In a perfect world, tenants stay in your rental property and take good care of everything. When it’s time for them to leave, they wave a metaphorical goodbye and your home is ready to rent out again. You can advertise the vacant place weeks in advance, leading to a seamless transition between old and new tenants, and minimising any empty property time.
An empty property is bad for your investment as it means you’re not generating any rental income. Unfortunately, the ideal scenario above doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the worst-case scenario unfolds: a tenant trashes your property, leaving it in a mess. What can you do at this moment to cut your losses and start generating money once more?
Reserve your right to withhold their deposit
When a tenant moves into your rental property, they’ll pay a deposit. This is a security deposit used to guarantee they’ll keep the place in good condition. By law, you’re allowed to take money from it or keep the entire deposit if a tenant doesn’t return the property in a similar state to when they moved in.
Any money you retain from the deposit can be used to cover the cost of repairs or cleaning. Immediately, this is a clever way to cut your losses and ensure your tenant doesn’t make you waste lots of money.
Refresh your property
With the bad tenant out of the way, you need to refresh your property. At the basic level, this begins with removing any rubbish and giving it a deep clean. It’s worth looking into skip hire as you can toss everything out into the trash and get it collected by the skip company. Hiring some cleaners will also help you transform the property into a fresh and inviting place once more.
Depending on how badly the property was trashed, you may want to look into some rental property upgrades. This could involve new furniture, new home decor, new appliances or many other things. It ensures your home looks more inviting and there are no signs of it being poorly looked after. This way, more tenants will be interested in the future.
Advertise the property ASAP
Work quickly when refreshing the property so it can be put back on the rental market ASAP. The fewer days spent without a tenant, the better. Be sure to advertise through all the normal routes and consider paying for adverts on some lettings sites.
Also, use a proper tenancy vetting process this time. You’ll end up losing more money if the same thing happens again because you picked the wrong tenant. A vetting process helps you single out the most reliable tenants, so there’s no chance your home gets trashed again. It’ll mean you bounce back and keep your property occupied for a long time.
You have to realise that you will lose a bit of money when a tenant trashes your property. You get to reclaim as much as possible from the security deposit, but you can’t afford to waste time. Act fast to renovate the property and get it in excellent condition, so you can advertise it far and wide. Cutting your losses is essential to ensure you can start making more money from this investment in the future.
