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If you are a landlord and you signed your name on a landlord-tenant agreement you are officially bound to carry out your responsibilities and follow the rules as stated in the Residential Tenancies Act. Failure to abide by the said rules will automatically constitute an offence which can cause you to pay a fine or lose tenants, among others.
Being a landlord does not mean you are the boss. While you may own or manage the property being rented out, you are in a way in charge of ensuring the safety, comfort, and well-being of your tenants.
While your tenants also have their own set of responsibilities and accountabilities, your actions and performance of duties should not be dependent on the compliance of the former. Just because you have tenants who pay late at times will never justify your increasing rent without notice or being negligent of repairs under your care.
One of the basic ways to show that you are taking your job seriously is by ensuring that you acquire various landlord forms that are compliant with Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Legislation. There are many benefits to securing standard copies of various landlord forms especially if you are merely starting your property business. These benefits include the following:
• Aids in facilitating communication more efficiently
Imagine if you only communicate to your tenants verbally or through phone or haphazardly written notes, it would be chaotic. This method will be open to miscommunication and misinterpretation. If you only talk with your client regarding rent increases or other important agreements it would be hard to implement them and may also be a potential cause of legal action later on.
By having standard forms everything would be documented which means that nothing is left to chance; everything is clear and can be looked up again whenever there is a need to. If you have tenants in Sherwood Park and other locales, all of them will be advised the same way.
Moreover, it will help you to have a better relationship with your tenants because having official forms and notices imply that you mean business and you are objective and fair.
• Helps you manage your business more effectively
A professionally managed business needs to abide by certain standards and having forms that are accurate and regulation-compliant is a good way to help the business be more efficient and effective. Moreover, regardless of who takes over the business, the forms and standards will ensure a smooth transition and transfer of authority.
• Helps in improving accuracy and credibility
Having standardized landlord forms will help landlords in being more accurate and credible in their business. Having standard forms that are compliant with existing laws and rules will help landlords from St. Albert, Edmonton, Sherwood Park, Red Deer, Fort Saskatchewan, and other places in Alberta, Canada to run their businesses more efficiently.
Moreover, information would be passed on without misinterpretation or inaccuracy from the landlord to the tenants, regardless of the number.
• Sets certain standards
By using standard forms your tenants can readily get accustomed to them. This will help them to readily identify fake documents if ever there are spammers or other people who have illegal intentions. It will also help them not to deal with fraudulent transactions that are using your landlord-tenant relationship as leverage.
The items above are just some of the advantages of having standardized landlord forms. Managing tenants are difficult enough and without these kinds of forms that serve as a guide among landlords like you, the ordeal would be much harder.
The next time you try “saving” money by not acquiring standard landlord forms, go through the benefits again so that you would be reminded of what you are missing and your real loss.