When your idea of a “nice” exterior varies from what your tenant fancies, setbacks can emerge. Certain renters aren’t content with merely keeping their yard managed – they want to modify or add to the rental home’s exterior features too. With do-it-yourself home improvements a prevailing trend right now, it’s more likely that increasing quantities of tenants will attempt to build “improvements” with or without your consent.
For example, your tenant may decide that a patio umbrella isn’t adequate enough – they want a pergola as a replacement. While it may look easy enough to let them assemble one in the yard, this is a hotbed for permit violations, damage to the property, and even personal injuries. (If somebody was wounded you may have a significant legal dilemma on your hands, besides everything else.) Broken sprinkler or gas lines, damaged siding, and poor workmanship can result in exorbitant renovations and a hazardous environment in the backyard.
It’s the same for other widely held home improvements, such as painting, replacing the garage door or adding a deck or porch. Unique personal preferences and/or low-quality remodeling can lower property values, making it harder to rent out. In a nutshell, it just that it’s not a well thought out strategy to have tenants building home improvement projects by themselves.
The best strategy is to stop home “improvement” projects before they start. Construct clear language inside the lease to clarify the reality that tenants are not admissible to build permanent changes to your Brookline rental property. It is also essential to check on your property all the time, guaranteeing that a sneaky tenant hasn’t taken things into their own hands. Certainly, this takes time from executing other things.
That’s when you should give Real Property Management Boston a call. We accomplish regular property evaluations that are intended to halt unauthorized tenant improvements in their tracks. If you want to understand more, please contact us online or by phone at 617-996-0708.