This is Tanya with Envy Property Management, in today’s video I’m going to provide you with EPM’s top 7 landlord responsibilities when it comes to properly managing your investment property.
Landlords have a lot of responsibilities when it comes to managing their Northern Utah rental properties. These responsibilities include things like, working with tenants and keeping their property well maintained. If you’re a Northern Utah rental property owner and you’re not up for taking on all the challenges associated with being a landlord, then it may be time to hire a professional property management company. Our company, Envy Property Management, is located in South Ogden, we specialize in single-family, multi-family, small apartment, and small commercial buildings all across Northern Utah. Check us out at envypm.com to learn more about us and the services we offer for the professional management of your investment property.
#1: Comply With Anti-Discrimination Laws
Before you ever advertise a vacant rental home, it’s critical you fully understand fair housing laws. It’s important to understand that what you say and what you do when advertising and selecting tenants if you aren’t careful, could result in costly discrimination complaints, or even a lawsuit. For example, you cannot do or say anything which results in discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, sex, gender identification, sexual orientation, familial status, or physical or mental disability, just to name a few. Anti-Discrimination laws are constantly changing and you want to make sure you are always up to date with the most current anti-discrimination laws.
#2: Understand How to Prepare a Legal Lease Agreement
The lease is a signed contract between the landlord and the tenant and holds the contractual details between the 2 parties involved. This agreement is full of crucial information about the landlord and tenant expectations. Together with federal, state, and local landlord/tenant laws, your lease agreement sets out all the rules the landlord and tenant must follow. Conflict can occur when landlords include illegal clauses in the lease or when landlords fail to provide proper disclosures regarding the property.
#3: Provide Legal Required Disclosures
Landlords must understand they are legally required to provide tenants with disclosures if they know facts about the home that are deemed to be important. For example, is there lead paint in the home? Or, have there been previous mold issues in the home, and has it been rectified? You could be getting yourself into legal trouble if you are aware of certain facts about the home and you don’t disclose them to your tenants.
#4: Be Educated on Landlord/Tenant Laws
Keep yourself very familiar with the most current landlord/tenant laws, things like when you can raise rent, how a landlord may enter the property, how the landlord must serve notices to the tenant and the time frame to do so, how to evict a tenant who hasn’t paid rent, how a landlord may terminate a tenancy, or how a landlord can handle a breach of one of the conditions in the lease agreement.
#5: Understand Habitable Housing
In northern Utah, landlords are responsible for providing tenants with habitable housing. If you don’t keep up on important repairs that are essential to the living space, tenants may have several options against the landlord including terminating the lease. These are items like running hot water, locking doors and windows, heating, and working appliances.
#6: Respect the Tenant’s Privacy
Tenants have the right to privacy when occupying your investment property. It is important that you are aware of how often landlords can visit the rental property. In Utah, landlords must give the tenants a 24-hour notice to enter the rental home, unless the tenants give permission otherwise. Managing access to the property is a critical aspect to keep good tenant/landlord relationships and not infringe on the tenant’s right to peaceful enjoyment of the home.
#7: Know the Rules Regarding Security Deposits
Security deposits are one of the biggest areas of tenant/landlord disputes and small claims cases. To avoid getting yourself into a litigious dispute, you must educate yourself and fully understand the laws surrounding security deposits. For example, how much can you ask for a security deposit? How much of the security deposit is refundable? What can be charged to the security deposit? And, how many days do you have to return the tenant’s security deposit with the disposition form documenting in writing the balance the tenants received after they have vacated the property?
That’s it for today’s video on Envy’s top 7 landlord responsibilities. To learn more on how you can succeed with your Northern Utah investment property, contact us today at 801-337-4337 or visit our website at envypm.com where you can see more valuable information on how to effectively run your investment property business.
