In MA you may NOT discriminate based on receipt of public assistance, including Section-8 housing subsidies.
See
MGL 151B, §4(10)
http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/151b-4.htm
The worst is a tenant who know their rights and knows how to unscrupulously abuse them.
On the tenant side, however, when I was a tenant, I got dinged with a late fee every time I was one day late with rent. Then, I moved out and the landlord was late with the security deposit refund. He basically said he was late because he was busy with something else. I wished the rental agreement had a late fee for the damn landlord.
It woulld also be nice for a tenant to have something to the effect that certain probelms will be fixed within 2 weeks or the landlord will suffer a late fee.
I’m sure that’s right, but I once had an app from a state-subsidized tenant (California) and I checked into it a bit. One nice thing is that the rent is always paid on time, as the state deposits it in your account regular-like.
These are two pieces of direct legal advice. The first might or might not be illegal in the OP’s jurisdiction–many jurisdictions limit the amount a landlord may require as a security deposit; most that do prohibit attempts to disguise the deposit as a “fee.” To make it more complicated, some municipalities regulate security deposits by ordinance.
The second has shown to be really terrible advice in the OP’s jurisdiction, perhaps subjecting the landlord to a discrimination lawsuit.
Let’s keep the advice general, mkay?
Gfactor
Moderator
Our property managers give you between 10 and 13 minutes to show up for the appointment.
We are not allowed to charge a fee to process applications, but the people processing them (er… me) can look at applications and make a pretty good guess as to which ones get processed and on the property manager’s desk first.
Applicants will have their friends pretend to be landlords, but you can usually suss that out with a bit of experience, and by throwing some “landlord to landlord” questions at them which usually cause much stammering and ending of phone calls.
Get a credit check.
Yes, spell everything out in the tenancy agreement. Ours is four, small-print, double-sided pages, with an addendum tailored to the type of property being rented.
Do inspections.
If you’re renting a portion of your house, i.e. you’re going to be living there, too, please be very careful about who you let share your living quarters with.
Learn your state/province’s residential tenancy laws, and stay within them. If the tenant takes you to arbitration or court, you want to be on the right side of the law.
Property management is never, ever boring.
You cannot reject a tenant and say “I’m not taking you because you are on Section 8.” However, you can say “I’m taking another applicant because of their better credit/better job history/ better whatever.”
While there is a limit to the amount of security you can collect, it is legal in most places to collect some of the rent up front for the last months’ of the lease. You can collect two month’s and say it is for the last two months of the lease.
Check with your local statutes before you rent anything.
Thanks all for the continuing input. I spent most of yesterday going over what resources I could find online, including legal tactics (which they actually let you download - the 2003 version).
I’ve also been looking at some of the other resources from the link from my first post. (Had to go get a law library card for those; well worth it.) SO I know have a decent set of language to pull together into a lease agreement.
Has anyone hired an atty. to go over your lease? Did you do so before renting for the first time? Periodically? How did you find said atty.?
(Oh, and I’ve found out that in Mass, I would only be able to charge a total of 1st month, last month, and a one-month-equivalent security deposit. No processing fees. The last month and security deposit need to earn interest - which goes back to the tenant when they’re out - plus, of course, the amount of the security deposit they get back, which has to be stored in a bank in a separate account. Nice and easy, right?)
It will all be nice and easy until it isn’t. Then you’ll find out if you want to continue being a landlord or not. 
It really depends on the jurisdiction. For example, in New Jersey, where Annie is from, last month’s rent collected in advance counts as part of the maximum security deposit.
http://www.njlawnet.com/njlawreview/landlordtenant101.html And see, e.g., Chatterjee v. Iero, 380 N.J. Super. 46; 880 A.2d 496; 2005 N.J. Super. LEXIS 265 (2005) (“Clearly, the title to the statute using the word “Limitation” demonstrates that the Legislature was seeking to limit or cap the amount of security that a residential landlord could extract from a tenant to secure performance of the lease agreement.”)
So in New Jersey, you could not charge the last two month’s rent in advance.
Some other states have similar restrictions. Security Deposit - RentLaw.com
Many also require the return of up front payments as security deposits even if they are called “last month’s rent.” That means they get refunded when the tenant leaves, and are subject to rules on interest payments and bank account deposits.
