Frequent communication with tenants is an essential part of the job for landlords. While the digital age has brought on a slew of new communication methods, physical letters remain one of the top ways to provide information to renters at various stages of the tenant-landlord relationship.
As a rental property owner, here are the four most common landlord letters to tenants to keep on your radar.
1. Lease Renewal Letter
One of the most popular landlord letters, the lease renewal letter, is the type of letter you’ll need to draft if you’ve found a great tenant and their current lease term is coming to an end. These great tenants can be classified as individuals who consistently pay rent on time, are respectful of the rental property, and have a good reputation in the neighborhood.
Sending a lease renewal letter lets the tenant know you’re interested in extending their tenancy agreement.
It’s important to send this letter one to three months in advance. This proper notice gives your tenants ample time to decide if they would like to stay. And if they do stay, you’ll save the cost and hassle of having to market your rental to new tenants, screen applicants, and give tours to interested parties.
Setting a date for your tenant to give you a final answer allows you time to find new renters in the event that they decide not to renew.
Non-Renewal Letter
Alternatively, you may need to send out a non-renewal letter if you decide that you would like your current tenant to vacate at the end of the lease agreement. This decision can be driven by a tenant’s failure to deliver monthly payments on time, damage to the property, or neighborhood complaints.
It’s imperative to comply with laws regarding non-renewal letters, with the standard — regardless of state laws — being a 60-day notice. That way, the tenant has more time to find an alternative living situation and the tenant-landlord relationship can end on better terms.
Generally speaking, a non-renewal letter does not have to spell out why a landlord has chosen to terminate a lease. However, in certain states like California, landlords actually do have to disclose a just reason as to why they have terminated a tenant’s lease.
2. Notice of Maintenance, Renovations, Repairs, & Outages
If you want to keep the lease renewals coming, staying on top of routine maintenance is crucial. Alongside protecting your investment, keeping properties up to tenant standards can help them feel they’re getting their money’s worth and even add value to their living experience.
Just as important as the work itself is proactively notifying tenants of these maintenance measures via letters. Notably, any work that requires a maintenance worker to enter into the tenant’s unit or will disrupt their privacy legally mandates prior notice (except in emergency situations).
Consider having a maintenance schedule outlined in the lease agreement. Doing so allows any notices that you send to act as a reminder and can provide the tenant with additional time to plan accordingly.
3. Notice of Rent Increase
Timing is one of the most important components of sending notices, especially when you’re increasing rent. There are a number of reasons that you might want to consider a rent increase, including:
Improved facilities
Keeping up with the competition
Increased property expenses for landlords
Changing the lease agreement in favor of the tenant
Though normal and sometimes necessary, the way you handle a rent increase can be the difference between maintaining a long-term tenant or finding a replacement.
On one hand, the letter should be transparent about the reasoning for the rent increase. The more informed tenants are about why their rent payments will rise (and the potential benefits they can expect from this increased cost), the more likely they’ll be receptive to the news.
Then there’s the aspect of when you send the notice. Landlords are legally required to adhere to their lease agreements and to notify tenants of a rent increase prior to enacting one by, typically, at least 30 days. However, the earlier you send written notice of monthly rent amount increases the better as it gives tenants ample time to adjust financially.
4. Notice to Pay or Quit
Another common landlord letter to tenants is the notice to pay or quit. This is a formal document that details any lease violations made by the tenant and further states that they have to fix the violations within a set time frame or vacate the property.
These notices are typically sent in the event that a tenant has not paid rent or has egregiously broken the lease agreement.
A notice to quit is considered one of the first steps of the eviction process because if the tenant does not rectify the problem within the set time frame, the next step is to ask them to vacate the property. The time frame to either pay rent or quit can vary based on state laws, with some states offering as little as a three-day notice and others offering up to a 14-day notice. Generally, the more advance notice you can provide tenants, the better.
If you are sending this letter to a tenant, you’ll have to:
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Outline all lease violations and subsequent consequences, including eviction, that the tenant could face
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Include the date by which the tenant must pay or fix the issues
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Send this notice by certified mail, as this will act as a record of your attempt to correspond with your tenant.
Prepare for the Worst with Steady
An eviction letter or notice to quit is just the first step of the eviction process, which unfortunately, can take months.
During this time, you may not receive rent payments, which can leave you in a state of financial hardship. Having a rent default insurance policy through Steady can help ease the blow.
As a rent default insurance provider, Steady ensures that single-family rental owners still receive rental income even if tenants stop paying rent, giving landlords all over the country peace of mind no matter the state of the market.
Take the uncertainty out of renting with Steady’s customizable, deductible-free policy. If you’re interested in our services, contact us so we can connect you with a Steady partner property manager that offers our rent default solutions to landlords in their portfolio.