What are your Rights as a Landlord?

What are your right as a property owner? Personally, I think that when making such a big investment like that, you have to take extra precautions when choosing your tenant. It is extremely important to screen your tenants before that person decides to take up any residence. In the movie Pacific Height, a couple buys a large house in an exclusive San Fransisco neighborhood. They renovate it and plan to rent two apartments on the first floor to cover the costs. When they meet a man promising to cover the rent for the next six months, they assumed that he would meet his promises and allowed him to move in. But it turns out that he is not the perfect tenant that they expected. He never pays any rent, drives the other tenants away and systematically ruins the lives of his landlords. Because paying your mortgage is directly dependant upon your tenants paying you, you should always run a credit check and a check of the tenant’s prior rental history through companies making this information available for a nominal fee. (Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation http://www.mass.gov) Obtaining a security deposit and the rent is a good way to ensure that the tenant you take in can promise to be a responsible tenant with the rent. Interest must be paid to the tenant either on the anniversary date of the tenancy or on a pro-rata basis, if the tenancy ends before one year, for all months except the last month of the tenancy. It is also the responsibility of the landlord to make pre-rental preparation on the apartment. You must make a complete inspections and assess to any damages that were made by the previous owners. Once those are done, be sure to obtain the Inspector’s sign-off once all violations have been corrected. This sign-off also acts as violation-free base line if the tenant should claim there are problems with the apartment after taking occupancy (Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation http://www.mass.gov). Getting all of these duties done and taken care of can ensure that you will maintain an orderly place of residence.