There are many aspects of renting a residential property, which can be divided into three stages of a tenancy. The first stage is tenant placement, the second stage is during the tenancy and the third stage is the ending of the tenancy. Each stage has unique and different aspects to the process of renting your property. All three stages are important to having a positive experience with tenants. 

Tenant placement is the stage where you make a decision on who will rent your property. It is very important to take the time required to make an informed decision. Performing credit, employment or personal reference checks is valuable to ensure the person renting is a suitable occupant for your property. Placing a tenant without reviewing the applicants information and background to the best of your ability often results in a negative tenancy experience.        

After placing the tenant many landlords feel they have a positive tenancy when tenants are paying rent each month. As we are seeing today more than ever tenant situations may change after the tenancy has started. In British Columbia landlords have the right to access their rental unit during the tenancy (with proper notice) and should take advantage of this opportunity to visit the property and review to ensure their tenant continues to maintain the property throughout the tenancy. 

Ending a tenancy has many different steps and often provides the most conflict between a tenant and landlord. Conflict usually arises over the move out condition inspection report as tenants and landlords often have different opinions of the condition of the property at the end of the tenancy. A condition inspection report is performed twice during the tenancy, once at the beginning and once at the end. Performing a successful condition report at the end is dependent on performing a thorough report at the beginning of the tenancy. Reporting the proper condition of the rental unit in the beginning eliminates conflict when the tenancy ends. What many landlords don’t understand is that if the tenant and landlord are unable to agree on the condition at the end of the tenancy this creates more work for landlords and possibly more costs in ending the tenancy. 

We will explore each stage in more depth in a future communication. 

During current emergency conditions of Covid-19 all of these stages have additional restrictions and need to be adhered to ensuring safety for tenants and landlords.