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 HOW TO CREATE A SOLID LEASE AGREEMENT: Part Four of Four By Wayne Gathright Part One, Make Your Lease a Tenant Satisfaction Agreement Part Two, The Basic Lease Agreement Part Three, Build Tenant Incentive Clauses into Your Lease Agreement Important Clauses To Add To Your Lease Agreement
In addition to incentive clauses, there are many other important clauses that landlords often tend to neglect, yet these can be invaluable if there is ever a dispute. Here are some examples of clauses that can be added to your lease agreement: Parking. Spell out how many vehicles (cars, boats, motorcycles, etc.) you will allow to be parked at the residence? Where? Residential Use. Can the tenants run a business? What kind? Garage Sales/Auctions. Will you permit these? How often? Notification of Change of Status. Require that the tenant update you on changes, for instance, employment. Subletting. Is it allowed? How many new residents? Notification Co-signers. Should you add another responsible party as a guarantor?
Returned Check Fee. How are you going to handle returned checks? Bankruptcy. What if your tenant files for bankruptcy? Lease Violations. What are your rights? What are the tenant’s rights? Tenant’s Absence. What if the tenant disappears? Can you get into the rental? Furniture Lien. Can the tenant’s possessions be takes? Increase in late fees. Can you charge additional late fees if the tenant is often late? Judgment collection. Who pays? Utility bills. What if the tenant defaults? Emergency repairs. What if you have to cut off the water for repairs? Problem neighbors. How do you handle complaints? Disasters. What if you can’t fulfill your landlord obligations because of a disaster? Illegal activity. Make sure you can take action against drug use, explosives, firearms, etc. Quiet Enjoyment. You should insure that the tenant cannot intrude on other people’s rights. Smoking. Make sure your rules are clear. Pets. How many pets? What additional deposit? What about additional cleaning costs? Yard Upkeep. Make sure your property looks neat and is safe. Health and Safety Codes. Be sure your tenant doesn’t violate these. I hope these ideas make you think about how important your tenant lease can be. With the right rental agreement design, you can create a lease that will protect your property, promote timely rent receipt, motivate your tenants, and protect your legal rights as a landlords. Wayne Gathright is president of WG Software, Inc., developers of the Tenant File Property Management Software. He has over 30 years experience in consulting and software development for real estate. Mr. Gathright also markets a product for easy creation of leases called The Lease Designer, that allows the user to select from several prewritten leases, choose from over 200 prewritten rental clauses, and add house rules templates to the lease. A user can write their own leases and clauses, modify the existing templates, or import leases from other programs. American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment, including tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org. To subscribe to our blog, click here.   Posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 6:26 am and is filed under AAOA Forum, Forms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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While the basic lease provisions are important, most of the time, a basic lease agreement is not enough. 
Partial Payment of Rent. What will happen if you receive only part payment? 
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[...] Need help drafting a Lease Agreement? See our four-part series How to Draft a Solid Lease Agreement. [...]
[...] Need help drafting a Lease Agreement? See our four-part series How to Draft a Solid Lease Agreement. [...]
[...] “My residents get a 19 page Resident Handbook and residents’ options for breaking their lease are contained it it….My lease is 6 pages and in VA, we can have additional rules/regulations if they are referred to and referenced in the lease…. G. Breaking Your Lease – By terms of your lease, you may not sublet or assign your rights under your lease. In order to replace you as the Tenant/ Lessee for the property, you may…..advertise, show and secure qualified applicant(s) and provide us with executed application forms with appropriate credit check fee(s). We will then qualify the applicants and prepare the appropriate documents/new lease should they be approved. There is a $400 fee for this lease documentation and you are responsible for the rent up to the time the new tenant lease takes effect and your security deposit will be refunded – less appropriate charges – when the new tenants have executed and returned their property condition check list…..OR, you may….. vacate the property and we will then advertise and show the property to qualified applicants. The fee for this service is one-half of one month’s rent (a minimum of $600). We will qualify and prepare the appropriate documents/new lease. In addition, there is a $400 fee for this lease documentation and you are responsible for the rent up to the time the new tenants’ lease takes effect and your security deposit will be refunded, less charges for advertising and the fees enumerated above, when the new tenants have executed and returned the property condition check list. All property utilities must remain on in your name and the grounds maintained up to and until you are notified that a replacement has been secured. Gibson Management Group, Ltd., is a full-service property management company offering 40 years of professional property management services and offers listings in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia and Albemarle County as well as Greene and Louisa Counties and the Lake Monticello area of Fluvanna County. We’d like to hear from you. Please share your property management insights by leaving your comment below. Need help drafting a Lease Agreement? See our four-part series How to Draft a Solid Lease Agreement. American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at http://www.joinaaoa.org. To subscribe to our blog, click here. Tags: tenant+lease+provisions, tenant+early+exit, apartment+owners+associations, landlord+associations [...]
[...] Need help drafting a Lease Agreement? See our four-part series How to Draft a Solid Lease Agreement. [...]
[...] Need help drafting a Lease Agreement? See our four-part series How to Draft a Solid Lease Agreement. [...]
[...] Need help drafting a Lease Agreement? See our four-part series How to Draft a Solid Lease Agreement. [...]
[...] is a Chicago-based freelance writer. Copyright 2009 Mary Umberger See our four-part series, How to Draft a Solid Lease Agreement. American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services for landlords [...]
[...] may be entitled to that little bit of extra compensation as well. See our series, How to Create a Solid Lease Agreement. American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services for [...]
[...] And while you are at it, ask your attorney about adding interest onto your claim for unpaid rent. You just may be entitled to that little bit of extra compensation as well. See our series, How to Create a Solid Lease Agreement. [...]