Being a landlord is not quite as simple as purchase a property and renting out the units you need to learn the tenant and landlord laws.
You need to keep in mind that you are dealing with people and there are laws that you need to pay attention to if you are going to have a lot of success with renting your property.
You need to be mindful of these laws or you can find yourself in serious trouble down the road. To help you with this, here are some of the legal matters that every landlord needs to know.
If you are living in a suburb like British Columbia you must be completely aware of the BC tenancy law. Keep in mind that whatever laws applicable in BC might not be as applicable if you are outside this area.
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The first thing that you need to know as a landlord is that you do have rights under the laws of your particular state or province and these laws do vary depending on your location. If you need to, you can consult an attorney that specializes in these matters to help you out.
You do have some basic rights as a landlord, including the rent being paid regularly and on time as well as properly caring for your property. If a tenant does not pay the rent as agreed, you do need to know all of the regulations regarding eviction and the process that you need to go through in order to legally evict someone from your home.
In addition to the state laws, there are also federal laws that you need to be aware of before renting out your property.
These two major laws include the following:
Fair Credit Reporting Act
This requires a landlord to get permission to run a credit check, offer the potential tenant information about where you got your credit information, and if there was something in the report that may have caused you to deny their application.
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Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act is a law the prohibits the landlord for discriminating against someone based on any reason, including religion, race, gender, cultural reasons, or handicap.
Another big issue has to do with the liability for any repairs that may need to occur on the property.
Tenants have a basic right to live in a “fit and habitable” property, which means that you will need to keep up with major problems to the property when it comes to regular maintenance or things like wiring and plumbing that any homeowner would need to deal with.
However, a landlord is not responsible for paying for damages that a tenant does to a home, this can be found in the BC tenancy law.
These are just some of the biggest issues that you as the landlord, faces, that will have to be dealt with as property owners.
You would greatly benefit from doing your research to find out which laws apply to you based on where you live to ensure that you are doing everything by the book.
A local attorney that specializes in rentals is going to be a great asset to you as well so that you can write legally binding leases and stay on the right side of the law when you are renting out property. BC tenancy laws are always changing, so make sure that you are keeping up. In this situation, a property management company like Bolld Real Estate Management comes in handy. All the work in regards to compliance in laws as well as maintenance are all attended promptly.
In conclusion
Non-compliance on rules and regulations within your community will make you face all the charges and fines and could potentially ruin the main reason why you placed your house for rent and that is to generate income.
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