I am new landloard who want to cashflow but yet keep thing in order. Do I have to change locks before the tenets move int? If I do…change it… can I ask her to pay that first $75 like lease says?
Where do I get common forms for landloarding/tenents… things …any help will be appreciated.
DFW
Do you know how many keys are out there for your property?
If you don’t change the locks and the tenant is the victim of an assault perpetrated by a former tenant with an old key, can you afford the multi-million $ judgement when the tenant successfully sues you for negligence and reckless disregard for tenant safety?
Change the locks promptly each time you have tenant turnover, and do it at your expense.
All of my locksets are a set of 3 knob locks and three deadbolts – all keyed alike. I have two extra complete sets. When a tenant leaves, I put one of the spare sets on the property and use the set that I took off as one of the spares…if the tenant has a key, he has no idea where the lockset was moved to!
And, I ALWAYS change the locks…you have no idea who the tenant may have given a copy of the ket out to…I read somewhere that the average homeowner has given out 4 keys to his property!
Keith
Very clever, Keith. I’ll have to remember that one.
A set of keyed-alike locks is about $60-70…it’s just part of the cost of doing business.
Keith