It’s your right as a landlord to watch over your rental property and occupants. However, there is a thin line between being diligent and nosy. Going overboard with your watchfulness can be considered an unwarranted intrusion by the tenants. If you want to improve your landlord profile and attract more tenants, you need to create a reputation of a courteous and conscientious landlord that doesn’t come out as intrusive.
Many times people turn into nosy landlords without realizing it themselves. In this post, we will discuss things through which you can identify if you are a nosy landlord. The following discussion will also help you stop being a nosy landlord.
Tenants Rights Stop You from Being Nosy
The lease agreement signed between the landlord and tenant assigns them a set of responsibilities and rights. In almost every state, tenants have the right to stop the landlord from visiting the property unannounced without any prior notice. Moreover, tenants also get the right to sue the rental property owner for illegal trespassing and invasion of privacy.
Similarly, some local laws allow tenants to take the landlord to court for their interference. The tenant has the right to undisturbed utilization of the rental property. Tenants can also sue a nosy landlord on the account of inflicting emotional distress by breaching their rented space.
Even if a tenant doesn’t take the legal route, they get fed up with the landlord’s continuous intrusion to the point where they can’t wait for the lease contract to end and vacate the property.
Keep reminding yourself you can land in legal troubles and fail to retain tenants with an intrusive attitude. This continuous self-reminder will help you stop being a nosy landlord.
Never Have an Unscheduled Visit
For landlords, visiting the property while tenants are residing there is unavoidable. A landlord has to visit the rental property from inside on different occasions, from maintenance/repair visits to showing up the property to the next prospective tenants. However, you need to be as civil regarding these visits as possible. You can’t just show up on the tenant’s door impromptu and expect to enter the house right away.
Some lease agreements bound landlords to dispatch a written notice about the visit in advance to the tenant. Make sure you ask the tenant for the visit at least 48 hours beforehand.
Avoid Too Many Visits
As mentioned in the above section, landlord visits to the rental property are inevitable. However, it doesn’t mean you should start asking tenants to show you the property every other day. No matter how courteous you are in taking that permission, no tenant wants the landlord to make frequent visits.
For instance, if you have to show the property to two different parties, schedule their visit on the same day and in successive slots so that you don’t have to ask the tenants for two different days and two different times. Similarly, plan your rental property maintenance when several jobs add up. This way, you can take care of in a single outing instead of bothering the tenants for every minor fix and repair.
Don’t Ask Too Many Questions
Besides stopping your unannounced and frequent visits, you should also avoid being verbally intrusive. Yes, you get nosy when you keep asking tenants questions all the time. Tenants don’t like those forever investigative landlords who always have doubts or curiosities regarding some of the most trivial matters.
Conclusion
By actively taking care of your general conduct with tenants, always reaching out to them ahead of time for a property tour, and not bothering them with visits for minor things, you can earn the reputation of a good, non-nosy landlord.
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