Some readers did ask for my rules.  Your rules have to depend on your properties.   For example, there’s no point posting rules for using the pool if your property doesn’t have a pool.  Also, it’s up to you to determine what are appropriate fines.  Just remember to charge more for more serious items.  And, it’s not wise to threaten eviction for the first violation.  I can’t speak for the whole country, but New Hampshire is experiencing relatively high vacancy rates and so we have to love our tenants a bit more at this time.

I’m planning to put updated rules documents on my web site fairly soon, but in the meantime, here are some useful guidelines for rules.

Fire Safety

The following should not be allowed – tampering with smoke detectors, non-electric space heaters, fireworks, or any open flame other than a gas stove installed by the landlord or candles in holders, damaged electrical equipment.  You can order any tenant’s appliance or equipment removed if you deem it unsafe.

Trash and Sanitation

If you have dumpsters, the dumpster company will let you know what is allowed.  If you have trash pickup, the city will let you know.  Tenants must keep trash in closed bags inside barrels with secure lids.  If there is curbside trash pickup, tenants must put out barrels after a certain time and bring them back by a certain time.  The city may mandate a certain type of trash bag.  Impose a separate fine for each separate item of trash (e.g. bag, box or whatever) which you have to take care of because the tenant blew it - plus whatever you are charged.

One problem with this is it can be hard to tell whose trash is left out on the sidewalk.  Make your best guess and wait for denials.  i would be very interested to hear how other landlords “assign” trash.

Parking Lots

Designate specific spaces for each tenant.  The only things allowed in parking lots are registered motor vehicles (cars, trucks or motorcycles) or registered trailers.  Limit maintenance to these specific items – interior cleaning, replacement of small parts such as lightbulbs, adding of fluids such as oil or antifreeze, changing of tires.  Do not allow oil changes.  Do not allow any use of unregistered motor vehicles such as minibikes, scooters or ATVs.

Keys

Do not allow tenants to make copies of keys.  You can order key blanks which are marked with “do not duplicate” and a serial number.  Record the serial number when you give the keys to the tenant (typically one set of keys for each person who signed the lease).  It may be appropriate to offer the tenant additional keys at the start of tenancy for a small fee.

Common areas

If you have common lawns, tenants can use them for outdoor activities, but cannot leave anything on the lawns overnight.  The following are not allowed: fireworks, cooking, weapons, alcoholic beverages.  You may want to allow alcoholic beverages outside in case of a scheduled social event where the tenant asks your permission ahead of time.  All trash must be removed by the end of the event.  Do not permit any use which would prevent other residents from using the space at the same time – that is, anything that would block off an area.

Common area activity is not permitted outside of certain hours (which you may extend on weekends).  Designate which areas are not unit interiors, but are also not common areas (decks and porches, for example).  Activity in those areas may still be prohibited after a certain hour.

Pet policies deserve a book of their own, but obviously pet waste must be cleaned up by the tenant immediately, pets can’t be left outside unsupervised and pets can’t be outside even with the tenant unless they are on a leash.  The simple answer is obviously to ban pets, but this will also really limit your prospective tenants.

Guests

Tenants are responsible for the conduct of their guests.  If the guest of a tenant violates a rule, the fine or penalty will be owed by the tenant.  Any guest who threatens or endangers other tenants will be permanently banned from the property.

Overnight guests

Overnight guests are only permitted for a few nights per month (this is up to you, but I would suggest a maximum of four nights) and one or two consecutive nights.  If the tenant has an overnight guest he wishes to have stay longer, he can negotiate the matter with you.

Maintenance

Tenants must let you know immediately when they have a maintenance issue.  Impose a fine for late notices.  Typically you will not allow any tenant to perform his own maintenance (including painting and small repairs using tools).  You should not ever allow a tenant to perform maintenance on another tenant’s unit, unless a) the first tenant is a licensed contractor working in his field and b) you have a separate arrangement with the tenant to perform the work.

At the same time, tenants are required to keep their units neat and tidy.  Any trash must be bagged and in a barrel with a lid and removed from the unit at the next possible opportunity.  Entrances may not be blocked.

