Property Management Agreement (image: c-rem.com)
Are you in searching for a valid Rental Property agreement for your California home? Are you going to develop your own Rental property agreement?
Web sites such as a LegalZoom, RoketLawyer and NoloPress offer some forms for property management, but you need to make certain that similar contract developed by California Association of Realtors has more than 55 legal clauses! So, these generic forms available off the web rarely cover all the requirements to protect you in case you end up with an uncooperative tenant. Another consideration for you is to make certain that these generic contracts from these sites might not survive a challenge in California courts.
However, if you decided to use there forms you need to make sure your final Rental Property agreement should include these 7 items:
1) Rent Collection: The terms of this section of your Rental Property agreement would define when the rent is due to the hour and the calender day of the month. This will entitle you to collect late fees if your tenant missed the rent collection deadline. Using apps like Appfolio with online payment options can eliminate the headaches of collecting rent by checks which might have hold period delaying your revenue recognition.
2) Security Deposit: Security deposits are the source of most tenant and owner disputes specially in cases where the condition of the property is not well documented prior to the tenants occupying the property. That’s why we document every rooms condition prior to the occupancy and have the tenants initial each page prior to taking possession of the property.
3) Sublease: Your Rental Lease Agreement should prohibit your tenant from subleasing your home to other tenants without explicit authorization by you and your property management company.
4) Pet Policy: Pet clause of your Rental Lease Agreement should describe if you will permit any pets. If you ask for Pet Deposit, then you will have to return the fee to your tenant if there is no pet damage. Pet Fee is another option which you can if you want a non-refundable fee to treat the property after your tenants has moved out.
5) Dispute Resolution: In this section your tenant will agree to use mediation to resolve any dispute before using California courts which would be cost prohibitive for both parties.
6) Disclosures: If you have an older home build between 1950-1970s there is serious potential that Lead based paint was used without your knowledge. Same goes for any asbestos that could have been used in your attic for insulation.
7) Drugs: You need to include a clause that you will not tolerate use and storage of any toxic and flammable chemicals that can be used in the production of meth or other drugs.
Your can review our post about the 55 items that are covered in the California Rental Lease Agreement that we utilize for the properties that we manage in San Jose, Los Gatos and Campbell. But feel free to Contact Us if you have any question about what else you will need to include in your Rental Lease Agreement to be safe.
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