Do you have tenants perform lawn maintenance/care?

[Konrad R.]

I'm about to close on a duplex next week. There is currently one vacant side. The previous landlord had the tenants do the lawn care and it shows. I spoke to the existing tenant, and she said her roommate used to do some of it. The yard is in really bad shape, so I planning to resod it. 

What are your thoughts on having the tenant do the lawn maintenance? The duplex is just in a left and right configuration, so they could take care of their own side. I'm guessing I would also need to provide some type of shed to store lawn equipment. The backyard is pretty small, so I don't really want to put two small sheds back there. 

Do you normally just take care of lawn maintenance on multi-family units? I life in Florida, so the lawn would need to be mowed at least bi-monthly in the summer.

[Donny Widjaja]

In my contract, there is a section for "Maintenance".  It specify that tenant is responsible for maintaining the lawn area, driveway, and sidewalk.  You can possibly add a clause that tenant is responsible for paying the service fee if they need you to do the service.

I also assume tenant needs to have their own lawn mower and other tools to maintain the lawn.  Of course, that is the normal trend the rental in my area, so I'm just following the trend.  If every rental property in your area provides lawn equipment, then you should do that just to be competitive.  

The reason, I don't like to provide too much tools to the tenant because when those tools break, you need to replace it.