Part of enjoying a home is customizing a living space, and renters are no different. When they rent a home, they want to be able to set up an aesthetic space wherein they can be comfortable. Nonetheless, a rental property is unlike an owner-occupied home – as renters and owners of single-family rental properties in Dr. Phillips both know, any modifications performed to the interior of the home need landlord consent. Residents of your rental homes going past décor and furniture and making unauthorized changes can put you as the owner in a difficult spot.
The finest residents are ones who ask before performing changes to the interior of your rental property. A resident will occasionally decide they want to change certain features of the home after they’ve signed the lease. Maybe they want to install new bathroom fixtures, change the blinds or other window coverings, set up a new light fixture or ceiling fan, paint the kitchen cabinets, or perhaps even paint some or all of the walls a different color.
Part of you might be considering allowing them to remodel your home for you at their own expenses, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind before agreeing to this. Perhaps the most significant of these is quality. You have no guarantee that the quality of the resident’s work will meet any professional standard if they are doing the modifying themselves. In fact, if they do a truly bad job, it could reduce the value of your property and then eventually cost you even more money to fix it.
Another important point to keep in mind is that interior design trends rapidly come and go. Although painted cabinets might be popular now, in a year or two, you might learn that residents desire more natural wood tones. While it is entirely within your rights to charge a departing resident for any essential repairs, maintaining a neutral rental property is still the most cost-effective choice.
As a rule, residents who violate the terms of their lease and go ahead making unauthorized alterations are responsible for returning the home to how you want it when they leave. Of course, some residents are going to try everything to evade the expense involved in putting the home back the way it was when they first arrived, possibly resulting in expensive collections or even legal action.
It can be hard to know what to do next when residents begin making unauthorized changes to your Dr. Phillips property. That is why you must have the right property management company to supervise things, select great residents who will take care of your property for you, and take action to protect your real estate investment if and when the need arises.
At Real Property Management South Orlando, we offer all of these services and more to single-family rental homeowners. Our skilled property managers can prepare a maintenance program just for you while handling the worries and troubles of dealing with lease violations. Would you like to know more? For further information, please contact us online or call us at 407-982-2000.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.