7 Tips for Landlords on Dealing with Property Maintenance Duties

Regular property maintenance is one of the crucial aspects of landlords’ responsibilities. Properly maintaining your rental property will not only improve its general condition and appeal, but also protect you against any legal liability. In addition, you’re also obliged to provide your tenants with a comfortable and safe living environment.

Define your roles in the lease

Although property maintenance is your responsibility, your tenant still needs to take care of some minor issues in order to prevent further damage. Defining your roles and listing your responsibilities in the lease will provide you both with legal guidelines you need to follow. As a landlord, you are responsible for major repairs and dealing with plumbing issues, electrical problems, normal wear and tear, etc. You also need to paint your interior before your new tenant moves in and take care of everything else to prepare your rental for a new resident.

Set a minimum condition standard

Another important maintenance-related task that you need to complete before your tenant moves in is set a minimum condition standard. You should document the condition of your rental before your tenant moves in, make a checklist of all the necessary repairs and even take photos that you’ll include in the lease. This will eliminate any uncertainties regarding your tenant’s security deposit. If something gets damaged beyond normal wear and tear and due to your tenants’ fault, you’ll be able to deduct the repair costs from their deposit.

Create a maintenance schedule

Creating a maintenance schedule will help you keep your rental property in great condition. It can outline how often maintenance checks need to be conducted and specify that your tenant needs to inform you about possible issues. Having a comprehensive and detailed initial maintenance schedule created is particularly important in the case of strata properties because you need to consider both your personal and shared maintenance obligations. Such a schedule will help you determine maintenance obligations when it comes to common strata areas. This way, you and your tenant will avoid possible disagreements since you’ll have everything determined in advance.

Inform and educate your tenant

Once your tenant moves in, you should take some time to share additional information regarding property maintenance. Although they will have everything in writing, it’s essential that you go over the lease to make sure that they understand what is expected of them. In addition, you can show your tenant how certain appliances work in your property and encourage them to contact you as soon as they notice possible problems. Share with them any information that might help them prevent more serious maintenance issues.

Know when to call the pros

Although there will be a number of maintenance tasks that you can do on your own, you should know when to hire professionals. For instance, it’s better to call an expert when it comes to electrical problems and plumbing issues than risk tackling these tasks on your own. Furthermore, unlicensed electrical and plumbing work is strictly prohibited in some countries. If you’re not completely sure that you know how to deal with a particular issue, it’s always better to hire an experienced professional than make a costly mistake.

Go with a simple landscaping design

When renting a house, you also need to maintain your outdoor space. The best practice here is to keep your landscape simple and presentable. There’s no need for doing a complete remodel of your outdoor area. You can introduce some simple updates that will improve the general condition and appeal of your property. Afterwards, your tenant can invest time, money and effort in creating an outdoor oasis if they want to.

Keep a maintenance record

It’s important that you document everything, so you should consider keeping a maintenance record. You can write down all the information regarding performed repairs and costs. Keep in mind that property management is a business, which means that certain costs may be deducted from your tax.

As a landlord, you need to stay on top of maintenance repairs and make sure that everything is up to code. These helpful tips will help you maintain your rental property properly and successfully.