Documentation for landlords
As a landlord, it’s important to keep detailed records of your rental property. This documentation can help you track expenses, keep tabs on maintenance and repairs, and document your income and expenses. In this blog post, we’ll share some tips on what documentation you should be keeping for your rental property.
1. What documents a landlord needs to have on hand
2. The importance of keeping accurate records
3. What can happen if landlords don’t have the proper documentation
4. Tips for organizing and storing landlord documentation
5. Resources for further reading on landlord documentation requirements
The documentation landlords need to keep on hand.
Lease agreements:
Are the cornerstone that lays out the terms and conditions of your relationship with your tenant and, at a minimum, need to contain contact information for both parties, the monthly lease amount, start date, termination date, and/or renewal clause, late fees/policies, security deposit information and all other relevant details regarding the tenancy. At lease renewal time, a new lease agreement should be signed with the updated rental amount as well as start and end dates.
Rental Application:
In a previous post, we discussed you need to keep rental applications on file. You should maintain a file with all rental applications, Screen prints or PDF printouts of credit and background checks as well as communications, and your decline letters sent if you did not approve that application for tenancy.
Guest Cards:
This document is how you track who came to view your property while it was vacant. If you are the person showing your property, you should be the one who maintains this otherwise, if you have hired a professional property manager, they will maintain these records.
Rental Ledger:
This includes all of your tenant’s payments and charges for rent, water bills, late fees, legal fees, and any other expenses they are responsible for, as well as due dates and the date payment was received.
Communications with your tenant:
You do not need to print every email and text message; however, it is important that you be able to locate this information if needed. That is why we recommend keeping a separate email address and VIOP phone number, such as google voice in a previous post.
Move-in / Move-out / Periodic inspections:
You should have all of your move-in and move-out inspections completed, signed, and filed.
Property Registration and licensing documents:
These documents include Lead Certification and Rental License, which must be updated periodically to demonstrate the safety and legality of the premises. You should also maintain copies of any rental inspections provided by a home inspector, HUD fail list items, and notices from code enforcement.
Maintenance Requests
Additionally, it is important to maintain a record of all maintenance requests that tenants make in order to evaluate if something should be repaired or replaced if necessary.
You should include the following information in your maintenance request records:
- Date the request was made.
- How was the request was submitted- via email, text message, phone call, etc.
- Issue overview
- A detailed description of the issue.
- Date you had the issue repaired
- Any notes from your vendor.
What can happen if landlords don’t have the proper documentation?
Landlords who don’t have the necessary paperwork in order can face significant legal ramifications. Without documents proving proper licensure or lead mitigation, tenants may sue their landlords or worse, landlords cannot pursue legal action against non-paying tenants. Ignoring this responsibility can expose a landlord to a whole host of liabilities they would not ordinarily face. It is, therefore, essential that landlords ensure all documents relating to their property are up-to-date, complete and legally binding.
Document management and filing system
It is important for landlords to have a document management system in place in order to stay organized when managing their rental properties. While you can keep this information on your local computer, that could turn into an issue if an unforeseen technical problem arises and you are unable to access the computer. There are numerous cloud-based storage options available for very little cost or even free. Services like Google Drive, DropBox, and iCloud; most people are familiar with these easy-to-use tools. Furthermore, using cloud storage makes it simple to sort documents into separate folders and even allows the use of tags and labels on files so they can be searched easily.
Your file structure should look something like this:
[Folder] Property Address
Property registration documents.
Capital Expenditures.
[Folder] (Your Tenant’s Name), you store the ledger, the lead cert, maintenance requests, tenant application and associated documents, lease agreement, lease enforcement letters, inspections, and anything related to your tenant.
[Folder] Prospective tenants-
[Folder] Prospective resident name;
Set up a folder with the name of each applicant and file their rental application along with other related documents.
Conclusion- Documentation is vital if you need to evict a tenant in Maryland.
Keeping thorough documentation is an integral part of successful property management practices–without it, landlords are more likely to face difficulties with tenant disputes or misunderstandings with rules and responsibilities, and in order to stay compliant with state and federal laws. This documentation should be updated at all times. It’s crucial for landlords to keep accurate records – if they don’t, they could face steep legal and financial ramifications.
Baltimore Rent Court Agents is here to help with your Maryland Evictions and tenant issues, big or small. Give us a call today to learn more about how we can help you ensure compliance and protect your rights as a landlord.