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Landlords are cracking down on tenants

2008-02-06

With the demand for rental units on the increase, landlords are now in a position to protect themselves against damage to their properties by being more selective on which tenants to allow into their units.

If you are a smoker and looking to rent accommodation you could be in trouble, says Tony Clarke, MD of Rawson Properties.

“We are,” says Clarke, “finding that many landlords of residential and office accommodation will simply no longer accept smokers as tenants.”

The reason for this, he says, is that there is a growing dislike in the public’s mind for premises in which nicotine has permeated the building.

“It is now accepted that smoke and nicotine exhaled by those smokers penetrate curtains, carpets, plaster and even woodwork, leaving an unpleasant odour and, on occasions, brings about a slight colour change. These traces are particularly difficult to eradicate.”

Similar problems, says Clarke, are also increasingly being encountered by tenants who are pet owners. Many landlords simply will no longer allow pets, especially incontinent cats, or, if they do permit them, will specify that when the tenant leaves the carpets must be replaced at his or her cost.

With apartment and, in some areas, house rentals beginning to show signs of a significant upward move, landlords could in the coming year also be in a strong position to crack down on one of the most difficult of all their problems: the illegal overcrowding of premises.

“Our rental divisions,” said Clarke, “are often asked why we are so insistent that the municipal regulations regarding the number of people allowed in an apartment or home should be so strictly adhered to. The answer is straight forward: all our experience goes to show that where tenants are packed into premises, sharing the rent among them, damage to the property almost always follows and rents are all too often not paid in full because one or more of the residents has failed to meet his obligations. Overcrowding of premises is, therefore, bad news and a good rental agent will make absolutely sure it does not take place – or, if it does, that legal action will follow.”