Some Legal Matters that Landlord Should Learn About

A landlord cannot discriminate against potential renters. For example, he cannot prevent a person from renting based on his sexual preference, religious affiliation, race, national origin, familial status, or disability. These are all written in the Fair Housing Act. As a business owner, you should find ways to assert your rights without violating any of these rules. If you do this, you can run your rental business smoothly and be financially successful. If not, you may instead lose a lot of money. Now for you to have more ideas on the specific legal concerns/issues and actions you should take, continue reading this article.   

Now let’s start with the basics. Usually, a landlord violates the rights to tenancy by:

Lying about the availability of the property

Changing the terms to make them unfavorable to the tenant

Delaying maintenance and repairs

Disregarding or not following the conditions

And evicting the tenant based on the conditions mentioned above

Running a business is not really that hard but the kind of business you want to manage is a different one. In doing this, you have to remember many things and you have to implement them correctly. Here are additional ideas for professional approaches people in the industry often talk about:    

What to do in case the tenant files a complaint

Now, if a tenant files a complaint of your violation and you’ve been served or summoned, all you need to do is respond properly, analyze the problem thoroughly, and show up on time. If you fail to do these things, they may result in a judgment against you. Most importantly, talk to a qualified lawyer about these problems to gather more insights and possible solutions. To make sure you’ll get the information clearly, prepare every possible question that you deem necessary for the whole situation. And if you really want to be victorious in dealing with these challenges, then it is strongly recommended that you hire a manager for your rental property. Management companies have a team of skilled personnel ready to take care of the legal matters.

More things and terms to remember

When taking an eviction action, the landlord must file a “Petition for Warrant of Restitution”. This should be done after a judgment against the tenant is entered. If the tenant has a certain number of judgments against him for failures of payment, the landlord may still evict the tenant even if he/she wants to pay rent. However, some states have different rules for this that’s why it is important to leave the tasks to your property manager as he knows more than you know. Lastly, if there is damage, you as a landlord may collect money for this, especially when there is a clear breach of the lease.  

Now to be specific, here are the actions a landlord must take before resorting to eviction

Secure a notice of violation. In that letter, the landlord must offer tenants 30 to 40 days’ written notice before officially filing a complaint. If the tenant does not leave after 30 days, the landlord may now file a complaint about a breach of the lease. Be sure to completely fill out the form. Then next is to file in the District Court where the property is located so that the court will then can issue a summon. However, you should be careful about having a procedural defect in filing a complaint because this can become a loophole. For example, if the tenant did not properly receive the summon, or let’s say if the complaint form/letter is not completely filled out, the court may dismiss the complaint. Also, remember that the tenant has a right to redemption. Even if there are legitimate judgments against him, he can still make payment at any time before the eviction. Lastly, it is important that the landlord must comply with all the local rules and regulations for licensing. Failure to have a registration or license can cause the court to rule against the landlord.