Legal Rights And Responsibilities Of Roommates – Part II

Posted by on April 26, 2007 under Landlord Tenant Lawsuits | icon: commentBe the First to Comment

Now, that you have selected the roommate you wish to share your rental accommodation with, the next logical step is to ensure all legal rights and responsibilities of co-tenants are put down in writing, in order to make sharing not only a whole lot easier, but a pleasant experience, as well.

The only thing that will hold, in the event things go wrong between roommates is, if there is a written agreement regarding:

  1. How the rent is to be split and paid together with utilities and security deposits.
  2. As well, house rules if any, regarding pets, including pet security deposits.
  3. Whether, smoking is to be allowed or not, and if so, smoking and the non-smoking areas should be clearly demarcated.
  4. Partying hours and drug use (or lack thereof) must be decided on at the outset.
  5. In addition, late hours and noise levels must be agreed upon.
  6. Whether, overnight guests are permitted, and if so, how often?
  7. Whether, food and cooking duties are to be shared or each one buys his / her own groceries, does his / her own cooking.
  8. Chalk out a cleaning schedule and how household chores are to be shared.

Though, as you will find, it is impossible to enforce the rules, such as, forcing your roommate to wash his / her dirty dishes, or to maintain the quiet while other roommates are sleeping, a small claims court judge has the power to enforce agreements, as to how rent and utilities are to be paid.

That apart, landlords should make themselves cognisant with all rules and regulations before drafting tenancy leases or rental agreements. They must also take all necessary precautions, such as, tenant screenings, background checks on prospective tenants, including making certain all rental lease clauses are adhered to, as insurance for a litigation free landlord / tenant relationship. A simple click of the mouse and any landlord or property manager can visit www.e-renter.com for their tenant screening and background check services. www.e-renter.com, the best tenant screening agency in America!

Legal Rights And Responsibilities Of Roommates – Part I

Posted by on April 24, 2007 under Landlord Tenant Lawsuits | icon: commentBe the First to Comment

Being aware of their legal rights and responsibilities can make sharing a place a whole lot easier for roommates. Therefore, it is important for you to find out more, in case you are thinking of taking on a roommate to halve your living expenses.

Selecting Roommates
Simply, because you have a great time hanging out and partying with friends, is no sure-fire guarantee that you will enjoy sharing accommodation and living together. In deciding to go in for a roommate or roommates, the following issues must be considered carefully, in order to decide a roommate’s true potential.

Give due consideration to:

  • Before letting anyone move in with you, check out his / her personality, as it is most essential to check out what kind of character your potential roommate is.
  • Find out whether your potential roommate leads a healthy lifestyle or not, including his / her habits.
  • Duly consider the income of your potential roommate, including his / her budget.
  • As well, his / her circle of friends i.e. the kind of people he / she tends to hang out with. As you know, birds of a feather flock together, and that sort of thing.
  • Whether, your potential roommate will be bringing or not bringing a pet with him / her.

That apart, landlords should make themselves cognisant with all rules and regulations before drafting tenancy leases or rental agreements. They must also take all necessary precautions, such as, tenant screenings, background checks on prospective tenants, including making certain all rental lease clauses are adhered to, as insurance for a litigation free landlord / tenant relationship. A simple click of the mouse and any landlord or property manager can visit www.e-renter.com for their tenant screening and background check services. www.e-renter.com, the best tenant screening agency in America!

The One And Only Best Way To Screen Tenants

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The one and only best way to screen prospective tenants is for landlords to have them fill out written rental application, complete with the following information:

  1. Employment income,
  2. Credit history
  3. Social Security Number,
  4. Driver’s license number,
  5. Past evictions or bankruptcies, if any, and
  6. References.

Before selecting tenants, landlords should check with previous landlords and other references; verify employment, income, and bank account information; and last but not least, obtain a credit report on prospective tenants. The last is especially important, as it indicates whether that particular person is habitually late in paying his / her rent or other bills, whether he / she has declared bankruptcy at any point in time, or has ever been evicted.

As well, landlords in order to avoid trouble with fair housing laws, should be consistent and fair in screening tenants. For instance, they should make it a policy to ask all applicants to provide credit reports.

That apart, landlords should make themselves cognisant with all rules and regulations before drafting tenancy leases or rental agreements. They must also take all necessary precautions, such as, tenant screenings, background checks on prospective tenants, including making certain all rental lease clauses are adhered to, as insurance for a litigation free landlord / tenant relationship. A simple click of the mouse and any landlord or property manager can visit www.e-renter.com for their tenant screening and background check services. www.e-renter.com, the best tenant screening agency in America!

