check with tenants constantly to see if repair is needed?

[Xiao Wu]

Have been a landlord for several months. So far the tenant hasn’t reported any issue yet. I see today is the last day of 2020, do I need to check with my tenant to see if anything is wrong/broken/needs to be fixed? Or just assume there is no problem if the tenant doesn’t report?

Do you check with your tenants constantly to see if there is anything to be fixed?

[Dalyn Hazell]

@Xiao Wu Great question! As a landlord, it is easy to worry about your properties when you are not there. Plus, many tenants do not alert you of problems until it is too late!

However, there are a couple ways to get around this.

Depending on how long your lease is, I would do a thorough walk-through of the property in between each lease. If you have lease longer than one year, just communicate with your tenant that you’re going to do an annual walk-through. It’s your property… You just have to give them adequate notice, usually 24 to 48 hours.

Other than that, put in your lease agreement that tenants must notify you of all repair- related issues. Will they always tell you? Maybe, maybe not.

Make sure to inform them that issues related to normal wear-and-tear are the responsibility of the landlord....so it’s not like they’re coming out of pocket with anything.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any other questions.