Teaching Landlords to Find Their Quality Tenant!

Providing Tenant Safety

by Don Conrad

Every landlord wants to find that tenant that best fits their needs. One way to increase the odds of this happening is to provide the basic qualities most tenants want and look for in their rental dwellings. Understand that the general public, whether as homeowners or renters, usually wants the same qualities in their lodging. These qualities can be broken down into three categories, safety, cleanliness, and habitability. This article is geared toward the issue of safety.

 By and large, the days where most people felt safe leaving their doors unlocked whether they were home or not are pretty much over. With the increase in crime in most areas of the country, home safety has become an increasingly bigger issue. Therefore, I urge you to make tenant safety a priority when preparing a dwelling for rent.

(I do cover landlord safety in another article. If interested, go to the articles page on my website at http://www.findthatqualitytenant.com).

First, walk around the exterior of the dwelling and look for anything that could aid a criminal in targeting your dwelling. Things like overgrown weeds or shrubs, especially near basement or easy to access windows could become a hiding place for someone with ill intent. Likewise, all entry doors need to be of solid and durable quality to deter break-ins. Either steel or solid core wood doors are your best choice. And it goes without saying that each door needs a strong set of locks, preferably a keyed entry and a deadbolt.
 
Check the following items when handling locks on a rental dwelling:

• Locks should be changed in front of the new tenant or just before they take possession of the property. Tenants should know that they and the landlord are the only ones with keys to their residence.
• If there is any window close to an entry door or in the door itself that can be broken (allowing a perpetrator to reach in and unlock the door), make sure all locks are key operated from the inside. This way, the tenant can remove the key and decrease the chances of a criminal being able to let him- or herself in.
• Add safety chains and peepholes to any door in which you must open the door to see who is on the other side. You want tenants to be able to identify who is at the door before they open it up.
• For added insurance against a door being kicked in, I recommend substituting 3½- inch or longer screws in some of the door hinges and all the lock latch plates on all entry doors. These longer screws should drill through the door from and into the 2 by 6s of the house, making it much more difficult to break down a door.

Earlier in my career, I did a lot of side work for banks on their REOs—real estate owned properties, which are bank-held foreclosed houses. This work included breaking into their properties and securing them for the bank. I can tell you from experience that many of those homes had locks so cheap,  I could knock off the knob with a hammer, punch out the lock’s inner cuts, and open the door, often in 60 seconds or less. Other times, I would notice every door had quality locks on them, and I would never even attempt to enter. I would just call a locksmith. Do yourself a favor and contact a locksmith to find out which locks they recommend against break-ins..

Windows need to have good working locks. If the window is the kind that slides back and forth, it would be wise to place a bar in the track of the window to help prevent access. This is also true for sliding patio doors.
  
Another item concerning safety involves a house’s electrical system. Unlike most other safety issues in a dwelling that can often easily and cheaply be repaired, updating an electrical system can be very expensive—sometimes running into thousands of dollars. Even so, there are still things you can do to improve the safety of your home. One is the installation of GFCIs. These outlet-type devices are installed in kitchens and baths or other areas of heavy water usage. These devices shut off an outlet’s circuitry if someone tries to plug something into the outlet with wet hands, eliminating the chance of that person receiving a shock.

You should also make sure all switches and outlets have the proper covers on them. At the same time, check for wires or clumps of wires that are improperly exposed. These problems need to be contained in some type of electrical box where they are out of human touch and unable to start a fire.

Recently, I was assembling some gas pipe in a crawl space on a house I was working on for Christmas in April, a charity in our area. Unbeknownst to me, there was a piece of exposed wiring where I was working. As I tightened the pipes, my hand or pipe wrench connected with this wire, providing me with quite a jolt. I later found out the homeowner knew this wire was activated by a light switch by the backdoor. She failed to tell anyone of this, and naturally, someone hit the switch. I was lucky the crawl space was dry and my shock was minimal. I’m telling you this story because more dwellings than you realize have these hidden hazards, so repair as needed.

Depending on the age and quality of the electrical system in your rentals, there could be many safety issues worth addressing. Besides those mentioned previously, you’ll want to watch for the following:
 

• The main electrical panel has fuses instead of breakers.
• Wrong or faulty breakers on circuits.
• Aluminum wiring in the house.
• Overloaded circuits for microwave, air conditioning and other appliances. 

If any of these conditions exists, I advise you to call a certified electrician and
have them evaluate the situation for your sake as well as your tenant’s.
 
Another issue worth mentioning when covering the topic of dwelling preparation and safety is smoke detectors. Good quality smoke detectors provide more bang for the buck as far as safety than probably anything else you can do to your dwelling. Simply place a minimum of one on each level of the house, preferably by the bedrooms. Make sure each smoke detector works properly and has a light and fresh batteries. For added peace of mind, you may wish to have your electrician wire smoke detectors into your house’s electrical system. This task is pretty simple to do, especially if you have an accessible attic area. I’ve done this to my last few houses and the cost is worth the peace of mind it provides. I no longer have to wonder if my tenants are disabling a smoke detector, which jeopardizes their safety and my property.
 
The last electrical issue I would like to cover is lighting.I like all light fixtures inside a dwelling to have a minimum of  two light bulbs in case one burns out, there is still adequate illumination for safety purposes.I also like outdoor motion lights because they have two bulbs and provide more light than normal. You can never have enough light in a rental.
 
Generally, with the exception of electrical, most other items you deem unsafe in a dwelling can be remedied fairly easily. Take a stroll through the house and look for these potential safety issues, both inside and out:

• Loose handrails, railings, or steps
• Adequate lighting at all doorways, hallways, and stairwells
• Address numbers on dwelling and mailbox are easy to read and illuminated at night so emergency personnel can locate the property
• Loose floorings, carpet, decking, or other tripping hazards
• Flammable or poisonous liquids that need to be properly disposed of

Even though everybody is in charge of their own personal safety, it is your duty as a landlord to ensure that your rental dwelling is as safe as you can make it. Check for safety each and every time you prepare your property for rent. Your tenants will appreciate it and you will sleep better at night. courtesy of www.findthatqualitytenant.com

Read more landlording and real estate investment articles

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If you would like further infomation on this topic, please purchase my book "How to Find That Quality Tenant". Ask your locale bookstore or see my website at :www.findthatqualitytenant.com

I am not a lawyer, therefore, if you have any legal concerns with anything in this article, please contact the appropriate legal counsel.

The above article may be reproduced without my permission under the following conditions: author name, website, and contact information must accompany article and be prominently displayed, and the article must be reproduced in it's entirety.

Thank You. Don Conrad

Copyright 2006 Blue Collar Publishers
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e-mail: donconrad@findthatqualitytenant.com
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