Most tenants are conscientious, honest, and value peace and order. Unfortunately, there are also those which no landlord would wish upon their worst enemy…
Partying
Nobody has anything against a good dinner party every now and then, but common decency would suggest to give our neighbors a little heads up and to call it a night before 10 PM.
However, there are tenants who party often, loudly and until the morning light. Usually they figure that they can excuse their behavior with the fact that they are young, and that young people like to have fun. They say “it’s okay to have parties at home” and “if it’s too loud, you’re too old”. They completely ignore common sense and the ridiculous idea that neighbors need to get a good night’s rest and go to work in the morning…
In extreme situations, parties turn into alcoholic splatter fests and even cause damage to property. It is not all that uncommon for neighbors to call the police in situations like this.
Clutter
Clutter-prone tenants tend to keep their spaces excessively dirty, are reluctant to clean regularly, and bring various unnecessary things into your property.
Seems like nothing all that bad, right? After all, all you care about is that the tenant cleans up and refreshes the apartment at the end of their tenancy. And if they don’t, you, as the owner, will just take some money out of their deposit to pay a cleaning company to do the work for them. No problem, right?
Not exactly.
Your property should be cleaned regularly, because dirt can lead to irreparable damage (and the deposit is not always enough to cover excessive cleaning/renovation costs). What is worse, a neglected apartment is an ideal habitat for many insects, and sometimes even rodents! This is not only a matter of personal cleanliness, but of the sanitation and safety of the entire neighborhood/building.
Being late
Being late may be manifested by the lack of timely rent payments, as well as a lack of punctuality in implementing any other arrangements.
Some people just can’t meet deadlines. They make an appointment for a certain time and they come much later. They promise to do something on a given day, and you have to wait a week or more for them to make it happen. This behavior is annoying. People like this have no respect for your time, and there is no exception when it comes to tenants. Late tenants waste your time.
Check out our article on what to do if your tenant does not pay rent.
Constant Complaints
A rental agreement obliges two parties to mutual benefits. You, as the landlord, provide the tenant with your property for housing purposes, and in return, they pay you a regular fee. The issues of maintaining the property in good condition are regulated either in accordance with the rental agreement between you and the tenant or in accordance with applicable law (you can check our article about who pays for what in the event of a problem…. which is coming soon!).
When something goes wrong in a property, a demanding tenant is the worst. He does not take into account that sometimes bad things happen, whether we could foresee them or not, demands the immediate removal of any defect (minor or major), and cannot be easily convinced that it is impossible, impractical, or unnecessary.
This type of tenant may also feel that since he pays the rent, you should replace everything that goes wrong as soon as possible. Although you are of course obligated to maintain certain aspects of the property, some tenants want to treat you like a VIP 24/7 maintenance team.
Bringing additional guests or pets
A tenant has the right to allow a guest to spend the night from time to time. If she rents a property all by herself, she doesn’t even have to inform you about it.
But what if the tenant abuses this right? Or if, against the rules, they house a pet on your property?
Unfortunately, such situations happen. Tenants try to secretly smuggle in pets, other tenants, family members, friends, partners, etc. for extended periods of time. These are unacceptable situations. As the landlord, you should only allow beings to live on your property that have entered into a contract with you… otherwise you open yourself to possible legal problems should anything bad happen to an unwelcome guest!
Do you agree with this list? Would you add something?
Just one of the above-mentioned things can be a headache, and yet there are tenants who combine several of these nightmarish habits!
And if you are reading this as a tenant, think about your own behavior, if you happen to fall under one of these categories. ;)
Feature image by Samuele Giglio on Unsplash
