Rental Property House Policies & Rules

Include rules for the upkeep of the common laundry room to avoid an untenable mess.

Some leases include house or apartment policies and rules within the body of the lease. Some include them as an attached addendum. Some don't include them at all. House rules, essentially, are standards and rules to "ensure a pleasant, safe and healthy environment for all occupants" according to Mojo Law.

Rule Location

A standard lease in fact contains many house rules: It specifies who is responsible for utilities, identifies parking spaces, prohibits inside smoking and may specify who is responsible for lawn care. As a landlord, you may feel like additional requirements are unnecessary, especially if you are renting a single-family house. But when you are renting multi-unit buildings, communal living issues may arise that warrant more specific policies. If you want to add just one or two rules that you do not expect to frequently change, you might just put them in the body of the lease. If, on the other hand, you have developed a long list of policies based on experience, and which you add to from time to time, you may want a separate document you can attach to each lease, post in the building's common areas and amend separately from the lease periodically. So long as the policies are identified and referenced in the leases, following the rules is as much a part of a tenant's responsibility as is paying the rent.

Common House Rules

Common house policies and rules include topics such as garbage location and procedures, "quiet times," storage rules for space outside the tenants' units, parking locations and procedures for guest parking, and laundry room protocols. Some house rules limit or prohibit use of the roof or common areas. Others clarify a tenant is responsible for the behavior of his guests. How specific you make the rules will depend on your prior experiences. The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board of New York City includes the following prohibition in its sample set of house rules: "Do not throw garbage out the windows into the yard." If you're getting tenants who do things like that, you might want to focus on improving your tenant selection process. House rules aren't going to change fundamental personal behavior.

Consider Sustainability

The concept of sustainability found a strong home in the construction industry early on. In addition to making improvements and replacements with green building materials and sustainability measures in mind, you can use the house rules to forward your efforts and do your part for the environment. Notably, most of these measures will also improve your bottom line. The website greenlivingideas.com suggests rules prohibiting abrasive cleaners, listing some by name and include green alternatives by name as well, directing tenants to report water leaks, and encouraging recycling by providing bins and removal, whether they are locally required or not.

Clarify Rules Can Be Changed

Your lease or state law will prescribe how and how often lease clauses may be changed. But to help tenants understand the nature of house rules, include a provision in the lease and on the rules list, if it is separate, that clarifies for the tenant the rules can be changed with 30 days' written notice. This way, they understand that questionable or egregious behavior will be met with a new rule and may be less likely to push the envelope when it comes to behavior harmful to the building or other tenants.

References

• "Property Management"; Walt Huber and William Pivar; 2005
• Madison Property Management: House Rules
• Consumer Property: House Rules
• Mojo Law: Lease Agreement -- Unit Rules & Regulations
• Urban Homesteading Assistance Board; Sample House Rules
• Green Living Ideas; Write Sustainable House Rules Into Your Rental Agreement; Reenita Malhotra; April 2009