There are some tenants who can prove difficult to handle. They not only pay their rent late and after receiving reminders but also take offense to whatever their landlord has to say or tell them about taking care of the rental property. How do you communicate with these difficult tenants and make sure they have understood your point of view?
Listen more and speak less
Difficult tenant is bound to dominate any conversation you try to have with them. But if you think your tenants are not listening to you, it is better to listen more and try and understand their concerns. These tenants might be unreasonable most of the times, but it pays to listen to their viewpoint if you want to communicate more effectively with them.
Talk to them indirectly
If you feel it is useless to talk directly to your difficult tenants, you can try sending someone on your behalf to talk to these tenants. It might work as there will not be a clash of personalities and your tenants will communicate in a different manner with your messenger. If you start to feel headache just by the prospect of meeting one of your tenants, find someone to deal with him so that you do not need to go and personally talk to this tenant.
Try to focus on the main problem
Difficult tenants are known for their habit of starting to complain about everything as soon as they come across their landlord. If you have come to collect the monthly rent, you will be bombarded with all sorts of complaints. Instead of talking about all the issues, just focus upon a genuine complaint and reassure the tenant that it will be fixed quickly. Most of their concerns are not genuine and you will only waste your time if you sit down to listen to all their complaints.
Get the complaint in writing
There are some difficult tenants who will go back on their words or tell a different story after making a complaint. It is always a good idea to get whatever agreement you come to with these tenants on a piece of paper so that they do not go back on the terms mentioned on this document. You will easily overcome habitual liars and forgetful tenants by getting their signature of all documents.
Think of eviction only when it becomes necessary
Eviction is a legal procedure that is easier said than done. Do not threaten difficult tenants with eviction as even they know how long and tedious this procedure can be for landlords. You will come across tenants who will damage your rental property or invite penalties form civic authorities for your property. There is no way you can make these tenants understand the folly of their actions. In such cases, you have no option but to initiate the eviction proceeding. You know you must bear these tenants for a little while until they are thrown out of your property by the law.
Deploy a robust tenant screening system
Your best wall of defense against difficult tenants is a solid tenant screening system. Perform credit check, background check, employment history, and rental history even if all this takes a lot of time and effort. Talk to all applicants personally to know more about them. If you do not feel comfortable talking to an applicant, it is better to say no first up rather than having to bear the antics of such a tenant later. If you find that he is paying scant respect to you and talking to you in a rude manner, you can understand how this tenant will behave once he gets permission to move inside your property.
If you’d like to talk more about property management, or you need help with Everest Property Management, please contact us at Everest Realty.
As a top producing Realtor and Property Manager; Terry specializes in sales, extensive construction homes, rentals, REO’s, short sales, and all aspects of Real Estate. After graduating the University of Michigan with a master in MBA, Terry continued his endeavor and now has over 15+ years of experience in the Real Estate world. If there is anything that has to do with Real Estate and sales, you can always be sure of Terry to provide important, specialized knowledge.
