Do you have inspection & hoarding clauses in your leases?

Question

Good morning all,

Looking to see what kinds of hoarding and/or inspection clauses you all have in your leases. We are getting ready for a comprehensive lease document update and it's an area I think we might be able to improve in our current documents.

Thanks!

Jaron Walling · Answer

@Michelle Fenn That's what I've been doing with the HVAC filters.

Hoarding is a weird situation. A lot of grey area between clutter, hobbies/side hustle, and hoarding. I'm going to give a verbal warning followed up with a text message describing what was talked about so we have records if something bad happens.

Jonathan Greene · Answer

One of my friends uses comped quarterly cleaning as their inspection day and trains the cleaners to take photos and videos of everything. Tenants get a free house cleaning. Landlord gets the inspection. When you have unscheduled entry as an option, I think it encourages them to do weird stuff like hide stuff in weird spots, etc because they are always on guard.

Hoarders clauses would have to be linked to fire codes I think for excess people and materials near fire sources, etc.

Michelle Fenn · Answer

I include a quarterly HVAC inspection clause in my lease. I bring a furnace filter to exchange. It gives me an excuse to inspect my rentals every 3 months.

How do you even define a hoarders clause in a lease? By the time you need to evict due to hoarding they have probably violated multiple other more definable lease clauses.

Henry T. · Answer

I've considered this and it's difficult. Hoarding is a protected class because it is a disability. Though I have not written it in to a lease(yet) I would at least have a clause that the unit maintain clear access thru the unit to windows, entry, etc. A 3' wide continual walking space perhaps? Items cannot be stacked against wall prohibiting natural air flow to guard against mold, etc ?? Not to sound discriminating, but what kind of person hoards? My best success seems to come from tenants that go to a job where they work for a company. They don't have time to sit around wondering whether to keep those old boxes of used toilet paper rolls. (combustibles?). Like Nathan says smartly, dont address hoarding specifically. But cat pee soaking into the floor is damage, failure to clean up liquids or other gross things, I'd rather not go into. Sheesh!. What a country!

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I recommend quoting your state law for right of entry, or something very close to it.

I say we will inspect, but I don't give a timeline or frequency. I also make it clear we will record inspections with pictures or video.

I don't address hoarding specifically. I do address general cleanliness. Hoarding becomes a violation when it presents a fire hazard or other safety issue, attracts pests, or potentially damages the property.

Jaron Walling · Answer

@JD Martin We have a right of entry clause in our lease that reads like below;

"Landlord may enter the property for purpose of inspections upon 24 hr. notice given to tenants. However, in the event of an emergency, the Landlord and/or his agent has unrestricted access to the property. No additional locks shall be placed on doors or windows. No locks shall be changed without Landlord approval."

Thought about adding a hoarding clause... one of our tenants has a side hustle where they buy, build, and sell holiday gift baskets. They also sell items at farmers markets. Needless to say they have a lot of stuff in our property. It's organized good, I do inspections, but my fear is the side hustle turns into hoarding. Fantastic tenants otherwise.

Ever had tenants like this?

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

I would think a Waste clause would cover the P I G tenants fine. Just like a mortgage has

Do you have inspection & hoarding clauses in your leases?

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