How Often Should You Inspect Your Rental Property?

Whether you perform inspections yourself or hire someone to do it for you, property inspections are critical to keeping your rental business running smoothly. The process allows you to pinpoint maintenance issues early, determine if there’s a breach of the lease agreement, and identify unapproved alterations. Overall, habitually inspecting your property drastically reduces future disagreements between you and your tenant, but the use of the word habitually, or consistently, is where some property owners get confused. How often should you inspect a rental property, and what are the rules and regulations surrounding this frequency?

How Often Should You Inspect an Occupied Property?

How often you should inspect a rental property depends on the length of the lease. However, the property should get inspected at least once during the tenant’s occupancy. For example, if the lease agreement only lasts for six months, you may want to conduct an inspection in the fall and in the spring. If your leases are yearly, then a quarterly inspection is appropriate. This once-a-lease minimum inspection does not include move-in or move-out inspections either.

Things can get a little tricky if you lease month-to-month. Inspecting the property once a month can start to infringe on tenants’ rights. If a tenant is only living in the property for a month, a move-in and a move-out inspection should suffice. In this case, you may want to withhold an inspection until, or if, they decide to renew the lease. If they’re still there after three months, pop in for an inspection.

Tenant Rights to Privacy and Quiet Enjoyment

As a landlord, you have to keep in mind that your tenants have a right to privacy and quiet enjoyment. This means that a tenant can enjoy their dwelling in peace without fear of their landlord entering their home unannounced to the point where they may as well live there. You are also not allowed to go through your tenant’s belongings or give less than a 24-hour notice unless it’s an emergency. While entry notice laws vary slightly by state, there is no law in any area that allows landlords to come and go as they please for no reason.

What Are the Laws Regarding the Frequency of Inspections?

What the law considers excessive inspections vary from state to state, so if you’re unsure, you should check your local laws regarding inspection frequency. If you still aren’t sure if what you’re doing is excessive, ask yourself a few questions. Are you inspecting the property for maintenance reasons and not simply because you don’t trust the tenant? Would you be happy with an unfamiliar person coming in and out of your home at this frequency? Are you taking into consideration how the tenant feels and doing your due diligence to communicate with them about the frequency of your inspections?

One of the major traits tenants look for in a landlord is their ability to communicate. If you relay to them a solid and understandable reason for your extra visit in a timely manner, they are much more likely to be accepting and tolerant. The more respectful you are of your tenants as people, the easier your life as a landlord will be.