Re: failure to maintain lawn - Landlord Forum thread 321577

Re: failure to maintain lawn by J (FL) on July 21, 2014 @14:59

Thanks to you both, but...if I have to take the mowing over in the future, and I end up doing some of it myself, can I just charge the average rate for my own labor (say, $30 a mow)?

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Re: failure to maintain lawn by Anonymous on July 21, 2014 @16:17	[ Reply ]

Does your lease ALREADY state that a charge of $30 per mow will be assessed as added rent if the tenant fails to mow? You really need to not leave lawn maintenance up to tenants, they are never going to do it to your specifications. Just build the cost of this into your rents, have someone do it, and be done with it. It's not worth you or the tenants being aggravated.

Re: failure to maintain lawn by J (FL) on July 21, 2014 @17:08	[ Reply ]

"You really need to not leave lawn maintenance up to tenants, they are never going to do it to your specifications. Just build the cost of this into your rents, have someone do it, and be done with it." I've only had problems with one person who didn't do it. I have tried to build it into the rents but I've found tenants aren't willing to pay what it really costs to have a lawn service do this ($100 or more extra a month in rent). Not in my area, at least.

Re: failure to maintain lawn by jannie (il) on July 21, 2014 @17:17	[ Reply ]

My experience has been mixed. With 3 rentals all lawn care done by tenant the worse is the young 20's person we have renting. The other 2 were great! One has their son do the lawn and other mows it themself. The 20 year old didn't have a clue how to operate the mower and even after showing several times -- by that time the lawn had gotten so long it was almost impossible to deal with. We had lawn maintenance included in that lease, but accepted the lower rent with no lawn care (our mistake.) Including the lawn assessment - with the amount in the lease is a good idea and I will do that. Point - not every tenant is poor at lawn maintenance, but you need leverage in some cases to keep them motivated.

Re: failure to maintain lawn by J (FL) on July 21, 2014 @17:53	[ Reply ]

Jannie that has been my experience too, must of them do a fair to good job. The lease clause I was asking about was for the few who don't.

Re: failure to maintain lawn