Rental Property Inspections

The Importance of Rental Property Inspections

More Americans are renting than ever before. A study in 2017 showed that over 37% of households were now occupied by tenants, and that trend showed no sign of slowing down.

If you are one of the many landlords renting out property to tenants, you need to consider undertaking regular rental property inspections.

Read on to discover why it is essential that you do so, both for yourself and your tenant.

Ensure Your Tenants Are Not Violating Their Lease

Most tenants will uphold the contract they signed at the beginning of the lease. This contract will stipulate a set of rules they need to follow to continue renting the property.

However, some tenants may not be adhering to the rules. They may, for example, make modifications to the property and grounds without your permission. Or they might keep animals when the contract stipulates that they can not.

Regular inspections allow you to ensure that the rules are being followed. They check that your property is being kept in the condition agreed to at the start of the lease term.

If you do not have enough time to do regular inspections yourself, you should consider hiring a professional who can offer property management services. They will inspect the property on your behalf and will have the experience to spot problems in the early stages.

Make Regular Maintenance Checks

Problems around the house can have a cumulative effect when not dealt with quickly. Often, tenants will not inform you of a problem with the property that is not directly impacting their lives at the time. This can allow the problem to worsen and potentially become very expensive to resolve.

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For example, unnoticed leaks in the roof or plumbing may go unnoticed by the tenant until a major leak breaks through and causes damage to both your property and their belongings. If the problem is so bad the property becomes inhabitable, then you could lose out on months of rental income while the issue is fixed.

Regular maintenance checks with the tenant can help improve communication. Also, they allow you to ensure that no issues are silently worsening in the background and deprecating the property value.

Avoid Invalidating Your Insurance Policy

One of the best landlord tips is to ensure that you have insurance on your rental properties. Tenants and accidents can cause catastrophic property damage.

However, certain home insurance policies require the landlord to regularly inspect their properties to remain valid. If you have rental home insurance on your properties, you should check the terms of your agreement and carry out inspections when required.

Plan Regular Rental Property Inspections

As you can see, you must carry out rental property inspections on your households. Not only will this keep your property in excellent condition, but it’ll also allow you to maintain a good relationship with your tenants and insurers.

Contact a property management agency for more advice on how to carry out the next inspection on your property.

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