What's the typical lease missing that you've added to yours?

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What's the typical lease missing that you've added to yours?

John RinggoldBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · Topeka Kansas · Member since 2020 · 79 posts · 47 votes

What is one thing you've added to your lease that may not be in the standard lease that has prevented a problem you had from happening again?  

Not looking for the specific wording unless you'd like to share, but the "why"behind the addition would be a good start. :)

In the process of purchasing our first duplex and we have the BP Lease for our state downloaded and ready to go, but I am hoping to learn from the more experienced to hopefully protect myself from issues from the beginning. 

Not looking for "legal advice" and will run anything we like by a lawyer, but I was hoping for your input.

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Nathan GesnerBusiness Member
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Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes
5y

One of the biggest clauses: Tenant has been given the opportunity to inspect the rental and accepts it "as is" without any expectation of additional cleaning or improvements.

I got so tired of applicants telling me a place was "PERFECT" for them, only to get complaints after they moved in. They would complain it wasn't clean enough, the rooms are too small, the carpet needs to be replaced, or the walls need to be painted. I now stress very hard that they are accepting it as is and we will not make any changes after they occupy unless it's been specifically agreed to in writing when they sign the lease.

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  • Jaquetta T Ragland
    Real Estate Agent · Winston Salem, NC · Member since 2014 · 486 posts · 303 votes
    5y

    @John Ringgold if it’s a single family home, I’ve added that they’re responsible for all landscaping.

    1Reply
  • Xochitl Cadena
    Rental Property Investor · Boston, MA · Member since 2019 · 40 posts · 3 votes
    5y

    @Jennifer Ruelens Yes! This is very important, not just mentioning what is expected from the tenant, but what is the repercussion of not complying. I had a tenant that negotiated a $400 discount on the lease in exchange for maintaining the lawn and cleaning the snow. On the first snow storm he bailed whilst already taken the steep discounted rent on the prior months. I already got counsel advice and went on to charge the former tenant for 3 months of snow removal, and will return his deposit this week.

    1Reply
  • Steve Vaughan
    Rental Property Investor · East Wenatchee, WA · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Xochitl Cadena:

    @Jennifer Ruelens Yes! This is very important, not just mentioning what is expected from the tenant, but what is the repercussion of not complying. 

    Yep, have a consequence and have them initial. 

    I'm no fee monger, but I want their attention.  Unauthorized animal? $500. Smoking inside? $5800  Cigarette butts on grounds? $5 each.  Power modification? (for data mining or growing) $40,000.     

    The big stuff.  Troll around and argue about how a sink drain got clogged if you want and who will pay for a 2 minute trap cleaning. 

    I like the idea of having tenant damage be corrected within 30 or 60 days so thank you who provided that suggestion👍

    2Reply
  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 17k+ votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Suzette T.:
    Originally posted by @JD Martin:
    Originally posted by @Adam Martin:

    I'm not sure this is actually enforceable but I have in my lease that upon turnover for any repairs or damages they will be responsible for billed costs if I hire out or $45/hour if I have to do it.  My hope is that this is a good deterrent because my #1 goal is to walk into the home upon inspection and have the tenant owed all their money back due to how well they took care of the place.  If not $45/hour is worth my time.  On my last turn the renters extended their moveout by 2.5 weeks and were in a hurry to get their deposit back.  I inspected without them there and they literally did nothing to clean.  Probably the smallest but most frustrating part was a skid mark on the toilet seat, that just told me they didn't give a s**t about how they left the place.  I called them and told them they needed to clean and left them a detailed note of what needed to be cleaned to get the deposit back.  This offended them and they chose to do nothing and I chose not to give anything back with an itemized list but didn't charge for my time since I hired some out, some was for the holdover, and some was due to damage and I had quotes.  

     It would depend on your state but not legal in the ones I know, i.e. you can't pay yourself for work on turnover. Always pay someone else to do the work if it really exists. If you are just talking about a couple of blinds, I just charge for the parts and call it a day and put them up for free next time I am there. Always pay for cleaning unless it is just a quick dust and wipe.

     Not trying to interrupt this thread - can you elaborate on the cleaning? ...leaving the house never dusted, never mopped, toilets never scrubbed. It is disgusting!

     Sure. It depends on your state but the ones I know don't allow you to collect payment for yourself for work that you do. So if you had a dirty house after a tenant left, you should hire a cleaning service to clean it and deduct from their deposit. If you clean it yourself and then deduct some fee from their deposit you could be on the hook if you get sued for the deposit return (some states award 3x or more of the deposit for keeping some/all of it unlawfully). So the safe and easy way for that is to let a cleaning service clean up.

    That said, if the tenants really did do a good job of cleaning and you're just talking about a 5 minute sweep and dust, I wouldn't charge the tenants for this. Any empty house is going to get some factor of dust just from the HVAC system going and it's unreasonable to call a cleaning service for something like that. 

