Five Lease Provisions to Make Your Life Easier as a Landlord

To make your duties easier as a landlord, you must begin by setting the record straight and lay down specific rules for your tenants to follow. These rules can give you legal recourse if your tenants failed to abide by them. By including these lease provisions in your rental contracts, your tenants will have a clear understanding of expectations, and you’ll have the ability to hold them accountable to them.

Rent Deadlines and Late Fees

Who doesn’t like tenants who pay their rent on time each month? Of course, the basic and most fundamental lease provision of all is that rent should be paid on time. With timely rent payment comes no late fees.

Be specific in your agreement with regard to when payment is due and when it is considered late, the preferred mode of payment, and fees for late payments. As a landlord, you can include lease provisions regarding late fees and penalties for bounced checks to encourage renters to pay properly and on time.

Your Right of Entry

Make sure to include a lease provision establishing when you may enter the tenant’s unit. You need to have a legitimate reason to enter the tenant’s unit, such as a necessary repair that needs to be done, or to show the home to prospective new tenants or buyers. Best practices are to always give your tenant a 24-hour notice if you or a maintenance person will be entering their unit, but your notice should comply with state laws regardless.

Garbage Removal

Your rules should be clear stating where the garbage should be placed for removal and how frequently it must be removed.  With the proper rules imposed, your risk of violating local ordinances will be widely avoided plus, it will maintain the sanitary ambiance of the building.

Additionally, by including a lease provision thoroughly detailing expectations for garbage removal, you have grounds for enforcing rules if tenants complain about someone leaving their trash in the hall or other common spaces.

Quiet Hours

An essential aspect of keeping the peace among your tenants is ensuring that noise is kept to a minimum. Including a lease provision about noise gives you the grounds to sanction tenants if they’re violating those rules. Hopefully, your tenants will simply understand their need to respect one another, but including a lease provision establishing ‘quiet hours’ leaves nothing to chance.

Damage Deduction from the Security Deposit

First, it’s essential to establish to your tenants what is and isn’t considered normal wear and tear (NWT) or damages. Expenses caused by damage to the property are typically taken out from the security deposit, but if the damage exceeds the security deposit, you will need extra payment through a demand letter.

Establishing this in a lease provision will simplify your ability to recover the necessary amounts for repairs, as well as avoiding unnecessary conflicts with your tenants.

Are You a First-Time Landlord? Get to Know Outerbridge Law

At Outerbridge Law, we understand the challenges you’ll face as a landlord. Knowing the laws that you need to abide by, what you can and can’t legally enforce, and how to protect yourself from a legal standpoint is never easy, and being a landlord in NYC makes it all the more difficult. Fortunately, you don’t have to navigate it all alone.

At Outerbridge Law, we have a deep, deep understanding of the laws regulating landlords, and how to navigate those rules. If you need assistance crafting specific lease provisions, contact Outerbridge Law to schedule a consultation.