To those inheriting tenants, don't make this rookie mistake!

[Elenis Camargo]

Hi BP! I wanted to share my rookie mistake. We have purchased two SFH with inherited tenants. The first was in February and the second this past month. While we were closing on the second rental, we did a new lease for the first rental and know that lease inside and out. Upon inheriting the second tenant, she called and let me know that there was a roach and mice problem in the house. I told her I would take care of that right away. I also told her we would be maintaining the lawn. I got a feeling to check the lease after telling her these things and found that the lease she signed says she is responsible for lawn and for pest control! That's a savings of $120 per month!! So I had to go back and explain this to the tenant. Definitely a learning experience. Don't assume all leases are the same in terms of what the tenants are responsible for! Read them fully before answering any questions on them. Hope this helps someone :)

[Jim K.]

@Elenis Camargo

I am a DIY investor and a home improvement contractor, and that affects how I would have handled this, but I think I have some insights that can help you and other reading this thread.

While we also transfer lawn care duties to our tenants, we're always ready to swoop in with out own equipment if the yard goes to pot. You need to be able to do this because if the tenant abandons the lawn care duties, the municipality will write the landlord up, too. And sometimes the tenant just doesn't have the equipment to really take care of issues that just keep getting worse. We maintain a gas trimmer, a gas mower, a chainsaw, loppers, a brush saw, a pole saw, a gas chipper, and weedkiller concentrate and sprayer for these eventualities. These tools are also extremely helpful in our acquisitions business and live-in flipping, but we acquired them for the rentals, so we can write off the expense of buying and keeping them up on our taxes. If your case, if you decide to be hands-off for this, you should always keep a full-service lawn care/tree care company's number in your phone.

Here's the most important thing I can tell you: never, ever, ever transfer insect and vermin control duties to the tenant. There are plenty of tenants who are perfectly happy to live with roaches and rats if they need to pay to get rid of them, and don't see a need to make much of a fuss about it to their landlord. But vermin represent a health hazard and the onus is always on you, the landlord, to provide a safe environment. If a rat comes out and bites a child visiting your tenant's kids in your rental, guess who's going to get sued?

But that's not as important as the fact that termites, carpenter ants, mice, and rats can also do significant damage to a home. Rats are the worst in my opinion, because they love to chew on electric cables to keep their teeth sharp. That's one way electrical fires start. When I learn about a rat problem in one of my properties, Judgment Day descends on the rats. I go after them by any means necessary until I am absolutely positive they're gone. In your case, again if you decide to hire it out now or in the future, it would be wise to keep the most reputable pest control people that you can find in your area in your phone as well. They are incredibly cheap for the security they provide.

Good luck, Elenis.