Is A Written Lease Or Rental Agreement Important

Posted by on April 21, 2007 under Landlord Tips | icon: commentBe the First to Comment

A question often asked by many landlords and tenants, the answer is yes a lease or rental agreement is a key tenancy document that dictates important terms, such as:

  1. Duration of the tenancy.
  2. Rental amount and security deposit amount to be paid by the tenant.
  3. Restrictions regarding the number of people allowed to live on the rental property.
  4. Whether, landlord or tenant is responsible for paying the utilities.
  5. Whether, the tenant can or cannot keep pets.
  6. Whether, the property can be sublet by the tenant.
  7. Landlord’s access to the rental property.
  8. Whether, landlord or tenant will be responsible for paying legal fees, in case of litigation concerning the meaning or implementation of the lease or rental agreement.

Always, ensure leases and rental agreements are in writing, despite the fact most states do enforce oral (spoken) agreements for a certain period of time. While, oral agreements appear easy and informal, they can often be the source of disputes resulting in expensive litigation. In case, tenant / landlord later disagree about key agreements, such as, whether a tenant can sublet, it could all likely end up as a court argument, over who said what to whom, when, and in what context. A particular problem with long-term leases, it is why courts in most states refuse to enforce oral agreements, after the passage of one year.

For landlord / tenant disputes, the best option is to screen tenants carefully. Get professional help from tenant screening agencies. With a click of the mouse, you can visit www.e-renter.com for all your tenant screening requirements.

Landlords: Ten Useful Property Management Tips – Part V

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Just a couple more tips for owners of rental property, and without a doubt, if you follow our simple suggestions, the smooth running of your rental business and property management is a foregone conclusion.

  1. A well-designed property insurance programme and sufficient liability must be purchased by landlords as a safeguard against lawsuits instigated by tenants for injuries suffered or for being discriminated against, or for rental property losses and damages caused by either, fire, storms, burglary or vandalism.
  2. It is also essential that all landlord / tenant disputes be resolved, without resorting to unnecessary and expensive litigation. Any conflicts with a tenant over rent, repairs, your access to the rental unit, noise, or some such issue not warranting immediate eviction, should be settled in an informal manner by meeting with the tenant for working out the best possible solution. In case, that does not work, the next best thing is to consider neutral third party mediation, which is available at little or no cost from publicly funded programmes.If, the dispute is about money, and any attempts to reach agreement fail miserably, it would be worth your while to try a small claims court, where you can represent yourself. Small claims courts are useful for collecting unpaid rent or compensation for property damaged by a tenant, whose security deposit does not cover the extent of the damage.

To prevent undue hassles, the best solution for any landlord is to screen all prospective tenants, carefully. Visit www.e-renter.com for tenant screening and background checks.

Landlords: Ten Useful Property Management Tips – Part IV

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The following useful suggestions go a long way to help any owner of rental property, run a smooth rental business, while effectively managing his / her property.

  1. In the event, you have environmental hazards, such as, lead or mould on your property, the best strategy is to come clean and let your tenants know of their existence. Increasingly, landlords are being held responsible for any health problems tenants may experience, as a result of exposure to environmental toxins on the rental premises.
  2. As well, if you have hired a property manager to look after your property, it is your responsibility to select and supervise them, carefully. Any manager, who commits a crime or is incompetent, should be held financially responsible. As with tenants, conduct a thorough background check on applicants for the post, while clearly spelling out a manager’s duties, so as to prevent problems later on.

However, the best tip of all is to screen your tenants carefully before letting out your place to them. Visit www.e-renter.com for help in screening tenants so that you can make a credit worthy selection for your rental property.

Landlords: Ten Useful Property Management Tips – Part III

Posted by on April 17, 2007 under Tenant Screening & Background Checks | icon: commentBe the First to Comment

You will find our simple but useful suggestions will not only turn you into a successful landlord, but will also ensure your rental business runs smoothly, while showing you how to manage your property like a true professional. In Part III of our ten useful property management tips, we ask you to:

  1. Provide safe and secure premises to your tenants, in order to avoid making them and your property, easy targets for criminals. You must thoroughly assess the security angle of your property, while taking reasonable and adequate steps to protect it. Ensure there are no dark or poorly lit areas inside or outside that could provide cover for break-in elements. Keep the landscaping well trimmed, while ensuring your property is brightly lit and all doors and windows are equipped with secure safety locks.
  2. Respect your tenant’s privacy, notify him / her well in time (at least 24-hours or the minimum amount required by state law), whenever you need to enter the unit, either for carrying out repairs or maintenance, or else to show the unit to prospective tenants.


