Types Of Difficult Tenants
The first type of difficult tenant is the late payer. There’s nothing as annoying as a tenant to receive that call from the tenant pleading and begging for you to be patient. In as much as some instances may require you to lend a hearing, you need to be firm and maintain that late payments are bad for you and may attract a penalty.It is important to remember that in this scenario it may be difficult to establish whether the tenant in question is out to take advantage of your kindness and maybe next month you will have to wait for 3 weeks to get the rent.
If the problem persists with the particular tenant, you should go ahead and send an email or call them to act as a polite warning. After they haven’t paid the rent and it seems to be dragging on over a month, then it is only right that you take action, regardless of how uncomfortable it may make you feel. By being the property manager, it is a little easier on you as you only need to tell them that it is the owner who sets the rules and not you. You are simply doing your job.
Another problem that comes right after late rent payers is those renters who damage property. As a property owner or even a manager, you need to regularly inspect your property. This will help you keep tabs on whether the tenant has been engaging in destructive practices that may leave your property with many damages. One way to go about it is by using a mobile inspection app. This way you will have before photos that will act as evidence in the event that the tenant claims that they got some things not working or even that some things were damaged before they moved into the house. In the event that they refuse to pay for the damages that they have made, then you have grounds to kick them out.
Perhaps third on the list of problematic tenants are the whiners. There are those tenants that you will hardly hear from and there are those who will keep on calling you at odd hours of the night making unreasonable requests. They may be small issues which they can fix themselves, but choose to burden you with their whining which may drive you crazy. The truth of the matter is that you are not obliged to take action every time they make that call. This is especially so, if the issues are small and negligible.
The most dangerous tenant is the one that is willing to break the law. Even though they may not break the law while at your property, they have a really high likelihood of doing so. Some of the serious cases that you may come across include drug dealing in your premise or someone simply abusing drugs in your property and passing out in the front lawn. In most of these cases, the best move to make is to evict the tenant. Calling the police in cases such as violence or sale of drugs is perhaps the best option.
Taking Action Against Difficult Tenants
As a property owner or manager you must be alive to the fact that you will be called upon every now and then to make the right decision. This can be on a daily basis depending on the number of tenants that you serve. In the event that you notice that a particular tenant may be causing other tenants problems, you will have to call out their behavior and ask them to desist from such practices if they are to continue living in your properties.It will further call for you to be an authoritative figure and assert your rights. This is a delicate balance since you need to remember that the tenants also have rights which you should not abuse. In light of this, it is probably best as a property owner, or a property manager to have a record of everything. This will help you in the long run as you will be able to reduce the chances that a tenant will dispute things with you.
At times, the best way to deal with problematic clients is to be kind with them. Make sure that as a property owner that you are kind to them and also patient. In the event of any issues that may arise, be sure to quickly responds to their calls or messages.
When all else fails and the only choice that you have is to evict the tenant, then you have to do it right. The first thing that you need to do is to seek out the services of a lawyer to advice you accordingly. As stated earlier on, your tenant also has rights which you should not abuse. You need to have grounds for you to evict them. This means that you need to have enough evidence of their misdemeanor so as to proceed to making a case against them. There are many instances of evictions gone wrong and it is always right as a property owner or property manager that you ensure you have a lawyer guiding you through it.
Having problematic tenants may be inevitable, but knowing how to deal with them may be your best option in making the best out of the situation. Take time to screen potential tenants to your property and this will go a long way in ensuring that you get better tenants that will not give you these problems.