When you’re renting out a home you own, there are lots of things you need to consider, including meeting government regulations for private landlords and making sure your property doesn’t sit vacant for long, if at all, thus impacting your potential income. Creating a property inventory may be the last thing on your mind but it shouldn’t be. Here’s why.1. Long-term records
No matter how well you know your property, no landlord has perfect recall when it comes to the items in the home when they rented it out, or their exact condition, especially if the property has been rented out for several years to the same tenant.
2. Deposits
Most landlords ask tenants to pay a deposit when they move in to protect them if the property is damaged and they need to make repairs. The deposit should cover items in it when it was rented out – furniture, for example, or white goods. If you need to retain some, or all, of the deposit at the end of the lease, a property inventory will help you immensely.
3. Cleaning
Deposits should cover the condition things like carpets and painted walls were in when you rented the property out. If a property is left dirty when they keys are returned, and your inventory includes how clean carpets etc. were, you should be able to hold back the cost of cleaning – the biggest source of landlord disputes – from the deposit.
4. Legal protection
Having a property inventory, especially one created with property inventory software such as that offered by https://inventorybase.co.uk/, offers a level of legal protection if there are disputes – for you and your tenants. If you try to make a small claim without an inventory, you might find it thrown out, leaving you out of pocket.
5. Good tenants
If you provide your tenant with a property inventory when they move in, they are more likely to behave in ways that protect the property because they won’t want to risk not having their deposit returned.
6. Less stress
Being a landlord can be stressful. The last thing you want to do is add to your stress by worrying about what happens if your property is damaged. Having a property inventory will give you this peace of mind.
