As a property owner in Madison, you’ll have moments when you butt heads with a tenant. Tenant resource centers provide services to both landlords and tenants to help navigate the rental relationship. They’re largely information hubs to turn to for knowledge of mutual rights and responsibilities. Though tenant resource centers work to protect tenants from dubious fees and responsibilities, their loyalty lies with the law.
That being said, the majority of tenant resource centers are exactly that: resources for tenants. These organizations work to provide emergency funding, housing lists, attorney references, and essentially everything to prevent eviction and homelessness. They educate tenants in what legal living conditions they’re entitled to, like levels of cleanliness and safety that are up to code with local ordinance. This includes what a tenant should look for in a property walk-through to determine your trustworthiness as a landlord. Generally, tenant resource centers also lay out how to proceed if your property falls short of those living conditions before, during, and after the leasing contract.
Madison’s Tenant Resource Center lists samples of legally binding documents, including tenant forms for subleasing, termination, and retaliation. It also hosts sample letters for tenants to use to notify you of their complaints about your property. All forms have the potential to help both tenants and property owners perform due diligence, be held accountable, and maintain evidential proof of notices and disputes via a paper trail. In other words, tenant resource centers help keep things tidy.
Tenant resource centers provide free materials so that each side knows their rights for their respective roles. That means they’re simultaneously securing your interests: they provide access to the standards that tenants must meet to rent the average property, such as a decent credit report; by pointing out what disclosures to look for in a renting contract, they’re acknowledging where you have the right to exercise power; and by advising tenants to report everything from roommates to repairs, tenant resource centers keep property owners from being caught off guard.
Tenant resource centers also offer training to help property owners, caseworkers, and other professionals in the rental industry to brush up on Wisconsin renting laws, statutes, and ordinances. Their interests are in arming tenants with the knowledge to uphold fair, equitable renting relationships. But it isn’t always the case that renters act fairly and equitably.
Even when you know your lease agreements and when to enforce them, it can be intimidating or exhausting to actually get a tenant to comply. Property management companies, like RPM Great Madison Metro, act on behalf of property owners to lift that burden. Not only do you get a team of experts with insight into how to navigate tenant relationships, but property managers work specifically to protect you and your property. They not only know the law, but use it to handle all screening, monetary collection, and tenants who have violated lease terms.
For property owners in the Madison area, Real Property Management Great Madison Metro will take on your responsibilities for the ins and outs of rental housing law. Not only can we advise you about the legality surrounding a tenant situation, but we’ll also handle all tenant communication and resulting paperwork. Contact us today to discuss how you and your property can benefit from having us in your corner.
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.