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I am renting out my property in Houston area. I would like to know what is general practice followed for repairs. What kind of repairs are Landlord's responsibility and Tenants? If tenant is at fault how do we go about it? Is this written in the contract? I want to make sure I propose a contract fair for both me and future tenant.
In the last contract there is no language regarding repairs and I want to make sure to include this..
I had following recurring repairs/maintenance items
1. AC Freon goes out..
2. AC/heater circuit goes bad
3. Leak under kitchen sink, garbage disposal
4. broken toilet flush parts
5. broken shower door( hinge) and the list goes on..
6. pest control.
Some are LL and some are tenant like garbage disposal and broken doors etc..
All but number 6 should be the owners responsibility, except for obvious damage (intentional, accidental, neglect, misuse, etc).
You don't really need to be so specific about what is yours and what is theirs. Find a local lawyer and buy a lease is probably your best bet, you seem to be overly complicating it and are very likely ignoring the important stuff with this trivial nonsense.
We pay for all repairs to the units. If and only if the repair was due to a bad act by the tenants or their guest do we pass the cost on to them. Our lease calls for all repairs to be performed by our staff/contractors as we want them done to a specific quality standard unless approved for tenant repair by the PMC. We set these rules because we don' need to play games of charging tenants for stuff that should rightfully be on us. If a tenant cause the damage, they pay but if it's our's, we're not so cheap to try to put it on the tenant. As for us doing the repairs versus the tenant, we let tenants repair the small simple things if they want and some of the more skilled things if they adhere to the quality rules. If the damage requires skilled repairs, we don't want a tenant winging though so we fix it and charge the tenant.
All but number 6 should be the owners responsibility, except for obvious damage (intentional, accidental, neglect, misuse, etc).
You don't really need to be so specific about what is yours and what is theirs. Find a local lawyer and buy a lease is probably your best bet, you seem to be overly complicating it and are very likely ignoring the important stuff with this trivial nonsense.
In tx, multifamily residences must have LL do pest conttol at their expense, because people in a multifamily residence dont have control over pests caused by other families in bldg. So it falls to LL to do pest control and keep up with ensuring tenants are creating conditions conducive to pests.
SFR the pest control normally is tenants responsibility.
What kind of repairs are Landlord's responsibility and Tenants?
ALL REPAIRS (and similar work) are the OWNER's responsibility to pay for AND get done..
You really don't want to have tenants doing work or engaging contractors.
Quote:
If tenant is at fault how do we go about it?
Setting aside the conflicts inherent to determining 'fault'... the key is prompt notification
1) to the tenant that you believe they are culpable for whatever the work might be, and
2) from the tenant that they are aware of something that warrants being done, and
3) backstopped by some sort of regularized pattern of visits to look for problems.
But it's still THE OWNER's money/time that will be effecting the repair.
At best... they'll be attempting to be REIMBURSED after the fact for that money/time.
Like others have said, repairs are owners responsibility... One huge benefit of being a renter is that if the HVAC has a problem or the plumbing springs a leak it's not the renters problem.
Oh, and if your AC is running low on Freon regularly enough to consider mentioning it you have problems.
The LL should arrange and pay for any and all repairs and maintenance.
If the tenant's negligence caused the condition or damage, then you give the tenant the bill. If he doesn't pay it you either evict or take it out of the security deposit.
Tenant's negligence does not have to be covered in the lease because it's the law.
Thanks for all the inputs and agree with all of you.
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