A.D. Cantelmo Property Management
Our Business is Property Management in Orange County California
When filling out a Lease, know who belongs in the property.
So often when Landlords fill out a Lease, they are less then
specific and some things are not covered and that is a mistake.
When I fill out a Lease, I use the California Association of
Realtors (CAR) Lease. It has been created by Lawyers who are experts in
Landlord Tenant law. I never change the wording of the Lease, but there are area’s
in the lease that need to be filled out. These blank spaces are PROPERTY SPECIFIC and each Landlord will have different reasons for the way they fill them out.
Example
For example, on the CAR form it has a section at the top
that allows a Landlord to name the people, who should be using the property.
#1 B say’s “The premises are for the sole use as a personal
residence by the following named person(s) only”. This is a very important
section of the Lease and the people who are named in this section should be the
only people who are living in the property.
For the Landlords Protection
This section of the Lease protects the Landlord from a
Tenant bringing in other people that have not been screened to live in the
property. Many Landlords may think that just because they have the people who
are renting the property on the top of the Lease, they are safe, but that is not
true. The people at the top of the Lease are the responsible party(s), but the
people who are actually designated to live in the property, must be Named and
the specific amount of children need to be specified. Once you put these names
in the Lease, you will know who will be using the property on a daily basis.
Now that does not mean that visitors can’t come to the property, but those
visitors cannot move in.
Pets
Another important section that deals with use of the
Property is section #13 and that deals with pets. If a Landlord allows Pets,
then the specific number of pets and the type of pets that are allowed and the
breed of pets to be in the property is very important. As a Landlord, you need
to be cognizant of what type of pets and the number of pets for insurance
purposes. You don’t want to find that after the Tenants move in, they have
turned the property into a Zoo. I recently had the experience in one of the
properties that I manage, where I was doing the semiannual smoke detector check
and I found a couple of extra dogs in cages inside the home. The lease called
for 2 specific breed dogs, so I had to have them get rid of the other dogs. If
I did not specify the amount and the breed, it could have been much more difficult
to have the dogs removed.
These are two examples of area’s in the Lease that need to
be filled out accurately. If these area’s are left blank or not accurate, then
a Landlord is leaving themselves open for problems down the road.
A.D. Cantelmo Property
Management Specializes in Property Management in Orange County
Ca.