Renting out a room in your house sounds like some easy extra income. And it can be fairly easy, if you take the right precautions.
We had someone call us recently. They were a landlord who advertised a room for rent on craigslist. They signed up a tenant, with no background check. Their first mistake.
They took a security deposit, but never created a written lease. Their second mistake.
Four months later, the tenant is destroying the property and the landlord of course wants them out of their home. And they want them out today.
If you do not have a written lease, you have to give your renter up to 60 days’ notice before even beginning the eviction process. 60 days can be way too long for a destructive renter to reside in your home.
So the landlord will need to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in legal fees to evict the tenant due to their poor planning.
To avoid this nightmare of a situation, when renting property to someone, always:
1) Complete a background check of prospective tenants
2) Obtain a written lease and security deposit
3) Register the property with the Maryland Rental Property Registration (if applicable)
4) In addition, consider hiring an experienced property manager like our client, Flagship Rental & Property Management to handle the day-to-day operations like collecting rents, managing repair orders, and handling evictions when necessary.