Who knew a survey would make the Top 10 list? Here’s why. Human nature proves time and time again that people don’t often speak up and voice concerns. And when they do, it might be about a specific complaint or maintenance item, but doesn’t reflect the tenant’s general feeling about where they live. A specially-designed tenant survey can contain valuable nuggets that can not only help you address issues you weren’t aware of, but make you and your rental unit better for current and future tenants. Your tenants will also know that you care about them and their tenancy and are open to both positive and negative feedback. Avoid problems and keep good tenants longer!
#9 - Smoke Alarm Checklist Form
We don’t know of a single jurisdiction in the civilized world that doesn’t have some sort of law or regulation on fire safety. Smoke alarms are critical to human safety, fire prevention, avoiding injury and/or loss of life, and keeping maintenance, insurance, and building costs low thanks to their preventative powers. If you’re not checking your smoke alarms regularly and replacing batteries, you’re heading down a dangerous path. This is a must. Period.
#8 - Late Rent Warning Form
The entire landlord/tenant relationship can break down fairly quickly if your tenant is late in paying rent. Yes, it does happen occasionally that tenants may be tight one month or absent-minded, or have an emergency come up, etc. However, late rent can quickly develop into a habit and finally a precursor to a pattern of rent arrears. We tell so many landlords all the time that they must nip this in the bud and deal with late rent quickly and firmly. Your bank, utility, and town tax department won’t look the other way on late payments and neither should you as the landlord. Our Late Rent Warning letter is well-worded to send the message that you need this resolved ASAP.
#7 - Annual Contact Update Form
This one is a gem. Few people think about the worst case scenario and live in the wishful thinking world of perpetually happy landlord and tenants. The hard truth is that – inevitably – some good tenancies will turn negative. Statistically, it is a certainty. Maybe there’s rent issues, personal conflict, tenant disputes, rules violations, or some other catalyst that sours the relationship. You need to be prepared. Sometimes, it could be subtle like property damage discovered after the tenant moves out. Regardless if you don’t have up-to-date contact and personal information on your existing tenants, it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to hold them accountability where the situation warrants. Annual Contact Update forms allow you to keep data and major life events up to date at all times – especially for your longer term tenants.
#6 - Moving-In Inspection Form
One of our favourite and most comprehensive forms, this checklist style form is designed to be filled out in person in the presence of the tenant before occupancy and then reviewed and re-evaluated after or near the end of the term or tenancy. This form records defects and damages and clearly outlines the tenant’s responsibility and liability thanks to the multiple ‘signature/initials’ required sections. The Moving-In Inspection form avoids future disputes and confusion of existing versus new deficiencies and sets the right tone from the very beginning of the tenancy period.
In most jurisdictions, you cannot simply walk into your tenant’s units unannounced. Tenants have a right to privacy just like you do. Our Entry Notice is a standards form that can be easily completed which conforms to most notions of advance notice. It is a neat 1-page, checklist and description box outline notice that can be served to any tenant with a clear reason for entry, instructions (if applicable) and the date and time the entry into the unit will take place. For obvious reasons, this is an indispensable form.
Specially designed for a small commercial unit, a live/work residence, or a mixed-use multi-unit building (ie. apartment on top, restaurant or shop on the main floor), a commercial lease is an absolute must. We’ve seen woefully inadequate 2 page leases, hand-written leases, generic form leases, and even old-English 200-year-old-wording leases! But the worse, is no commercial lease at all. Our commercial lease is a solid multi-page document that can easily be customized and adapted to your situation or used almost as-is. It protects the integrity of the property and rights of the owner/landlord.
#3 - Rental Terms Agreement Form
Rounding out our top 3, is the Rental Terms (also known as the month-to-month) agreement. We often say that the next best thing to a Lease is a Rental Terms Agreement. It’s a common mistake with landlords who either refuse to use a lease or capitulate to a tenant’s desire to live on a monthly tenancy that they omit any written document altogether! Just because your tenant would rather not sign a lease, doesn’t mean you still don’t use a written tenancy agreement. Rules, conditions, and responsibilities must clearly be outlined on an on-going basis. And we think no one does it better than our Rental Terms Agreement.
No big surprise that our second most important form is our Residential Lease. We’re in favour of lease agreements over monthly agreements even though we acknowledge there is a variety of opinions out there. Having a lease secures both the tenant and landlord and provides a certain degree of stability and seriousness to the relationship and term between the landlord and tenant. A lease is a also like a constitution between the landlord and tenant which helps in conflict or uncertainty. Having a powerful document to rely on is not only beneficial to the immediate parties, but has value to insurers, prospective buyers (if you’re in selling situation), heirs, agent, and property managers, and the local tenant governing bodies and legal overseers.
#1 - Residential Application Form
This may be a surprise, but the truth is that the best lease in the world is reduced to rubbish if it’s attached to an awful tenant. Your success or failure as a landlord starts with your capacity to seek out, evaluate, and secure the best quality tenants possible. The right Residential Application form is like a window into your prospective tenant’s future. Our form is probably the most tweaked and developed of all our forms as we have perfected it to ask all the right questions to filter out the rotten apples for the delicious rarities! Before you do credit checks, reference checks, current residence assessments, job confirmations, and personal date reviews, you need a completed Residential Application form. No other tool in your arsenal is as important as this form. So what are you waiting for?
