Tenant Verification Services provides landlords and property managers with a variety of screening options. Select a market to sign up or learn more.
Lease modifications are a tricky part of property management, and should be handled with care. That's because the language of the lease was carefully drafted or reviewed by an attorney, and lease modifications muddy the waters by potentially limiting a landlord's...
Do you hate surprises when it comes to your tenants? Most landlords do. Take for instance the New Bedford, Massachusetts landlord who last week re-entered his rental property after the tenant skipped out, only to find both a pit bull -- and an alligator, abandoned...
Two recent disputes over secondhand smoke highlight how the issue may impact landlords who do not have smoking bans. In a recent decision, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal awarded damages to two strata corporation residents who repeatedly complained about secondhand...
Each time a tenant moves out, you must jump in and prepare the property for the next tenant. As a general rule, you will want to restore the unit to the condition that you want it to be in when the next tenant leaves. Often, there is little time between tenancies,...
It goes without saying that the rental application is a crucial tool for a successful tenancy, from screening tenants to collecting tenant debt. In many ways, the rental application is even more important than the lease agreement. Yet, many landlords focus more...
Recently, a prospective tenant sent a question to a real estate columnist asking for advice on how to find a rental home when the applicant has a bad history stemming from alcohol and drug abuse. The adviser had two suggestions: live in a treatment-related facility,...
The apartment rental sector has fully recovered and is growing, according to the latest findings by the National Association of Realtors®. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said new jobs are the key. Yun expects the economy to add 2 to 2.5 million jobs both this...
Landlords in California are on notice that they soon may be barred from requiring tenants with pets to declaw or devocalize the animals. The legislature appears close to passing the new law which prohibits a landlord who allows tenants or occupants to have animals on...
The Toronto Star has been following the story of a tenant who managed to rent properties despite having been previously evicted multiple times. Having a tenant from hell is not news to many landlords. What's significant about this story is the fact that it took the...
Manitoba landlords soon will see some changes to the Residential Tenancies Act. These changes include a clarification that landlords are required to use prescribed forms when terminating tenancies to ensure that tenants receive important information about their...
Q: I’d appreciate suggestions on how to constructively and inoffensively give feedback to the tenants on items that require attention after a periodic mid-term inspection. I have rented my property to some early 20's gentlemen who are notably inexperienced maintaining...
Tim Paulsen is an international specialist training credit and collection professionals. Drawing on his experience as a collector, fraud investigator, skip-trace manager, and consultant, he is the author of Paid in Full, a popular book on collections, now in its...
New York Housing Court will no longer make tenant data easily accessible to landlords, a move officials say will prevent discrimination. In a letter to State Sen. Liz Krueger, Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti confirmed that the names of individuals in...
An appeals court in New York decided that mold found in an apartment is 'toxic', and that could spell trouble for landlords. Injury attorney Jeffrey Lichtman of Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman in New York, says that the New York appellate court’s recent decision in a...
A landlord in British Columbia was ordered to return a security deposit to tenants who left the unit a mess because of a mistake made during dispute resolution. The tenants had paid a $725 deposit to the landlord when they moved in. Two years later, the tenants left...
The Government of Saskatchewan launched a new Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Rebate that will help add 10,000 new rental units to the province by the end of 2016. This initiative is expected to increase the overall, purpose built rental market by 29 per cent. "We heard...
by Marv Steier Recently, we received these comments from a TVS Member: "Mr. Steier, I’m a landlord of residential and commercial property that are investment properties. I subscribed to your site about 6 years ago and refer to it often. I find the site to be most...
A judge in Athens, Ohio will decide whether a landlord can boot several tenants from his property for drug offenses. The tenants, who are students, paid rent for the academic quarter. Later, police allegedly discovered illegal drugs on the property. Other alleged...
Landlords may not realize this, but tenants reveal that they often are afraid of their landlords -- so much so that they forgo regular maintenance of the rental property rather than face what could be a bad interaction. The landlord has the most to lose in this...
Landlords and property managers often encourage tenants to buy renters insurance. Some even make it mandatory. To understand why, it helps to take a look at how renters insurance works. When there is an event at the rental property, whether that's a fire, burglary, or...