Social behavior

Any threatening or criminal activity is obviously banned.  Tenants are not allowed to put any signs or notices on the exterior of their units.  Solicitation is not allowed.  Tenants may not enter another tenant’s unit (including porches, steps or decks) without the other tenant’s permission.  Even within units, noises above a conversational level are not allowed after a certain time.

It is the tenants’ responsibility to let you know about rules violations, but not to address those violations themselves (by confronting another tenant, for example).  You want your tenants to be informants, not police.

In preparing your list of rules, you should also consider appropriate penalties.  A very few types of violations will be cause for eviction.  These include safety matters such as open flames inside units, as well as criminal or threatening behavior.  Otherwise, you should impose a system of fines, with second offenses commanding higher fines.  Charge more for safety and sanitation issues than for convenience violations.  The penalties as well as the rules must be either in your lease, or referenced in your lease.  Include that more than a certain number of violations in a month will be cause for eviction.

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Tags: eviction, landlord, renter, tenant, tenant rules

Okay, I’m not going to post all of my tenant rules here (although I will if commenters want to know).  This is more about why tenants need rules, why I have many more rules than most landlords, and how I enforce rules with a minimum of pain.

The TV That Woke Me Up

When I started landlording, I did what most of us do - grabbed a sample lease off the Internet, plugged in a few additions that made sense to me, and hoped for the best.  I realized the magnitude of my mistake one night as I was standing outside the building.  It was brought home to me in color.  Well, ex-color.  An ex-color TV that one of my tenants had left on the street in a forlorn hope that the city’s recycling center would take it away.

Now as homeowners, we know that just won’t happen.  Cities don’t take a lot of items in their recycling pickups, usually because those items may contain hazardous waste.  But the tenant didn’t know that - just like tenants often don’t know that leaving food waste in open bags attracts animals - or that when you play Led Zeppelin loud at midnight, not everybody in the building appreciates it - or that junk cars in the parking lot are less than attractive.

So why are tenants often so clueless?  One likely answer is inexperience - they may not have lived in apartments before.  Others are just not very swift.  In any case, the solution is rules - lots and lots of rules - combined with unbending enforcement.  Here are some rules for rules.

1. Give each tenant a separate copy of the rules and include the rules in the lease by reference. This means including a lease clause to the effect that the tenant must comply with all rules; that the tenant will be charged fines for some violations, and that other violations will be grounds for eviction; and that the failure to pay fines is also grounds for eviction.
2. Be specific in your rules. It’s not enough to say “Don’t throw out hazardous waste materials in the trash.” You need to spell out which items are unacceptable.
3. Don’t nitpick with ridiculous rules. I once knew a landlady who insisted that window shades needed to be at the same level for each unit in the tenant’s apartment. Her tenants almost never renewed their leases.
4. Go through the rules, one by one, when you take the application. Make sure the prospective tenants know that almost any landlord will also enforce these rules.
5. Watch out for rules that make sense to you, but are not legally enforceable. Some landlords do include unenforceable rules, hoping they can intimidate tenants into following them anyway. These landlords are breaking the law and may be fined or sued.
6. Although state and local laws vary, they typically do govern such things as occupancy limits (so many residents per bedroom), eviction proceedings, security deposits, and limits on visitors.
7. Be reasonable with your fines. A $100 fine for key replacement is likely to be thrown out in court. A $100 fine for disabling a smoke detector probably will not. What’s the difference? Key replacement is mostly an inconvenience for you – it costs you time and money to make the keys and get them to the tenant. On the other hand, a disabled smoke detector is a hazard that threatens the lives of everyone in the building.
8. Be reasonable with your eviction penalties. In this economic environment, we are all struggling to find qualified tenants. Do you really want to throw somebody out over a minor infraction?
9. Remember that you can only change rules in the middle of a lease with the tenant’s agreement.  That’s one reason to make your list comprehensive from the start.
10. Make frequent drive-bys in the first few weeks to make sure your new tenants are following the rules.  If you cut the tenant somee slack for the first infraction, make sure the tenant knows you spotted the problem and he’s getting a one-time break. The second time you must charge for the infraction.

Tags: landlord, landlording, rental-property, tenant, tenant rules