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Are Your Winter Garden Tenants Damaging Your Garage Without Knowing It?

View of the Garage Door on a Winter Garden Rental PropertyA rental home’s garage adds a lot to a home’s overall appeal. However, some tenants, wanting to help, unwittingly damage a rental home’s garage without realizing it. Damage to garage interiors, garage doors, windows, and other elements are known to occur, and misuse and neglect aren’t always why it happens.

Sometimes, a tenant tries to help but simply doesn’t know the proper way to clean or maintain a rental home’s garage. When that is the case, expensive and unnecessary repairs are often the result. By giving your Winter Garden tenants the right information, you can do a lot to prevent unintentional damage and keep your valuable investment in good condition.

A garage is an important part of a quality single-family rental home. A nice garage door improves the home’s curb appeal, while the interior, windows, cabinets, and even the garage door opener can have a big impact on a tenant’s satisfaction. But each of these should be kept in good working order. That means they all have to be properly maintained. If an element of the garage is problematic, the whole thing could become a burden instead of a benefit.

The garage door, being the most visible exterior element, needs to have regular cleaning and maintenance to stay working properly and looking nice. There are many ways a tenant could unintentionally damage a garage door. They may not know what the basic maintenance tasks are and inadvertently not do any. They could also mistakenly use the wrong tools or cleaning products when trying to clean the door. For example, different garage doors are made from different materials. Some are painted, while others are vinyl or metal. If a tenant uses the wrong tools to clean a garage door, they may end up causing extensive damage instead. There may be a tenant that thinks it’s okay to power spray a painted door clean. Harsh household cleaners may also damage a door’s exterior finish, causing far more harm than good.

Going past appearances, a garage door can only work properly if it has a functional opener, springs, hinges, and rollers These parts can rust, wear out, or break over time and through heavy use. In fact, when a garage door is noisy when it’s being operated, it is a sign that the door’s hardware is in trouble and needs to be lubricated. This simple maintenance task can greatly lengthen the useful life of a garage door.

The windows, floor, and cabinets in a garage are typically the parts that sustain unintentional damage. A leaking car engine may make oil stains on concrete floors that are very hard to clean up. Exhaust fumes, dirt, and other substances can get in windows and seriously compromise the tracks, locks, and glass. Cabinets may be crushed or broken by heavy storage items or even parking a vehicle too close. Comparable to the garage door, these difficulties can be kept in check by simply conducting regular cleaning and maintenance, the problem is that many tenants don’t know how to do it.

As a case in point, if you have motor oil stains, you have to clean it using a process that is totally different from cleaning other substances. The correct tools and cleaning materials should be used or else when cleaning is attempted, the problem may get much worse instead. Harsh chemicals or scrub brushes can scratch or damage windows and window tracks as well as cabinets, but regular household cleaners may not be enough to get the grime off either. To stop continued wear and further damage, a tenant should have the correct information and also a substantial amount of oversight to make sure that the garage of a rental home is kept in great working condition.

Keeping track of a tenant’s cleaning and maintenance record can be time-consuming and difficult for property owners. That is the reason why having a professional property management company is really an excellent decision.

At Real Property Management South Orlando, we assist the property owners in instructing their tenants on the proper care and upkeep of their rental homes in Winter Garden and conduct regular checks to ensure that such tasks are being done. Our team of property management professionals can help guard your valuable investment against unintentional damage and prevent expensive and unnecessary repairs. Please contact us online or call us at 407-982-2000 to learn more about how we can serve you.

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