As an Orlando landlord, your goal is to keep your tenants happy. After all, happy tenants are more likely to pay rent on time. They’re more likely to take care of the property and renew their lease agreements.
When you provide a well-maintained home and you’re responsive and transparent, you’re likely to attract good tenants who are easy to work with.
However, no matter how hard you try, you will likely come up against tenants who are never happy. It’s part of investing in real estate. Difficult tenants can be big complainers. They can look for disputes and conflicts. They can escalate an otherwise simple situation.
Legally, you cannot evict someone just because they are a difficult tenant or frustrating to deal with. Instead, you have to work with them and around them.
Here are some ideas on how to handle those unfortunate residents with professionalism and ease.
Choose Your Battles Wisely
If you let them, difficult tenants will eat up all your free time. There will be frequent calls, endless emails, and ongoing text messages that are often angry, combative, and defiant.
This is a lot to deal with. It’s stressful and it can keep you from doing other things that you need to do for your property. You need to set some boundaries so those difficult tenants don’t completely drain you and keep you from doing the work you need to do on behalf of all your tenants and your properties.
Identify Frivolous Complaints and Valid Tenant Concerns
Just because a tenant complains doesn’t mean they’re difficult. Sometimes, those are complaints you need to hear and act on. In these cases, your tenants will be well within their rights to complain to you. If there’s a maintenance issue that impacts the health and safety of your tenant or the habitability of your property, you’ll have to act right away.
Tenants behaving badly may make responding to problems more difficult for you, but focus on solving the problem and resolving the issue. Don’t let your emotions or your frustrations lead you into an escalated conflict.
It’s always better to address maintenance issues right away. If you leave a repair request unanswered, you’re likely to get disruptive and rude behavior from tenants. Don’t give them a reason to be awful. Be responsive, accessible, and quick to solve problems when maintenance requests come in.
Create a Strong Orlando Lease Agreement
Having a strong lease in place will protect you.
In that lease, you should outline exactly what tenants need to do if there’s a maintenance issue, an emergency, or a general complaint. If your tenants are upset about something, you can direct them to the lease agreement for back-up. Maybe they’re mad that they can’t have a restricted breed of dog or they’re insisting that they were never told there’d be an annual inspection. You can use the lease agreement to reinforce expectations and responsibilities.
Avoid Difficult Tenants by Working With an Orlando Property Management Company
Your worst tenants are likely to be constant complainers. They’ll be persistent in their communications, and the more you ignore them, the more aggressive they’ll become. You can expect them to document every grievance and ultimately turn into a real problem for Orlando landlords.
Professional property managers have encountered such tenants before.
There are many ways that a management company can deal with aggressive, angry tenants. And, you won’t have to be involved. You can expect your property manager to have a strong lease in place that protects you.
We know how to deal with difficult tenants because we’ve done it before. We also know how to screen carefully to avoid the worst that the tenant pool has to offer.
If you’d like to hear more, please contact us at Park Avenue Property Management. We work in Lake Buena Vista, Orlando, Kissimmee, Celebration, Maitland, Altamonte Springs, West Palm Beach, Tampa Bay, and throughout central Florida.