Personalizing a living area is part of the pleasures of a home, and even though they don’t own their home, renters feel the same. When they rent a residence, they want to have an appealing space that they feel comfortable in. Nonetheless, a rental property is unlike an owner-occupied home – as renters and owners of single-family rental properties in Marlborough both know, any modifications performed to the interior of the home needs landlord consent. When residents of your rental homes move past furniture and décor and choose to make unauthorized changes, this can put you in a hard situation as the owner.
The best residents are those who ask before doing interior changes to your rental property. A resident will occasionally decide they want to change certain features of the home after they’ve signed the lease. Perhaps they want to paint some or all of the walls a different color, set up new bathroom fixtures, replace the blinds or other window coverings, install a new light fixture or ceiling fan, or maybe even paint the kitchen cabinets.
Part of you might be contemplating whether it’s better to just let them have their way if they want to remodel your home for you at their own expense. There are a few things to keep in mind, however, before saying yes. Probably the most crucial of these is quality. If your resident is performing changes themselves, there is no assurance that the quality of their work will meet any professional standard. Moreover, if they do a poor job of it, it can have a negative effect on the value of your property and subsequently cost you even more money to fix it.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that trends in interior design quickly change. Painted cabinets may be popular now, but in a year or two, you might learn that residents want more natural wood tones. While it is entirely within your rights to charge a departing resident for any essential repairs, maintaining a neutral rental property is still the most cost-effective choice.
As a rule, residents who disregard the terms of their lease and perform unauthorized changes anyway are responsible for returning the home to how you want it when they move out. Some residents will try everything to avoid the expense involved in restoring the home to the way it was when they first arrived, potentially leading to prohibitively expensive collections or even legal action.
When residents start doing unauthorized changes to your Marlborough property, it can be hard to know what’s your next step. This is why you must get the right property management company to select quality residents who will take care of your property for you, manage matters, and take action to protect your real estate investment if and when it is needed.
At Real Property Management Metro West-Worcester, we offer all of these services and more to single-family rental homeowners. Our skilled property managers can customize a maintenance program just for you while also taking care of the stresses and headaches of dealing with lease violations. Would you like to know more? Please contact us online or call us at 508-329-6000.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
