Normal Wear-N-Tear and Damage

[homealone]

If your a landlord or property manager, you have to know the difference between what is normal wear and tear as well as damaged.

Things like broken windows, holes in the wall from nails and what not, these are damages. However things like broken pipes, broken faucets well these things are normally just wear and tear.

If your renting out property there are going to be things that are going to go bad and break. That is just how things go, but knowing the difference between what is normal and what isn't is going to make a big difference in how the problem is handled.

I know some people rent apartments or homes and just tear them up to the point that law suits have to be filed to cover the cost of repairs. Then again I know some people who rent out homes and apartments that honest do everything that they can to keep the place extremely nice.

[flip_it_fast]

There is a difference between the two. The thing is, if you are a landlord is to be on top of things as much as you can. You can't put repairs off for a later date.

Normal wear and tear is going to happen. Things become weathered, overused and so on. Thats life. Putting them off only makes things worse and costs more in the long run.

Take a leaking roof for example. If you repair a leaking roof right away you might be able to get away with a couple hundred of bucks or less. If you put it off you will end up with a lot more damage to the roof, the underlying wood, joists, ceilings, floors, walls and so on. Thats gonna cost a whole lot more.

Point is.... don't be lazy and out things off! It will only get worse!

[flippinout]

The damage part is the hard one to live with as a landlord. People just dont seem to care about the property of others.

Before we bought our house, I had lived in a few rentals and if there was damage that was caused from any of us, we just went ahead and fixed it. Not to hide the fact that there had been damage done, but to take care of something that was caused by us and that I thought we needed to fix instead of the landlord putting out cash for something we did or didnt do.

Then, there are the landlords that do nothing, just let things go to pot and still charge high rents. These people to me are slumlords and there are ways to see that the things get fixed without your having to lose your rental.

If you have any questions about that, just ask and I will be glad to explain.

[homealone]

Thankfully though if your dealing with a slumlord there are steps that you can take to make sure that things start getting taken care of.

I have never rented a place where the landlord was completely lazy like some, but there are some out there that should not be allowed to rent out some of the places that they do.

Most people don't have the guts to stand up against their landlords and fight for their rights. This also happens with landlords needing to stand up against horrible tenants. It is such a vicious cycle.

Minor damage that I have accidently caused in a rental I took it upon myself to make sure that I fixed the problem. I never wanted the landlord to fix everything for me, that wasn't their job.

However when something went wrong that I didn't have anything to do with, well then I left it to them to repair.

[House on the Prairie]

I think the biggest problem with the argument of damage vs normal wear and tear is that things aren't specifically outlined during a tenant's walkthrough with the landlord. Carpet, for one, only has a lifespan of about 5 years under "normal wear and tear". If the tenant has more people living in the house than the lease allows, the tenant should be responsible for any additional wear those extra people cause on the carpet and the pad. And the landlord should also understand that carpet isn't a permanent fixture to a house and should realize that it may need to be replaced due to age, not just because a tenant happened to be living on it right before it "died".