One means of enjoying a home is through personalizing a living space, and renters are the same. When they rent a residence, they want to have an appealing space that they feel comfortable in. However, a rental property is not like an owner-occupied one. As renters and owners of single-family rental homes in Raleigh both understand, all changes done to the interior of the home need landlord permission. When residents of your rental homes go beyond furniture and décor and choose to make unauthorized changes, this can place you, the owner, in a difficult situation.
The best residents are the ones who inquire before performing interior changes to your rental property. Occasionally, after they’ve signed the lease, a resident might want to alter certain aspects of the home. Perhaps they want to paint some or all of the walls a different color, set up new bathroom fixtures, replace the blinds or other window coverings, install a new light fixture or ceiling fan, or maybe even paint the kitchen cabinets.
Part of you might be contemplating whether it’s better to just let them have their way if they want to remodel your home for you at their own expense. But there are a couple of things to keep in mind before agreeing to this. Quality is perhaps the most important of these. 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 matter to keep in mind is that trends in interior design swiftly change. Painted cabinets might be in right now, but in a year or two, residents might opt for more natural wood tones. While it is completely within your rights to charge a departing resident for any needed repairs, keeping your rental house neutral is still the most cost-effective option.
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 will do their best to avoid the expense of involving putting the home back the way it was when they originally came, possibly leading to expensive collections or even legal action.
When residents begin making unauthorized changes to your Raleigh property, it can be difficult to know what to do next. 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 Raleigh, we offer all of these services to homeowners of single-family rentals and more. 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 learn more? For additional information, please contact us online or call us at 919-481-0008.
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.
