By Property Management Systems

Over the last two years as rents have increased we’ve seen more tenants moving in together as roommates, this is to be expected because, as a landlord one of the things that you can expect to deal with while owning rental properties is renting to Portland Oregon Roommates, especially if your rental property is close to a community college or Oregon State University, but renting to roommates is much more than just collecting the rent, there are roommate best practices you should follow including the following:

#1 – Make Sure Roommates Are Jointly Liable

When renting to roommates you should make them sign a lease that holds them “jointly and severally liable”; this is a standard provision in leases to r Portland Oregon Roommates and ensures that if one roommate violates the lease, the other roommate will be held equally responsible for paying damages, fees, and bills that their roommate may be responsible for.

If all roommates who rent your Portland Oregon Rental Property are held jointly and severally liable they will be less inclined to cause damage to your rental property, especially college age renters who might be going to OSU because, the average renter will think twice before their actions cause property damage.

#2 – Think Twice Before Subleasing

Although subleasing may seem easy to some landlords, you should think twice about agreeing to sublease your rental property because a sublessor is not considered to be jointly or severally liable for paying rent or other lease obligations should they decide to move out since they didn’t actually sign your lease.

#3 – Always Follow the Same Process for Screening Tenants

Let’s say that one Portland Oregon Roommate decides to move out and the remaining roommate has someone in mind that they will like to rent to; in this case you should always screen the replacement roommate and don’t relax on your screening standards because landlords often get into trouble when they relax their screening standards or do things on the fly.

#4 – Create a New Lease When New Tenants Move In

If you have new Portland Oregon Roommates moving into your rental property you should always execute a new lease agreement and make sure that all tenants sign the new lease because this will ensure that every tenant who lives in the rental property is held jointly and severally liable.

#5 – How to Handle the Security Deposit

Before all roommates move in they should pay you the security deposit as you would expect it to be paid from your individual tenants but, if one of the roommates move out, the security deposit should not be broken up, the incoming tenant should pay their portion of the security deposit to the outgoing tenant.

#6 – Insist On One Rent Check

Although it might be common for some landlords to expect payments from all Portland Oregon Roommates at their rental property, you should insist on receiving one rent check because not only will this cut down on administrative work for you, it will also effectively treat all tenants as one individual.

#7 – Ask the Roommates to Assign a Tenant Representative

Another handy thing to do when dealing with roommates is to assign a tenant representative since this will make it easier with resolving issues at the rental property instead of having to deal with each roommate when problems or issues arise.

Dealing with the Portland Oregon Roommates tenant representative will also make it easy to establish a pattern of communication with one tenant rather than having to deal with multiple tenants who might have different personal styles and be less inclined to provide you with all of the details that you need should something need to be repaired or maintained at your rental property.

#8 – Encourage Your Tenants to Create a Roommate Agreement

Roommates can be a complicated situation but one thing that will make it less complicated for you is by encouraging your tenants to create a roommate agreement that establishes who is responsible for paying what including the following:

• Cost of rent that’s to be paid by each tenants.
• Utility costs.
• Maintenance responsibilities like repairs, cleaning and yard maintenance.
• Guest rules and how long they can stay.
• Parties and or gatherings.
• Quiet times.
• Parking rules / regulations.
• The process that should be followed when either Portland Oregon Roommate breaks the rent.

Although some courts may disregard provisions in a roommate agreement, they often pay close attention to any monetary issues that are listed in the agreement so encouraging your tenants to create and sign a roommate agreement is a smart thing to do.

Learn More about How to Rent To Portland Oregon Roommates

For more information about how to rent to Portland Oregon Roommates, or for professional Portland Oregon Property Management contact Property Management Systems today by calling us at (503) 515-3170 or click here to connect with us online.