Renewal Inspection

[Peter Mckernan]

Hello Everyone:

I wanted to get some insight on how people usually handle their lease renewals. I have a tenant that will be renewing their lease in April and wanted to see if when the lease is renewed to also perform a walkthrough to make sure the house is still in good working order, there are no hazardous conditions for tenants and visitors, and also no problems that have been overlooked in the past year. 

I have been in the house within the past three months; however, I want to make sure that I document the walkthrough for future issues that might arise. 

Does anyone do this with their renewal leases and if so, how do you handle the walkthrough? Do you just use a standard form that you used on the move in date of the current tenant?

Please let me know.

Thanks,

Peter 

[Marcia Maynard]

We do month-to-month rental agreements instead of leases, so we don't experience the dynamics and extra work involved with lease renewals. However, we do maintenance inspections for all of our properties on a regular basis. 

Some properties we inspect quarterly, others we inspect every 6 months. We charge for damages as they occur or as we discover them, whichever happens first. If the tenant is not fulfilling their responsibilities and/or not abiding by the terms of the rental agreement, we address those issues as they arise. 

We check plumbing, electric, HVAC, roofs/gutters/drainage, smoke/CO alarms, fire extinguishers (if present), window/door function, egress pathways, chimney/fireplace, and sanitation. We document this on a dated "Property Condition Report". When we are on the property and in the unit we keep our eye out for possible rental agreement violations as well, including property damage.