E.g.,
As a tenant, I never did, but I sure read the lease thoroughly. Had I needed a lawyer to read it to me or interpret it for me, I certainly would have got one.
If you’re the landlord, I would certainly advise you to get a lawyer to go over the lease you plan to use. IANAL, and I am not in your jurisdiction, but I do know about the common-law principle known as the contra proferentum principle, which might exist in your jurisdiction. This principle basically states that any ambiguities in the contract (and a lease is a contract) will be interpreted in favour of the party who did not draft the contract. In other words, if you draft the contract, any ambiguities will be interpreted in favour of your tenant. So you don’t want any ambiguities in there at all. Get a lawyer to help you make sure that there are none. Besides, getting a lawyer will also make sure that the terms and conditions of the lease are in accordance with local law.
The lawyer may already have a good lease in his files that can be simply printed up for a fee instead of having the lawyer review and revise your document.
OR
If you get a practice guide from your own law library, there may be a good lease form in the book (free).
I am not a landlord, I am a long-time renter (over 20 years)
Let me say that any person you’d want as a tenant can easily agree to all of the above. In fact, I want this stuff in writing just as much as the landlord does. A well written lease can protect BOTH parties. I want to live in a building with other responsible people, not a bunch of deadbeats and troublemakers. Good policies will result in good tenants and stable situations, which is what you want.
Ugh!
I once had a job doing post-move out clean ups. That’s a conservative depth of poo! It’s not just renters… I’ve seen this with people who owned their homes, too. {{{shudder}}}
That said - I’ve had pets most of my life. I have never had a problem signing a legal document stating that I would assume responsibility for any and all damage caused by my pets. And I have ponied up for that, too - replaced carpets, window shades/drapes, chewed moldings… I don’t wait for the landlord to say something, I just do it. That has surprised more than one landlord (Hey - you bought new window shades?) Again, a responsible tenant will NOT have a problem putting this into writing. A legal document gives you recourse if they fail to live up to their promise.
Of course, it’s up to you whether to allow pets or not and under what conditions. Some landlords allow anything. Some will allow, say, fish and nothing else.
My only other advice is what I give to anyone starting a business - develop a relationship with a good lawyer with expertise in your area of business. A good lawyer will help you avoid problems and stay out of court.
School is never out when you are a landlord. If you learn nothing else, learn this. You are never going to be savy enough that there isn’t more to learn.
I was a landlord in a university town for over 15 yrs. Here’s a few things I learned.
Make sure you are honest and direct about your expectations. If you don’t want them having big parties, late night noise, garbage issues, then say so, directly to them, in loud pear shaped tones, do not be discreet. Tell them you are just being honest, and if these things don’t mesh with their lifestyle then you’d encourage them to keep looking.
Make sure your leases are in english, plain english. I always asked anyone about to sign, have you read the lease? If not, I made them do it right then in front of me.
Never forget, the most pull you have over them is before you’ve agreed to rent to them. Spell out the rules governing garbage management, bike storage, parking, late payment fees, any restrictions, etc in a document (once they’ve rented) that, again, they must read and initial (give them a copy).
I did have a couple of tricks I used that I found extremely helpful to me, that someone more experienced kindly taught me.
The magic question when checking references was; (after a couple of easy ones, How long have you known so and so?, Do you know him to be of good character?, etc.) “Have you ever known him to not fulfill a financial obligation?” The answer isn’t as telling, (his friend could lie!), as the pause and response time.
I always included an addendum in my leases that specified ‘No roof access’ (once the weather turns in the spring the students seem to all go out onto the roof to sunbathe and drink, yeah, not what I want to see!). I also included, “sublet subject to the landlords approval” otherwise you could end up with complete strangers subletting off of tenants who have moved out.
There is an advantage to not having a lease, or a monthly lease. Either party can end the tenancy with 60 days written notice. It may look like all disadvantage to the landlord, but tenants who know they could be put out in sixty days tend to behave a little better.
