How To Protect Your Property from Spooky Tenants

Sometimes renting can be scary. Here are some scary tenant types and ways to deal with their personalities.

Spooky Tenants (and What to Do about Them)

1. The Complainer

Even though consistent communication is important, sometimes tenants can do it too much.

The complainer wants their concerns prioritized and to win arguments. Their behaviour can become aggressive and condescending if they don’t get their way right away. This entitlement makes compromise difficult.

What to do:  

• Provide clear ways a tenant may submit a concern they are having with anything related to your property. Maintenance requests, complaints, and emergencies should be outlined in detail.
• Use an email or online portal for tenants to submit concerns.
• Provide definitions and examples in a tenant manual about what is deemed an emergency.
• Assure your tenant that all concerns will be prioritized and handled.
• Offer an estimated time-range on when the problem is likely to be resolved. This will assure tenants a resolution is on the way, while decreasing the chances they will be constantly following up to find out when it will be completed.

2. The Late-Payer

Paying rent seems simple for everyone, right? Pay your rent on time and move on.  But you’ll soon learn that some tenants pay on their schedule and when it’s convenient for them.

There might be different reasons for not paying on time: 

• they or someone they know is sick
• a car needed repairing
• their pay check couldn’t cover the monthly amount

Whatever the reason, this type of tenant can really put a strain on your revenue and bank account, not just theirs. What’s scarier than a late-payer is the non-payer. These tenants break the lease agreement regularly and often need to be evicted.

It might be hard to spot these tenants, but there are things you can do prevent leasing to one: 

• Stick to your guns/lease agreement. Don’t budge when communicating the expectations and legal obligations of the lease agreement
• Record all your tenants payment history
• Verify income: each tenant should have some verification they can pay rent and should be able to spend 20-30% of the monthly income on rent.
• Check the tenant’s references carefully
• Provide payment options: understand their income flow to match your date of rent payment
• Provide convenience such as online payment options.
• Choose an investment property in Riverpoint Crossing or Wedgewood Gardens to ensure

3. The Rule Breaker

Lease agreements protect tenants and landlords and outline the terms and conditions for renting a property and are agreed upon by both signing parties.

Too many visitors, breaking quiet hours, or violating a pet policy are minor whereas some will break the law and engage in criminal activity. These law-breakers are the ones you want to avoid and will otherwise involve law enforcement and damaging your neighbourhood reputation.

To protect your property and other tenants, 

• Draft a solid lease agreement that states zero tolerance policy for illegal activities
• Consult a lawyer and law enforcement if you suspect suspicious activity from your tenant
• Use tenant screening for history, references, credit, and any public records that would indicate criminal activity and their potential as your tenant

4. The Destroyer

Caring for a rental falls on both the landlord and the tenant. Destroyers can be extra messy and might damage your home.

These damages could include: 

• Poor Housekeeping – Dishes, stained carpet, and allowing a pet to tear up furnishings to name a few housekeeping damages
• Poor Maintenance – Taking out the trash, mowing the lawn, and letting the tampering with the plumbing can lead to a mighty mess!
• Major Repairs – Drywall holes, making changes without permission like repainting, ripping out yard works, and changing fixtures, let alone

Tenant insurance is always a good choice. Here are some Canadian tenant insurance options to recommend to your tenants as part of your lease agreement with them.

Following these tips,

• Notify tenants of their responsibilities within the lease agreement, since some tenants just don’t know the expectations set on them.
• Perform regular site inspections.
• Require your tenants to get renter’s insurance. Not only does this cover your tenants’ personal belongings in the event of theft or damage, it can also help cover the cost of damage due to negligence.

Final Thoughts

You can manage bad tenants by equipping yourself with the knowledge about these spooky tenant types, and better yet, avoid them altogether. Unfortunately, spooky tenants come in all behaviours and may still catch you off guard. Happy trick or tenant out there! 

Questions?

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