Landlord: Duties, Responsibilities, and Rights

What Is a Landlord?

A landlord is someone who owns and rents real estate. Landlords can be individuals, businesses, or other entities. Landlords typically provide the necessary maintenance or repairs during the rental period. Specific duties and obligations are normally outlined in a lease agreement.

What Landlords Do

As noted above, a landlord is anyone who owns property and rents it out to someone else. This party is called the tenant. Landlords invest in real estate as a source of profit. By owning property and leasing it out, a landlord can earn a steady stream of income along with the potential for appreciation of their properties.

Landlords may be individuals, businesses, or other entities, such as government agencies. Similarly, the types of properties they own can also vary. That means that the types of properties they own aren't limited to just homes. In addition to single-family residences, their real estate portfolios may include:

• Multi-family residential dwellings, such as multi-family homes, apartment buildings, and condominiums
• Land and empty lots
• Vacation properties, such as cottages and villas
• Commercial properties, such as standalone business properties, shopping malls, office buildings, or mixed-use buildings

Landlords typically use leases when they rent out their assets. A lease is a legally binding contract that outlines the terms under which one party agrees to rent property from another. It guarantees the lessee (the tenant) the use of an asset and guarantees that the lessor (the property owner or landlord) is entitled to regular payments for a specified period in exchange.

Landlord Rights and Responsibilities

Landlords have specific rights and responsibilities that vary from state to state. There are also general laws that are common to all states.

Landlords have the right to collect rent as well as any prearranged late fees. They also have the right to raise the rent as defined in the tenant-landlord lease agreement. When tenants do not pay rent, landlords have the right to evict them. The process of eviction varies from state to state. Most states provide landlords with the ability to collect back rent as well as legal costs.

Landlords are responsible for maintaining their rental properties and keeping them in habitable condition. They must ensure that properties are clean and empty when new tenants move in. In addition, landlords must follow all local building codes, perform prompt repairs, and keep all vital services, including plumbing, electricity, and heat, in working order.

Landlords are also responsible for managing security deposits. While landlords have the right to charge tenants a security deposit to cover property damage and unpaid rent, the deposit doesn't belong to the landlord. The laws governing security deposits vary from state to state.

Types of Landlords

Landlords may be individuals, corporations, or other entities, such as government agencies.

Individuals may own one or more properties and rent them out to supplement their incomes or as a way to diversify their investment portfolios. For instance, a middle-aged couple may decide to purchase a second home and rent it out as a way to increase their monthly income. Keeping the property rented out during retirement can help these individuals supplement any money they receive from Social Security benefits or their investments.

Other landlords, such as corporations, may be in the business of purchasing properties for the express purpose of renting them out. For example, a real estate corporation may purchase office buildings and rent them out to different businesses for monthly rent.

Municipal governments, especially those in large cities, often own housing corporations. These agencies own, rent out, manage, and maintain affordable or subsidized housing rentals to those in need. Rental payments are commonly determined based on a tenant's income for these dwellings.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Being a Landlord

There are advantages and disadvantages to becoming a landlord.

On the pro side, most costs associated with rental properties are tax-deductible. If there is no net profit after expenses, rental income is essentially un-taxed income. As the rental property mortgage is paid down, landlords increase their ownership percentage of their property and gain access to the appreciation of value.

However, when a landlord sells a property, they will pay taxes on any capital gains unless they roll over the money into another rental property. This process called a 1031 exchange, and it has specific requirements. The new property must be identified within 45 days of the sale, and the full transfer must take place within 180 days.

Limits on a Landlord's Rights

There are four main things landlords aren't allowed to do:

Discriminate: The Fair Housing Act strictly forbids landlords from denying a lease to someone based on their race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, familial status, disability, or gender.

Enter without proper notice: Unless it's for an emergency situation, landlords must give proper notice before entering a property. Laws vary by state, but many statutes require at least 24 hours' notice.

Evict tenants improperly: A landlord may evict a tenant, but they must always go through the proper legal channels. Failure to follow proper protocol may put the landlord in a precarious legal position.

Raise rents without notice: Landlords must give ample notice before increasing a tenant's rent (typically a minimum of 30 days). And depending on the state, rent control laws might prevent landlords from raising rents above a certain limit, even when the lease is up for renewal.

The Bottom Line

Landlords have specific duties, responsibilities, and rights. Some of them vary by state, but some are common to all states. They all should be outlined in the lease agreement. This legal contract states the rent the tenant must pay and for how long. It also stipulates the duties and responsibilities of both landlords and tenants and the consequences of a breach.