Making sure your tenants’ New Year’s Eve celebrations don’t become unruly affairs that increase the risk of damage and liability can be challenging. As an illustration, think about how many people are allowed to join a party on your property; how many would be too many? Should you or can you even legally restrict your tenants from serving alcoholic beverages? Suppose your tenants want to celebrate traditionally by setting off fireworks or noisemakers at midnight?
These issues (and more) can all attended to in your lease documents. The wording in your lease should explicitly define how many people are allowed on the property at any given moment, with larger numbers needing specific permission from the property owner. The specific number can vary, but “no more than 10 for fewer than four hours” is a popular option.
While you can’t lawfully prevent alcohol consumption on your premises, you can incorporate specific language in your lease that addresses illegal activities. This will make your intentions toward your renters clear, but you also need to write down the specific consequences of allowing such type of activity on your rental property in Milwaukee. You could also consider prohibiting overly huge groups of people, extremely loud noise, or a large number of vehicles. Fireworks should be not be permitted at all of your rental homes, and you probably need to write a specific section that tackles specific holiday-related activities (such as music played at excessive volumes or the use of noisemakers) that would cause a public nuisance for everybody in the neighborhood.
Another option is to see to it that your tenants purchase their own renter’s insurance that includes renters legal liability. Because, if there happens to be a large party on your property, the risk for damage and injury increases considerably. If damage or injury does happen, you could be considered responsible unless your tenants have their own insurance coverage.
Finally, protecting your rental homes requires that you are diligent in enforcing the terms of the lease agreement. If a party gets too rowdy and loud, destructive, or illegal activity is taking place, it’s critical to act quickly and firmly to hold your renters accountable.
The good news is that there is help available for you so you wouldn’t have to do all of this on your own. At Real Property Management Greater Milwaukee, we will ensure that your lease documents include specific and binding language while monitoring activity, watching for those things that may not comply. If you want to know more about what we can do to serve you, don’t hesitate to contact us online or call us at 262-309-6961.