However, screening tenants before renting is the best solution for a successful rental business. Visit www.e-renter.com for all tenant screening needs.

Landlords: Ten Useful Property Management Tips – Part II

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As we continue with simple but useful suggestions for owners of rental property to ensure the smooth running of their rental business, including managing their property like true professionals, landlords must as under:

  1. Proper Handling of Security Deposits is essential, and for that landlords must establish a transparently fair system of collecting, holding, and returning security deposits. One way of ensuring that the security deposit amount is fair and just, is to make a thorough inspection of the rental unit, while documenting its condition, before the tenant moves in, in order to avoid disputes over security deposits when he / she moves out.
  2. Repairs must be made when requested so as to stay on top of the maintenance game. If, you fail to keep your rental property in good repair, you will not only alienate good tenants, but also give them the right to withhold rent, carry out repairs on their own, the cost of which they are legally entitled to deduct from the rent, or sue for injuries suffered due to prevailing defective conditions, and / or they may move out, thereby terminating their lease or rental agreement, without any legal requirement on their part to give notice.

To be successful in the rental business, you not only have to ensure you follow all rules and regulations governing the rental business, but you should also make tenant screening a part of your business strategy. A quick click of the mouse and you can visit www.e-renter.com for professional help in screening prospective tenants!

Landlords: Ten Useful Property Management Tips – Part I

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If, you are the owner of rental property, without doubt, the following simple suggestions will prove useful in ensuring the smooth running of your rental business and management of property.

  1. Screen All Prospective Tenants
    A good landlord ensures that he always vets the credit history, references, and background of rental applicants, before selecting them as his / her tenants. Random, haphazard tenant screening and selection, more often than not results in problems. For example, a tenant, who habitually pays rent late or doesn’t pay at all, or likes to indulge in property damage, or permits undesirable friends to move in with him / her, is not the sort of tenant that any business-minded landlord wants. That is why it is so important for a landlord to get prospective tenants to fill out written rental applications to help in properly screening would-be tenants.
  2. All Rental Property Relating Issues Should Be In Writing
    As a landlord, always ensure the lease or month-to-month rental agreement is on paper and all important landlord / tenant issues are documented in clear and precise terms. How tenant complaints and repair problems are to be handled, how much notice is to be given before entering a tenant’s rental unit, and the like, must all be part of the lease or agreement terms.

To ensure landlords don’t get involved in unnecessary litigation with troublesome tenants, it is very essential to vet and screen each rental applicant before renting out your expensive property. Visit www.e-renter.com for the best services in tenant screening exercises for help in selecting the best there is!

Advertising Rental Property– Part V

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In case, you are too busy to handle your own rental advertisements, you can:

  1. Approach any property management firm to handle everything, right from advertising, showing the rental unit to prospective tenant, and right to selecting them. Further, the tedious chore of rent collection will also be done by the property management firm, even as they interact with tenants on all issues, right from handling repairs to others. Of course, all this comes for a fee, the same as if you had hired a real estate agent. If, your business is large enough to warrant services of this kind and you wish to off-load continuing responsibilities for tenant management, why not try out this alternative.
  2. There are many national and print magazines to be found on newspaper racks on the street that carry rental advertisements and cater directly to residential landlords. Usually, it makes sense for landlords with large multiple properties to have their advertisements in these magazines.

Once an advertisement for a rental property has been placed, the next step is to draw up a rental application, and then carefully select a tenant from the applicants. To avoid lawsuits when advertising vacancies and selecting and rejecting applicants, ensure you stick to Fair Housing rules and regulations.

That apart, landlords should make themselves cognisant with all rules and regulations before drafting tenancy leases or rental agreements. They must also take all necessary precautions, such as, tenant screenings, background checks on prospective tenants, including making certain all rental lease clauses are adhered to, as insurance for a litigation free landlord / tenant relationship. A simple click of the mouse and any landlord or property manager can visit www.e-renter.com for their tenant screening and background check services. www.e-renter.com, the best tenant screening agency in America!