Friday 10 June 2011

Managing Perennially Late Tenants In Rental Properties

By Ager Sovson


Your best guarantee when buying rental property is to think into the future. You might even decide you eventually want to sell it a profit. However, sometimes the better decision is to rent the property. Hanging onto the rental properties with the hope of profiting, whether it's taking advantage of tax breaks, or capital depreciation, will often cause great harm to your financial bottom line.

As the owner and titleholder of the property, you're legally responsible for any normal costs of ownership when buying rental property, such as mortgage payments, taxes, the various insurance products needed, and any contractual obligations such as repairs.

There is only one reason the owner isn't legally responsible. That would be when a tenant has willfully damaged the residence. Even when it isn't written into your rental agreement, if there are major repairs left undone it will probably cause the tenant to forgo rental payments. It may also result in them becoming lax in other ways. This can hurt you. It's in your best interest not to have angry tenants.

In this day and age prospective tenants should be asked to fill out an application, which supplies you with information and allows for a thorough background check, credit history. Information about late rent payments and maybe even speak with previous property owners. Have a fair rental contract written in plain language spelling out property owner and tenant rights and responsibilities. The fair contract should state the deposit required, your policies for landlord inspections, which is responsible for maintenance, and these termination policies.

When buying rental property have a plan for accurate recording of rent payment, dates, and amounts and a provision for late payments. An occasional delay of a few days is not usually a reason for you to get worried everyone has unexpected expenses from time to time. Nonetheless, when managing perennially late tenants in rental properties, is cause for concern. Contact the tenant and discuss calmly and professionally the overdue payment. Be clear about the contract they signed and the fact that you're entitled to charge a late payment fee. Use the late payment fee as a bargaining chip to encourage prompt payments. Be certain that you know the laws of your land and have good legal advice available- before it's required.

Tenants can be troublesome from time to time. If they're making life miserable for those around them, leaving trash about, defacing property, and causing excessive noise, the value of your property will be affected. If there is legal action required, try to encourage the alternative of arbitration. Through arbitration, problems are settled faster, less expensively, and usually all parties are happier at the result. Following this simple advice can make the difference in your rental property becoming a nightmare or not.




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