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  • John Wright
    Real Estate Agent · Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2017 · 54 posts · 63 votes
    5y

    @Jonah Tremblay If we determine that damage was caused by tenant we fix the item but keep the invoice to later deduct it from the tenants security deposit when they eventually move out.

    0Reply
  • Jim K.
    Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    5y

    I hate to disagree with so many of you in this thread, but what @Dennis Wayne said in this thread is absolutely true. The lease needs to be short and sweet or it means nothing when you get it in front of a Pennsylvania magisterial district judge. Careful wording? Ingenious provisions? Wise precautions? Many MDJs don't even look at leases in landlord-tenant disputes. Just how the Commonwealth works, and why I so frequently repeat the same advice about evictions here in the forums. Maybe it's different in your states.

    2Reply
  • John Wright
    Real Estate Agent · Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2017 · 54 posts · 63 votes
    5y

    @Greg Soon a cleaner way to do it would be to increase the rent amount by the internet cost and specify that that the internet is included with the rent costs.

    1Reply
  • Karl B.
    Rental Property Investor · Erie, PA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    5y

    Toilet and drain clogs are the responsibility of the tenant. 

    1Reply
  • John Wright
    Real Estate Agent · Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2017 · 54 posts · 63 votes
    5y

    @John Ringgold The most valuable thing we added to our lease recently was to specify a $2000 early termination fee for those tenants who try to terminate the lease early without cause. This $2000 fee completely changes the conversation and negotiations start from a completely different place. For those tenants who still need to end the lease early we allow them the option to still receive there security deposit if the unit is returned clean without damage but there deposit is deducted from the termination fee.

    2Reply
  • Kaylan Field
    Member since 2020 · 19 posts · 10 votes
    5y

    I have a section in my leases that if there is damage by a tenant and it is large enough to need to file an insurance claim and is not covered by their renters insurance, that they are responsible for reimbursing me for my deductible within 60 days.  

    2Reply
  • Joe SplitrockPro Member
    Moderator
    Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes
    5y

    I like to include a mixture of specific and general statements. For example, "Tenant will not operate any business from the residence, including but not limited to... " I list a bunch of examples like day care, massage, gambling, laundry service, etc. The nice thing about general statements is many things can fit into it. You have no idea what your tenant will dream up, so saying "no business" covers anything. 

    I also have a large section about mold that details tenants responsibility to prevent mold. Running the exhaust fan when showering, not running humidifiers in the property, cleaning bathrooms regularly and reporting mold upon first sight.

    When I first started my lease was three pages and it is now 15 pages. Now when a tenants says, "the doesn't say I can't do that" the odds are good it does. If it doesn't, I just put it on the list for future amendments. 

    Ultimately having a thorough lease is about setting the right expectations with the tenant.

    One thing to be careful of is putting illegal clauses in a lease. Have an attorney review. Some people believe if you put it in a lease and the tenant signs it, that it is enforceable. That is not the case if the clause is illegal and in court it can result in extra penalties to the landlord. 

    3Reply
  • Ola Dantis
    Multifamily Syndicator · Houston, TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    5y

    Though I haven't included this, I'd like to add that the video walkthrough at the beginning of the lease recording tenants agreeing that there isn't physical damage to the property will go a long way when the tenants are moving out and start saying that some particular damage has "always been there".   

    This rules out any amnesia from both parties!

    2Reply
  • John Patton
    Investor · Birmingham, AL · Member since 2016 · 315 posts · 206 votes
    5y

    @John Ringgold

    I retain 50% of the deposit for redecorating expenses for the last

    11 years. Good luck.

    2Reply
  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 17k+ votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Greg Soon:

    This is great thread.

    I am thinking to specify in the contract that I will provide internet service and ask the tenant to pay for it. The tenant can change service plan but needs to use my router because I need to set up camera surveillance outside. I will also specify that they can not tamper the surveillance cameras, disconnect it.

    How does this sound? Is 5here a better way doing it?

     Yes, the better way of doing it is include internet "for free" and add the cost into the rent. If you want to run items that are specifically for your benefit off the house then you need to control (and pay for) the service, and just recover the costs through the rent. Some tenants - maybe many, who knows - are going to balk at the idea of the landlord having live surveillance at their residence. It sounds voyeur-ish, even if it's not. 

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  • Fred Cannon
    Rental Property Investor · St Augustine, FL · Member since 2019 · 265 posts · 279 votes
    5y

    @John Ringgold I charge a $200 cleaning fee upfront in addition to the deposit. My deposit is $200 less than the monthly rent This way I don't get stuck with a dirty condo and don't have to ding for a half cleaned place on move out. Before I started doing this I always found uncleaned spaces that were not noticed upon inspection. Now it's no worry. They move out and I get cleaning service in next day. Saves me a lot of hassle. I only have one bedroom condo's so it's very simple. A lot of times I just do the cleaning myself if I have the time. Just takes 2-3 hours at most.

    1Reply
  • Account Closed
    Real Estate Agent · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2020 · 111 posts · 51 votes
    5y

    In our leases, we make it so that the tenants are responsible for changing the filters in the hvac system 2xs a year. 

