Finding a good landlord can be tricky when you’re renting an apartment. Thankfully, some telltale signs will help you identify a bad one. While there’s no such thing as a perfect landlord, looking out for certain indicators can help you avoid falling victim to a bad one. From prompt responses to maintenance requests to how well they treat their tenants, here are five key ways to tell if a landlord is good or bad.
1. They’re responsive
When you’re first moving into an apartment, landlords are the people you’ll most likely interact with. As such, it’s essential to feel comfortable and welcome around them. A good landlord will be responsive to your questions and concerns and go out of their way to make you feel at home. Bad landlords, however, can take months to respond to emails and phone calls and often don’t feel the need to address your questions or concerns.
This can make you feel uncomfortable and even threatened, which is unnecessary and unwanted. Make sure you have a landlord who responds promptly to your emails and who gets back to you as soon as possible if you’re having a problem.
2. They take care of the maintenance requests quickly
As a renter, you’re probably used to having your landlord take care of maintenance requests like fixing a broken window, a leaky sink, or a leaky roof. While it’s good to be aware of these issues in advance and document them, it’s also good to know that a good landlord will quickly get these repairs done. Bad landlords will sometimes drag their feet on repairs or flat-out ignore them.
Be warned if your landlord fails to address your requests or takes longer than reasonable to complete the repairs. It would help if you also kept in mind that while some repairs are the landlord’s responsibility, others are the tenant’s. For example, it’s the tenant’s responsibility to pay the rent, maintain the apartment, and take care of any damage they have caused.
3. They treat the apartment like their home
As with any home you move into, your first impression of a landlord’s house should be that it feels like home. Bad landlords will often rent to tenants just because they have the space without really caring how it affects you. This can leave the place in a mess, with dirty dishes in the sink, unkempt gardens, or the refrigerator filled with expired food.
On the other hand, good landlords will make an effort to make their tenants feel at home and make the apartment their home. This can involve planting a garden, hanging up photos of their family and friends, keeping their toilet seat up, and generally making the place feel lived in. It can also involve keeping the home clean, which is essential considering you will be living in it.
4. They’re licensed, registered, and insured
When you’re renting an apartment, your safety and security are important. This is why landlords must be licensed, registered, and insured. This makes it legally binding for them to provide you with a safe place to live and protects you as the tenant if something were to happen.
There are many ways to check if a landlord is licensed, registered, and insured. You can usually find this information on the landlord’s website, and their ads on websites like Craigslist.
5. They are respectful of their tenant’s rights and lease agreements
Any lease you sign, no matter how large or small the rent is, is between you and the landlord. As such, your landlord must uphold their end of the agreement. This means that if you and the landlord have a lease, they will respect the terms of that lease. If you check out the student apartments in Carrollton GA, you can rest assured that you will have a proper agreement detailing your rights and responsibilities as a tenant.
Bad landlords will often try to break a lease agreement, whether by moving you into an apartment that’s not yours, refusing to return your security deposit, or violating other terms of the lease you’ve signed. Good landlords, however, will honor any and all lease agreements you sign with them and protect you if your landlord is violating the law.
Conclusion
Renters, especially those on a budget, need to be careful when finding a good landlord. While plenty of landlords are willing to take you on as a tenant, it’s just as important to be cautious in your search. A good landlord is hard to find, but they are worth the effort.