This was my very favorite tactic by far though. Inflate the price of the unit and then make it known to prospective renters you’d be willing to drop the rent 50-75$ a month if you were sure you’d have tenants who are no bother. You should be able to spot the ones who sincerely communicate that they are stellar tenants. This keeps them from complaining about every tiny little thing, and really encourages good and decent behaviour in tenants. They will feel obligated to be neighbourly as they are already enjoying a discount.
I can’t remember anything else right now, if I do I’ll come back and post more.
Good luck to you!
It looks like this site has a lot of useful information. For example, from the particular page I linked, down at the bottom, you can bring up a PDF of a sample rental agreement (i.e., lease).
Don’t forget that rental income has a separate schedule (usually E) for IRS-type purposes.
You’re not? I thought you were?
I guess I was lucky when I moved to the US from New Zealand and needed to rent an apartment. The landlord wouldn’t have been able to do any meaningful background or credit check because there is no easy way (or motivation) to do that internationally and privacy laws back home probably would have prevented it anyway. I owned a house in NZ so there was no former landlord to consult. I was self employed in NZ so there was no employer. I didn’t have a US drivers license.
It was a medium size town, not a city, and the landlord was a local couple. It probably helped that I showed up with my local friend but they didn’t know each other. I’m pretty sure that they had other applicants because rentals are in demand in this town. They called me the next day with the good news. I said I wasn’t comfortable committing for a year so they allowed me to do monthly. I actually ended up staying more than two years.
It makes me wonder how someone in my situation would have ever rented anything in a bigger city or a landlord who just followed the usual rules. I also wonder what the other applicants must have been like.
A bit OT but I really wasn’t expecting the annual lease thing. I wonder if that’s a US thing or it’s just that NZ is unusual. Nearly all rentals in NZ are on a month’s notice from either party. Rent is usually specified per week. It just seems a more relaxed situation for all.
THe Q&A link on this page has lots of interesting posts about legal issues, etc, that landlords encounter. Oh, and horror stories…
We have SFH rentals, and we have learned things over the years we’ve lurked there that have saved us from some expensive mistakes. We still have problem tenants from time to time, but we’ve wised up a lot from reading the posts of old, seasoned landlords.
One thing that I don’t think has been mentioned here is the lead disclosure form you need if your rental is from before 1978. We make certain that our tenants get the pamphlet and sign the disclosure when we do the rental agreement. I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. Check with the local housing authority for the correct pamphlet, etc, for your needs. You might be able to get pamphlets from them for your tenants. If not, you can readily get one in PDF form online.
Annie Xmas’s advice is dead-on. Check the phone book. Seriously. We weed out a lot of fake “landlords” that way. After further digging, we often learn the prospective tenant is a late-payer, evictee, or a general P.I.T.A. with messes and pet poop in thier wake. After cleaning a basement that was flooded during a heavy rainfall because the drain was plugged by several inches of dog feces, we are very, very careful to double and triple-check references! Ugh!
THe thought of owning a rental in MA makes me shake in my shoes. Do your homework, and you’ll be fine though. Background checks are key. Best of luck!
I’ve graduated from a recognized law school and so I have my law degree, but I am currently in that limbo between law school and passing the bar. Until I pass the bar, I cannot claim to be a lawyer. However, if all goes according to plan and to the schedule laid down by the local Law Society (aka the local Bar Association), I should pass the bar about a year from now. Still, IANALBSBOAAYFN (I Am Not A Lawyer But Should Be One About A Year From Now) is kind of unwieldy, so I’ll stick with IANAL until then.
Congratulations, and a good answer, by the way. As a jaded lawyer who’s done both drafting and litigation, let me just point out that the goal of ambiguity-free drafting is close to impossible to achieve. Nevertheless, you’ve got to try. And an experienced attorney will know which areas present the most risks.
Really? I see a lot of ads that say “No Section 8”. I know newspapers won’t publish ads that are considered discriminatory or illegal (“Whites only”, Christian tenant wanted", “No children” etc), but … really, I can’t turn someone down if they’ve got a Section 8 subsidy?
The reason I’m asking is because I may be leaving Cleveland soon, but I can’t sell my house - thus, gotta’ rent it out. (I’m either going to hire a property management firm, or pay my willing next door neighbors to manage the property.) It’s an inner ring suburb not far removed from a poor inner city neighborhood where practically every renter is Section 8 or gets some kind of subsidy.