As a rental property owner in West Valley City, you fathom that your tenants oftentimes maintain real trepidations about their personal safety. As new tenants go into a rental home, they may advance inquiries about changing the locks to secure that prior tenants or other individuals with keys to the property will, by no means, be able to come in the residence. In a small number of places, local laws do not entail a landlord to change the locks between tenants, and particular property owners may suppose that category of disbursement is not needed.
If the tenant asks, are you required to change or re-key the locks?
The clear rejoinder is no, you are maybe not commanded by law to change the locks upon request. But it is salient to consider the eventual outcomes of being negligent to do so.
As the property owner, you are reliable for endowing your West Valley City tenants with the techniques to make safe the home. When tenants sign a lease, you impart them with keys, garage door openers, or passcodes to extend them admission to the property together with presenting them the way to guarantee the safety of the property, too. Tenants have an inclination to make different copies of their keys for family members or even neighbors, and when they move on from a rental home they may not, in any case, be conscientious to gather up and destroy these copies well.
If you don’t change or re-key the locks, and someone comes by unauthorized means of entry to the residence, you could face a trial and be held reliable for damages. Mainly in cases of domestic abuse, divorce, or family issues, or even if an ex-roommate is a concern, changing the locks between tenants is a critical step in shielding yourself from legal liability.
It goes without saying, the locks are only one segment of a rental home’s system. Garage door openers, keypads, and other access devices are also potentially high risks. Tenants may extend entry codes to babysitters, repairmen, or others who entail entrance to the home when they are somewhere else. Conscientious management of passcodes, remote controls, and so on should be an item of your property management strategy, along with changing codes or replacing remote controls as asked for to help make sure the safety of your tenants.
At Real Property Management Wasatch, we would like to check that the only people who have entry to your rental properties are your tenants. As a consequence, we embrace lock changes between tenants as a focal part of our property management services. Our practice is developed to keep you and your properties safe with the best practices of the industry. Please contact us online or call us at 801-418-9835 to hear more.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
