Effective Tips For Residential Lease

You may be ready with your property and have also searched for the potential tenants. You may also have selected a tenant but you are not entirely prepared unless you do not possess a written lease. If you are taking an entry to the rental market, you must be ready with the legal papers of the residential lease. Let us discuss the must-have points for the residential lease:

Written Lease Agreement: Always make sure that the lease agreement is in writing. Without a written agreement, there is no other way for proving the terms between the tenant and the landlord. The rental lease must be properly drafted where all the terms should be clearly mentioned. The terms must be clear to both the parties so that they do not raise the issues later. The terms may include points like payment due dates, particular repairs which are the responsibilities for the tenant. As the laws for the landlord and the tenant are constantly changing, you must be updated with the local laws and codes. If your state requires you may have to provide a warning before the lead paint and provide a notice before you are entering into the rental market.

Rules And Policies On Pets As Well As Other Activities: As a landlord, you must make your tenant aware of the rules about subletting the pets and the other activities which you will never tolerate. When all these policies are mentioned in the agreement and the tenant has signed them, he or she will not be able to claim about the ignorance.

Security Deposit And Payment Provisions: The state laws, which is specific to every state clearly specifies about the security deposit or the rent of the first month. You must check what amount is allowed by your state and set the terms accordingly. Security deposit amount can possess a limit or a penalty fee can be charged due to the late payment by the tenant. The payment expectations which are to be covered by the lease agreement are :

 Fees or penalties for missed or late payments
 Due date for the rental payment
 Different modes of payment
 Payment frequencies
 Location of payment

You must be clear about the return policy of the security deposit and what are the considerations of the damage within the rental property. Before signing the lease agreement, you must screen your tenant well and make sure there will be no issues regarding their payment. You must go through proper background check, credit checks and the references. If you fail in doing these activities, various problems can arise later, for example, damage to your property or late payments. If you cannot afford the fees for performing the credit checks, you can charge the application fees from the potential tenants for performing the screening process.

Penalty Charges For Breaking The Contract: As a landlord, you may set the conditions of breaching the contract. The terms may include whether the tenant will have to pay until a new tenant has acquired the lease, or the landlord reserves the entire right for terminating the lease.

Other Miscellaneous Fees: If the tenant is responsible for paying other fees, make sure you are aware of them. For example, some fees to the outside providers like the connection fees, utility bills and other miscellaneous charges.

Whatever terms you want to set for your tenant, you must keep them in writing. It is not sufficient to obtain a nice tenant and start accumulating rent. Before collecting the rent, you must get your lease agreement signed by both the parties as a proof of the official document.

For more information, please click here – leasequit.com. In this article, he provides some important tips for the residential lease.