When you’re renting out property in Brentwood, you may find yourself called upon to manage tenant disputes and complaints. Maybe they’re upset because their neighbors are loud or their dogs are leaving messes in the common outdoor areas.
Neighbor disputes are not necessarily common, but they can occur in multi-family properties and apartment buildings. If both neighbors are your tenants, you can easily reference the lease agreement and hold the problem tenant accountable. But, things can get complicated when your tenant is having trouble with a neighbor who isn’t also your tenant. What can you really do when you’re not managing that other property?
We’ve found that the best things to do are to listen to your tenant, look for creative solutions, and document everything.
Your Brentwood Tenants Want to be Heard
The tenant living in your property has a right to the quiet enjoyment of their home. If a neighbor is interfering with that, there will understandably be a complaint, and as the landlord, you’ll be expected to resolve it.
Prepare to listen. When your tenants come to you with a complaint about noise, pet problems, parking issues, or other problems and nuisances that they’re experiencing, they want to be heard. It’s your responsibility to let them make their complaint.
Be compassionate and empathetic. You may not know what it’s like to have a dog barking 24 hours a day, but you can agree that it’s disruptive and unfair. Ask questions when your tenant is sharing their concerns, and talk about what they’ve already done – or tried to do – to remedy the situation.
Encourage Communication
Communication is always important in resolving conflicts, and if your tenants are comfortable talking to their neighbors, you’ll want to recommend that as a first step. They should be able to have a neighborly discussion about whatever problems there are. Maybe the offending neighbor doesn’t even realize that their television is so loud.
If your tenants are too nervous about talking to the neighbors, offer to talk with those neighbors yourself. This isn’t necessarily your job, especially if those neighbors aren’t your residents, but you’re trying to provide good customer service, and you want to keep your Brentwood tenants happy. This goes a long way towards establishing trust and providing a great rental experience.
Investigate and Document the Tenant’s Complaint
There isn’t a lot you can do about a bad neighbor, but you can be responsive to your tenant. Check in to see if things are better, worse, or the same. Always document the complaint in great detail in case it needs to be escalated.
Are you renting out a property in an HOA or a condo association? If so, you can go to the association board to resolve the issue or ask them to intervene and talk to the neighbor who is causing problems. There are almost certainly rules about noise, quiet hours, and pet clean-up.
If you’re managing a dispute between two tenants of yours, you can easily reference the lease agreement and bring the offending tenant into compliance. You can also threaten eviction. But if you are only responsible for one tenant and not the other, you can only take things so far.
You want to support your tenants, and you also want to set some standards for how neighbors are expected to treat each other and your property. If you’d like some help managing tricky tenant situations, please contact us at Parks Property Management. We are prepared to deal with complaints and disputes from tenants and neighbors.