possible, because this will help ensure that your profits stay steady, and that you won’t take a loss in revenue in the end result.