    We also require that all landscaping and snow removal in all SFR's to be tenant responsibility

    0Reply
  • Bonnie LowPro Member
    Lender · Asheville, NC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    5y
    I don't know that this is typically missing from most leases, but it IS a recent change we had our property manager make to ours:  NO SIGNAGE OF ANY KIND.  Signs today, which are usually political, are so polarizing that they lead to neighbor disputes, graffiti, and sometimes property damage. No one needs that hassle. If you feel compelled to promote your local candidate with a lawn or window sign - buy a house - but don't put your sign in my property (even if I happen to agree with your choice.) As for business signs, while usually harmless, it would be a slippery slope to make an exception just for certain types of signs so we just went with an all out signage ban.
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  • Reginald Ross
    Rental Property Investor · Gulf Shores, AL · Member since 2019 · 107 posts · 115 votes
    5y

    @John Ringgold

    Great idea for a thread and I’m really digging all the great ideas that have been shared but I guess I’m just cynical.

    Do most tenants really care or respect lease terms like “you must clip your dogs nails once per week”?

    I make the sure the important legal stuff is present and call it a day.

    1Reply
  • Greg M.
    Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    5y

    Once told that if it is not in my lease, then I'm putting it in the hands of a judge to decide the issue. Therefore, my lease is around 10 pages and has about 50 sections. I make the tenants initial each page. However, most is for the benefit of the tenant. When they question something, I can point to page 6, section 34 of the lease. 

    • Time of day lease starts and ends. Yes, June 1st is your move in day. No I will not be there at 4 AM to give you the keys. 
    • Holdover tenancy. Don't leave when you're supposed to, don't worry. New rent rate is 50% higher.
    • Early termination fee. Leave any time you want - cost is 2X rent. And before someone chimes in saying good luck collecting, I have!
    • Security deposit may be used for the following... Bail on the gas or cable provider, don't worry, I'll pay them with your security deposit.
    • Renters insurance requirements.
    • My insurance - It doesn't cover you!
    • All possible fees for your screw-ups!
    • Your belongings - who I can turn them over to if you die or become incapacitated.
    • Consumable replacement requirements.
    • Smoking and what constitutes smoke.
    • Pet requirements.
    • Guest requirements.
    • Liquid filled furnishings requirements.
    • Condition and maintenance requirements.
    • Pests. Acknowledgement that unit is pest free.
    • Hold harmless. Tenants and their guests must hold landlord harmless for a bunch of things. 
    • Right of entry and inspection. Make sure it allows for pest control. 
    • Amenities - I can't guarantee they will be available. 
    • My abilities to cancel the lease - Sale or destruction of unit.
    • Allocation of payments. Fines and maintenance come first, rent last.
    • Credit report - I have right to report your late rent to credit reporting agencies.
    • HOA R&R and the cost to tenant if I need to attend HOA meeting because of them.
    • Legal notices: Bed bugs, rent control, Megan's Law, lead paint, mold, alien abduction, etc.
    3Reply
  • Alexander Szikla
    Real Estate Agent · New York City · Member since 2020 · 819 posts · 641 votes
    5y

    I have a comprehensive tenant handbook that breaks down lots of rules/regulations as well as charges for certain line items. In my lease, there is an area the tenant signs acknowledging they have read and reviewed. 

    Two others I noticed haven't been posted yet so are worth shouting out:

    1. Tenant insurance listing property owner as additional insured

    2. Limits on people per bedroom

    1Reply
  • Kevin Grinstead
    Realtor · Denver, CO · Member since 2016 · 499 posts · 129 votes
    5y

    I am adding to my lease that any firearms on the premises must be disclosed and be secured in a gun locker or with a trigger lock. 

    1Reply
  • Alan DeRossett
    Investor · Thousand Oaks, CA · Member since 2017 · 306 posts · 123 votes
    5y
    our lawyer had to amend our leases to include new California laws requiring landlords to allow Electric vehicle charging. we wanted to spell out who pays for the electricity before we can get separate charging installed in each garage on the tenant's own electric meters. https://www.kts-law.com/electr...
    0Reply
  • Gavin Henry
    Rental Property Investor · Coral Springs, FL · Member since 2019 · 8 posts · 1 vote
    5y

    @Renee Potoczny #7 -How do you even track that? How would you know if the guest stayed for 7 consecutive days? What if the guest stayed for 5 days this week and 5 days the next week? I’m just trying to think of how a renter would try and find a loophole in that.

    1Reply
  • Ivan Vargas
    Royal Palm Beach, FL · Member since 2016 · 127 posts · 44 votes
    5y

    Must pay all 12 months up-front. Did that in March 2020 during the pandemic.

    0Reply
  • Kameron Yellin
    Specialist · College Station, TX (college station) · Member since 2020 · 45 posts · 35 votes
    5y

    @John Ringgold don’t let your dog onto the second floor back deck, and pee on the owner who is househacking and drinking his morning coffee.

    4Reply
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