Garden Maintenance for Rental Properties - How to Encourage Your Tenants to Help

A well-maintained garden can be invaluable in helping you rent a property swiftly. Prospective tenants are lured in by an outside space that they can picture themselves relaxing in whilst their kids and pets run around and use up their excess energy. Of course, that’s providing you allow tenants to keep pets. However, it is easy for a garden to grow out of control. So how do you encourage tenants to help with garden maintenance for rental properties?

Landlords’ Responsibilities Relating to Garden Maintenance for Rental Properties

Responsibilities relating to garden maintenance for rental properties depend on the terms of the specific tenancy agreements but, in general, landlords must take care of structural issues. This could be maintaining garden walls or pathways, for example. In order to keep the outside area of the property in good condition, it is sensible to request that tenants inform their letting agency as soon as any issues arise in this area. This prevents minor problems becoming major complications.

Many landlords also choose to take responsibility for routine jobs such as pruning and trimming hedges and trees. A similar request that tenants inform their agent when they believe the garden is becoming overgrown can help keep the outside space looking smart.

Some landlords also undertake to mow the lawn on a regular basis. However, this is quite a time-consuming commitment for a landlord with multiple properties or a lettings agency with a large amount of other duties to carry out for the rest of their clients too. This is one reason why many lettings agents outsource this type of maintenance to property management companies like Executive Property Management Solutions. That way, they can concentrate on other areas of the business, safe in the knowledge that these tasks are being completed.

Tenants’ Responsibilities Relating to Garden Maintenance for Rental Properties

The tenant has a duty to keep the garden in decent, tidy condition, just as they do with the property in general. This means cleaning up after pets, clearing gully traps, weeding and other such tasks. In order to encourage tenants to keep up their end of the bargain, it is a good idea to explicitly state what their responsibilities are in the tenancy agreement.

If a landlord requires their tenants to mow the lawn and lop bushes and hedges, it is worth noting that they must supply the equipment for these actions. Once again, this should all be set out in the tenancy agreement. If you are a lettings agent or landlord that requires help with drafting an agreement that clearly sets out these roles, then contact us today on 0208 5757630 to discuss how we can help.

Other Ways to Encourage Tenants to Help With Garden Maintenance

As well as requiring tenants to commit to certain tasks in the outside space of the property through the tenancy agreement, there are other ways in which landlords and lettings agents can make it as simple as possible to keep gardens in great condition.

Keeping the design of the garden as simple as possible is key in helping tenants maintain it. The more complicated the pruning and trimming regime, the more likely it is to fall by the wayside or for tenants to simply forget a certain task. Choosing plants that can survive without regular watering is a great idea.

Ensuring the equipment that is supplied for the tenant to carry out the tasks is in a good state of repair is also essential. In addition, regular inspections are vital in order to keep an eye on the state of the outside space over time. It is a good opportunity to offer tips and advice to tenants about the best way to proceed, before any damage is done. You can save the time taken to perform these inspections by outsourcing them to Executive Property Management Solutions.

Garden Maintenance for Rental Properties - Outsource Time-Consuming Tasks

Use the contact form at the bottom of the page to contact EPMS for help relating to garden maintenance for rental properties. Whether it is drawing up a tenancy agreement that states everyone’s role and responsibilities clearly or arranging regular inspections, we can do that for you. If you want to save time, but ensure that the gardens are properly tended for, talk to us today.