New Year's Resolutions for Landlords

It’s that time of year – time to reboot. In an annual tradition, we suggest best practices to commit to. Here's some of the top items that made our list, courtesy of Daniel Bornstein of Bornstein Law:

Resolution #1: I will familiarize myself with the new photo-taking requirements under a new law going into effect in 2025.

Photo documentation requirements are triggered in three events:

• Before a tenant moves in
• At the end of the tenancy
• Before and after any necessary repairs or cleaning

Many of you have smartphones and are tech-savvy. If not, invest in a good digital camera and come up with a system to capture photos, easily organize them, and store them to be retrieved later.

We have always thought it was good practice to take photos to document before-and-after conditions in the rental unit but with a new law being ushered into 2025, this is no longer optional.

Resolution #2: Knowing that the eviction process will take longer, I will demand rent as soon as it becomes due.

Under current law, tenants have five days to file an answer to an eviction action answer, excluding weekends and judicial holidays. Yet a new law will give tenants ten days to respond, elongating the eviction process, which is a concerning topic.

This means that if an owner hesitates in serving a 3-day notice to pay rent or quit, they can potentially lose months of unpaid rent.

Housing providers should have a blanket policy (and process) to demand rent whenever it is late, explaining to all renters that out of fairness to everyone in the building, the policy applies to all residents.

Resolution #3: I will be involved in lobbying efforts and be a voice for all housing providers.

It’s been said that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Political rhetoric falls squarely on the side of tenants’ advocates, but landlords can provide a counter-narrative to fight for the rights of property owners.

In 2024, state and local lawmakers enacted several cumbersome laws for housing providers, but because of the advocacy of landlords and organizations dedicated to their rights, several measures were defeated or watered down.

Whether it is calling and emailing elected officials or joining an industry trade group, your voice matters.

Resolution #4: I will document every interaction I have with my tenants.

In the event that the rental relationship sours, we want a paper trail that documents the forensic history of that tenancy.

For example, if a repair request is made and the landlord effectuated the repair, send a letter to the tenant summarizing the date and nature of the request, what work was performed, and when the job was completed.

This does not mean that housing providers need to capitulate to unreasonable requests. If the request is unreasonable or the tenant can perform the work on their own, put the response in writing, acknowledging the request and explaining why the accommodation cannot be made.

Another example is when a tenant denies or obstructs access to the unit, perhaps out of inconvenience or because there is something he or she is trying to hide from prying eyes. We want to inform the tenant in writing that proper notice was served to allow the owner or their agent to gain entry and they were unable to enter.

If the tenant has an inoperable vehicle parked, document that, as well. If it is believed that there is an unauthorized subletter who has their vehicle parked overnight every night, put this in writing. When a tenant complains of loud music at night, note it and if it continues, document the reoccurrence. The list goes on and on.

But the quintessential point is we want to put pen to paper, drawing a timeline and creating a snapshot of the issues in case any disputes arise. Of course, this is an administrative task and expense but one that is well worth it to avoid trouble down the road.

Resolution #5: I will stipulate that all repair requests be made in writing and respond promptly to repair requests.

As a cautionary note, we have to be careful because when a problem arises in the rental unit, housing providers need to attend to it, whether or not there is a written request alerting the landlord to the problem.

Nonetheless, it is best practice to require repair requests be made formally in case the tenant uses habitability issues as a defense in an eviction action or worse, sues the landlord. The message we’d like to convey to the court is that the landlord was unaware of the issue, rendering it impossible for them to fix something when the tenant did not alert the landlord to any problem.  We want to create a culture where tenants understand the process by which they can request repairs.

Unfortunately, there are savvy and unscrupulous tenants who will have any number of problems in the rental unit, whether it is a leak, a suspicion of mold, pest infestations, broken appliances, and so forth, but withhold this information from their landlord because they want to get out of their obligation to pay rent, if not bring a lawsuit against the landlord.

However, when the issue is discovered, housing providers should not wait to solve it. 

Rather than setting up an appointment with a contractor to come over next week, why not dispatch a worker the same day? We want to debunk the notion that landlords neglect their properties and demonstrate that owners respond to habitability issues promptly.

Landlords are vilified in the media and in the courts, so we need to be diligent in showing that in fact, we are good custodians of the properties we own and/or manage and that we care about the well-being of our tenants.

Resolution #6: I will name every adult occupant on the lease and conduct screening on every one of those adults.

If there are minor children, we want to list those minor children, but each adult occupant should be properly vetted and responsible for signing the lease.

Oftentimes one of the adults has something to hide and wants the landlord to overlook his or her background, so they will deflect scrutiny onto someone else.

For example, the husband might say, “I don’t want my wife to undergo the credit check, just run mine,” and the answer by the rental housing provider should be “no, we require each adult occupying the unit to complete the application process.”

We need to know who is occupying the premises and get a sense of who they are, their background, and their credit history. Sometimes this becomes a game of musical chairs with occupants being swapped out and this is what we want to avoid. Who is living in the rental unit, and what is their worthiness as a tenant?

Resolution #7: I will require my tenants to obtain renters insurance to insulate myself from liability.

The requirement that a tenant obtains renters insurance is so we can ensure peace of mind for landlords and tenants alike. Yet even if required in the lease, a tenant cannot be evicted for the failure to get renters insurance because this breach does not rise to the level of a good cause for eviction.

Nonetheless, if the landlord is sued after a calamity strikes, we want to create a narrative that the tenant was required to take out a policy that insured their Persian rug, electronics, and other belongings and that the owner is not responsible for damages. Rest assured that when a tenant’s possessions are ruined, they will want to be made whole.

An added benefit to renters’ insurance is that many policies will pay for temporary relocation payments if the unit is inhabitable. Otherwise, the tenant will ask their landlord to put them up at a four-star hotel.

Having said that, our strong preference is compliance, not enforcement. What we find is that tenants who care about their belongings and take out a renters insurance policy of their own volition also care about the property they live in. They generally tend to be better tenants.