How to Handle Five Common Tenant Complaints

Managing rental properties can be a time-consuming and difficult task. When tenants have issues, being a landlord requires you to work overtime in order to get the job done, sometimes disrupts your sleep, cuts into family time and interferes with your social schedule. The degree of difficulty you face in this work depends largely on the tenants you rent to, as well as chance.

Thankfully, there’s something you can do to avoid some major hiccups, saving you time, money and frustration. By familiarizing yourself with the most common tenant complaints, you’re more likely to avoid encountering them—and should they come up despite your best efforts, you’ll be better equipped to resolve them quickly. Read on to learn how you can be a more prepared property manager and how to best handle these tenant complaints.

Common tenant complaints

While some tenants have unique expectations, there are many commonalities in the sort of complaints you can prepare yourself for:

• Noise: One of the most frequent complaints tenants have, especially those living in multi-unit environments that put people in close proximity to one another, is noise. While you can’t control the people in your properties, you can define acceptable noise levels, establish noise curfews in your lease and prepare an action plan to follow should noise violations arise.
• Maintenance issues: This type of complaint is generally time-sensitive and hard to prepare for. While taking excellent routine care of your property is an important part of managing rentals, you should also clearly outline in your lease agreement what your tenants can expect from you when they submit maintenance requests.
• Vermin and pests: Despite our best efforts to dissuade them, insects and vermin are a complaint many landlords deal with at some point. To ensure conditions do not invite unwelcome guests, talk with your tenants about how they can appropriately prevent them through cleanliness and keeping the building appropriately sealed. Consider including preventative inspections of the building by a professional exterminator in your routine maintenance to identify possible concerns before they become serious issues.
• Safety: Many safety complaints can be avoided through thorough inspections of a unit before tenants move in. Create a checklist to help you remember all the areas to check, and share it with the tenants when they move in so they know they’re moving into a safe home. Should any safety issues arise, respond to them as quickly as possible.
• Mold: Where there is humidity and poor ventilation, there is a high likelihood of mold growth. Do your part to prevent it by installing appropriate ventilation in bathrooms, quickly addressing leaks and controlling humidity in your property. Should mold grow anyway, hire a professional to address the problem right the first time.

Property management is somewhat unpredictable, but what you do have control of is your degree of preparedness. By following these guidelines, you’ll minimize tenant complaints by addressing issues before they come up—and if they do come up, you’ll know how to handle tenant complaints in a way that’s effective and keeps everyone happy. If you’re looking for help managing your rental property, contact Valley Executives Real Estate & Property Management LLC. Our property management and proactive maintenance services will save you time and unplanned expenses down the road.