Tenant's Rights/Evictions Article

Helpful article – thanks for sharing!

Since our community has a ton of renters, here’s one person’s suggestions on how homeowner/landlords can help their tenants and themselves keep the peace with the rest of the community

First, understand that YOU, as the homeowner, are ultimately responsible for the behavior of your tenants. Bad tenants exist because bad and indifferent homeowners don’t bother to educate them on the community rules and require them to comply. If you don’t like the rules for whatever reason, don’t buy an HOA house or condo to rent out – get your own building and make up your own rules (and pay your own maintenance costs!) It’s not the Association’s responsibility to ensure you make money.

Likewise, if you’re a neighbor or board member, you will usually have to go after the homeowner, not the tenant, if you have an issue. The homeowner is legally responsible for complying with the community documents, but his/her contract/lease with the tenant is between them, and unless your community documents say otherwise, your beef is with the owner.

This is why I believe responsible owner/landlords should make sure the property manager knows who’s living in the unit and what vehicles they own. Part of the problem with tenants is that they move in and out all the time and the neighbors have no idea who lives there. Ditto for the vehicles – it can save time and trouble if you know that 2005 Ford Fiesta belongs to tenant X instead of guessing.

I know Melissa has suggested making compliance with community rules part of the lease agreement. If you don’t know what they are, find out. If there aren’t any, you can always put in common-sense rules – clean up after your pet, no loud parties late at night, park in your designated spot – all the things that make for good neighbors. If there is a list of specific rules, give your tenant a copy, along with a form he/she has to sign – the signature acknowledges receipt of the same and that the tenant agrees to behave (if he/she doesn’t read them and breaks the rules anyway, the “I didn’t know” excuse won’t fly very far.)

If you’re a landlord and have your own property manager, please provide his/her contact information (name, address, phone, and email) to the property manager, as well as your own – especially if you live out of state. Ideally, the property manager can be contacted if there are problems and he/she can address them quickly. However, that doesn’t excuse you – you need to check with the property manager to make sure things are going well.

In fact, stop behaving as if the HOA property manager is your el-cheapo property manager to deal with your tenants. If your tenants have issues, they really should be contacting you first and you should act as go-between them and the Association. It may be an extra step, but if that’s costing you time and money, build that cost into your rent.