If you are a property manager or owner about to write a lease you should consider some aspects of leasing. Usually, a property lease includes the major points and terms of the agreement.
Certain actions by the tenant or the landlord can cause the lease to break. Meaning that if a tenant is negligent, damages the property, or doesn’t pay rent you as a landlord have a right to evict them. On the other hand, the tenant preserves a right to move out and end the contract if the landlord fails to provide suitable conditions for living by leaving the property poorly maintained.
A lease should include crucial definitions and should be well-written and understandable. The lease should clearly state the terms and conditions of both sides. However, most times, there are instances where a lease lacks accountability for a condition or an exception.
These occurrences are called lease loopholes. Several common lease loopholes create issues for landlords and tenants. Therefore, if you don’t want to create a problematic relationship with your tenants, it’s best if you recognize these possible issues.
1. Maintenance Guideline Problems
The lease between a tenant and a landlord should clearly state which parts of maintenance must be dealt with by the landlord or the tenant. Although the law assigns certain responsibilities to one of the parties in some states, misunderstandings often occur and many issues are left out.
The lease should be written by a professional and preferably overseen by a property manager. You must make sure that any future disputes about which party should handle retain maintenance issues can be avoided.
Most of the time, the landlord is responsible for repairing big external damages, pipes, basins, and sinks. Maintenance issues that were caused due to lack of inspections or rose naturally over time are yours to handle. However, if the tenant causes any maintenance problems by being careless, the responsibility falls upon them. It’s best if these terms are cleared up, negotiated, agreed upon, and included in the lease.
2. Rent Price Changes
This is another term that is mostly dealt with by the law in some states. However, not everything is made clear by legal systems. Therefore, it’s best to include an agreement in the lease. Due to economic volatility, rental property values often change.
As a landlord, you don’t want to be losing profit by accepting rent that was set before the prices of bills, groceries, and taxes were raised. To make the point clear, we can look at the change in rent prices before and after the pandemic outbreak. The prices significantly increased after the lockdown began.
When inflation occurs and you still have the same rent price set as you had in the beginning, you might be losing more money than earning. Therefore, it’s best to include the right of a landlord to change the rent price if deemed necessary in the lease agreement. Your property manager will help you set the terms in a manner that will be acceptable to the tenants as well.
3. Issues in the Neighborhood
These Jersey City property managers claim it would be beneficial to note in your lease that if there are issues due to the neighbors’ behaviors, such as loud noises, the lease shall not be voided. Often, the tenants choose to move out of a property due to neighborhood issues earlier than intended.
The landlord should make sure that the lease includes a paragraph where it’s clear that the property owner should not be held accountable for such problems. You can deal with these issues to help your tenants by communication, however, you can avoid breaking the contract due to the problem.
4. Oral Agreements
Frequently, landlords and tenants choose to make an oral agreement. If one of the parties breaks any of the terms they agreed upon, the oral lease might not be able to hold as much power as a written one.
If you make promises to the tenant that you intend to keep, it’s better to write it down and sign it. The same goes for instances where a tenant gives you their word to act on a certain issue. Although many tenants live on properties with just an oral agreement between them and the landlord, such instances end in disputes and problems more often than not.
5. Failing to Mention Names and Numbers
A lease is an agreement between two or more adults on a property. Therefore, it’s best to include names and numbers to avoid any big misunderstandings that could lead to court.
Failing to write names and numbers in the lease allows the parties to be negligent with the terms. Arguing that their name was never mentioned could get them out of trouble and give you additional problems to deal with.
Conclusion
To conclude, avoiding the common loopholes will help you avoid common problems that cause disputes between tenants and landlords. The important thing to remember when owning a rental property is that tenant satisfaction matters the most in this business.