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Preventing pest infestations in rental properties is not necessarily an easy task. Maintaining a pest-free rental takes a lot of effort and is not always pleasant. However, if you follow the right steps, you’ll be able to keep pests out of your rental property before they have a chance to cause serious damage or scare off prospective renters.
How landlords can prevent pests in rental properties
Keep the Place Clean
Regular cleaning not only makes your space look better but it also keeps pests away from your property. For a landlord, it can be difficult to keep track of the condition of a rental on a daily basis. However, you can encourage your tenants to regularly sweep or vacuum the floors as well as clean surfaces such as shelves, tables and kitchen countertops at least once a week. Also, take particular care of indoor plants as they can potentially attract spider mites. If you or your tenant notice these tiny “creatures” on the house plants, try to use gentle insecticidal soaps to get rid of them.
With the help of responsible tenants, keeping a rental neat and clean shouldn’t be a problem.
Related: Summer Rental Checklist:Top 6 Tips How To Make Houses For Rent Ready To Move In
Seal Cracks and Holes
Sealing cracks and holes is one of the most effective ways to prevent “unwelcome guests” from entering the property. Once you identify any potential entry points, you can plug them with spray foam or concrete repair.
For rodent prevention, put a mixture of steel wool and caulk into the hole so that they aren’t able to get inside. The foundation of the building, common areas, as well as basements should also be examined carefully.
Sort Waste
Eliminating clutter inside and outside the property is possible if you practice waste management techniques and are able to encourage your renter to sort waste. For that, place disposal bins in every rental property you manage and clearly mark each bin so your tenants know exactly where to put each type of waste. This will help keep the rental clean and free of household pests.
Fix Leaky Pipes
Leaky or broken pipes in the rental property might lead to standing water outside and around or even inside the house. Standing water can attract insects, cockroaches and rodents. Therefore, fixing leaky pipes is another step towards preventing household bugs.
Don’t Leave Food on the Surfaces.
As a landlord, this is hard to monitor, but you can still ask your tenants to store food in special containers and keep it covered if it’s not put away in the fridge. Tell them it’s for their own good! I’m sure no tenant would like to get into a fight with a cockroach in the middle of the night!
Property inspections
Regular inspections should be performed at the beginning and end of each tenancy. It also makes sense to periodically conduct extra inspections to assess the condition of the rental and identify any minor maintenance issues before they turn into bigger problems.
When is it time to call a professional?
If a pest problem is out of control and you start getting tenant complaints, it’s time to reach out to professional pest control services. It’s best to act quickly before they cause real property damage.
On a side note, TenantCloud maintenance management helps to manage home repairs with ease. Maintenance requests are sent directly to the landlord with videos and pictures of issues included in the work order. This makes the process of dealing with maintenance problems more effective and less troublesome.
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