CHAPTER 9 Protect Against Damage
As a rental property owner, you’ll need to learn how to protect your rights against any damage to your property. This is your property, your business, your investment—you need to protect it in order to thrive in the rental property management business. Your lease should state that the tenant will carefully maintain your property and not cause any damage. “Damage” can be defined to include your image and hard-earned reputation in addition to your home and property. Start by ensuring your lease specifically covers every area of property maintenance, and spells out specifically what you require of your tenant in maintaining your property. Details matter! You’ll need to include items such as keeping the peace, ensuring the place is well-maintained and presentable (both inside and out), as well as an agreement that the tenant understands that they will alert you of any issues and reimburse you for any damages they may cause to the property. It’s essential that your lease clearly states that your tenant is required to let you know of any issues, and that they will not be penalized for advising you of any problems with your property that they didn’t cause. For example, let’s say there’s a water leak while a tenant is living there. Your lease should clearly state that your tenant must alert you, and that they will not be “in trouble” for doing so. That way, you can fix the water leak (or any other issue) before the problem becomes worse and costs you more in damages. Time is money! A small water leak can easily turn into a major leak quickly, if 65
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