Conducting routine inspections of your rental property is an excellent way to ensure your property is well-maintained. Plus, it offers you a chance to address minor maintenance and repair issues before they become bigger, which helps keep tenants satisfied. However, knowing when to schedule rental property inspections is essential. After all, you want to ensure you don’t disrupt your tenant’s living experience and risk violating landlord-tenant laws. Today, we’ll review the do’s and don’ts of inspecting your property.
Contents of This Article:
- How Often Can You Inspect Your Rental Property?
- When to Schedule Rental Property Inspections
- Enlist BMG to Help Schedule Rental Property Inspections
How Often Can You Inspect Your Rental Property?
You are legally allowed to inspect your rental property whenever you want, so long as you don’t violate your tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment. In fact, landlords can drive by, walk by, or bike to their property anytime they want. They can also inspect the exterior to ensure everything looks okay.
That said, your tenants gain certain rights when they move into your rental property. Some of these rights ensure you don’t intrude on their daily living. For instance, tenants have the right to enjoy a peaceful and quiet living experience while leasing from you. They have the right to a reasonable amount of privacy, freedom from disturbance, and the ability to use any common areas without your interference.
This means that, despite your pressing concerns about your rental property, you cannot intrude on your tenant’s right to enjoy the property throughout the lease term whenever you want. If you do, know that your tenant will have the right to discontinue paying their monthly rent. They may also leave the premises as they please, with no consequences for breaking the lease early.
When to Schedule Rental Property Inspections
Despite being able to inspect your rental property whenever you please with proper notice and a legitimate reason, it is best not to become a bother to your tenants. Below are some crucial times when you should schedule rental property inspections during a tenancy.
- When a Tenant Moves In or Out
- To Check for Unauthorized Tenants
- Checking on Maintenance Needs
- When a Tenant Misses a Rent Payment
When a Tenant Moves In or Out
Move-in and move-out inspections are crucial parts of the rental process. Typically, your Northern Virginia property management company will inspect your property when your tenants move in and out at the end of their lease term.
When your tenant moves in, your property manager will inspect the property’s original condition. Then, at the end of the lease term, you can determine what damages your tenant may have caused while living there. Looking beyond what is considered normal wear and tear, any damages that can be attributed to tenant abuse or neglect are then covered by the tenant’s security deposit, which should have been collected when the tenant moved in.
Your tenant must be aware that these inspections will occur. This way, they know you will be looking for instances where they may have damaged your property and that their security deposit is on the line if damages are found. They may take better care of your property, knowing you inspect the property at the beginning and end of the lease term.
To Check for Unauthorized Tenants
Sometimes, you may feel unauthorized tenants are living in your rental property. It can be quite apparent, especially if you notice more people coming and going or there are always extra cars parked at the property.
This is common when a tenant begins to house a boyfriend or girlfriend, when a friend needs a new place to live, or when a family member overstays at your property. Unfortunately, these instances easily become a roommate situation that, unless you authorize it, becomes a breach of the lease agreement.
You should have drafted the lease agreement to outline the rules regarding roommates. Some of those rules include:
- You and your property manager must screen and authorize any roommate wanting to stay at your property.
- The new tenant must sign the new lease agreement, ensuring they will pay their portion of the rent.
- The new lease agreement should have a joint and several liability clause to protect you and your investment property.
- Outline the consequences of housing unauthorized tenants, including eviction. That way, tenants know what can happen if they try to cheat the system.
In any case, should you suspect that your tenants are housing unauthorized tenants, you might want to consider a quick inspection of the property to see if any extra rooms are being used, furniture has been added to the property, or additional people are actually present that are overstaying.
Checking On Maintenance Needs
Checking your rental property regularly for minor maintenance and repair issues is always a good idea. Sometimes, your tenants may fail to inform you about small issues such as leaky faucets. Other times, they may not even be aware of an issue. Either way, staying on top of maintenance needs is a great way to avoid significant repair costs for neglected repairs.
Conducting these types of inspections during the seasonal changes is a great way to make sure they happen consistently and do not bother your tenants too much. So, when it comes time to winterize your property, do a quick run-through of the entire property. During your inspection, make sure you have a rental property safety checklist to ensure everything is in pristine condition.
Do the same during spring when you want to spruce up the landscaping, during summer when it comes time to prepare your property for the colder months, and, of course, during fall when things like rain gutters and pipes need checking.
While you’re at it, during these seasonal inspections, take time to ensure your tenants are following through on their obligations. Changing the air filters, maintaining major appliances, and keeping up with the landscaping should be their responsibilities.
When a Tenant Misses a Rent Payment
When running a successful rental property business, you must ensure your lease agreement is drafted to ensure prompt rent collection procedures that your tenant understands from the beginning.
If your tenant misses a rent payment at any time, you might consider stopping by to see what is going on. This proactive approach can solve a small issue and help prevent a bigger one. After all, you don’t want to deal with an eviction and a vacant property needing new tenants.
Find out why the tenant has missed their rent payment, issue proper notice that they need to pay up immediately, or enlist the help of your property management company to start the eviction process if necessary. No matter what steps you need to take, inspecting your property may save you a lot of trouble.
Whatever you do, however, do not take matters into your own hands after inspecting your property and noticing that your property is being poorly maintained or the rent is not being paid on time. This can lead to lots of legal trouble and worsen things for you.
Enlist BMG to Help Schedule Rental Property Inspections
It is your job as a landlord to schedule rental property inspections. After all, you want to ensure your tenants pay on time and maintain the property. In addition, it is your job to maintain the property to the highest standards possible so your tenants are satisfied and want to renew their lease with you at the end of the tenancy.
If you want help with regularly inspecting your investment property, contact Bay Management Group today to connect with our experienced property managers. We can help draft lease agreements that outline the inspection process and responsibilities of all parties involved.
In addition, we can conduct the actual inspections of your rental property so that you know everything is being handled properly and that both you and your tenant’s rights are being honored. Learn more about our services throughout Baltimore, Philadelphia, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC, today!
