Does it help or hinder the landlord and tenant relationship by providing new tenants a copy of Landlord Tenant Laws for the state where the rentals are located

[Kenneth Davis]

Despite my lease agreement and all the paperwork that  qualifying tenants have to go through to get a month to month lease with me, I see an attorney at least once for almost every tenant who decides to test the boundaries, to get him or her on track with the lease and laws that apply.  My going to an attorney for almost every of  tenant is a little bothersome, but now unfortuantley  anticipated and so I thought that providing a copy of the laws which I follow might set a more professional business tone to the rental atmosphere. Do other landlords do this or have any thoughts why this might not be a good idea?

[Marcia Maynard]

Landlord-Tenant law, as most laws on the books, are not written for easy reading and could be quite intimidating for most tenants, as well as easily misunderstood.  I would not recommend giving tenants a copy of L-T law... ours is 60 pages of RCWs (Revised Code of Washington). 

Instead, make sure your rental agreement is in synch with the law and all key points are covered. Establish a set of property rules that are written in easy to understand English, with clear consequences if the rules are broken. Print your rental agreements and property rules in large enough print to be read, no less than 12 point type. For low vision tenants, raise it to 14 point. 

At move-in read through the entire rental agreement with the tenants and discuss the key points. You may be surprised how low functional literacy is in the United States, especially among low-income tenants. Zero in on those terms of the rental agreement that you are seeing tenants breach most often.

I wouldn't worry much about your vehicle and how you dress. But do think about your posture and how you speak. Speak clearly, slowly, and use vocabulary that your tenants will understand. Be firm, fair and polite.