Private Landlords - What Are Your Main Landlord Responsibilities?

There are many landlord responsibilities when letting a property to tenants. The primary responsibilities can be separated into two basic categories:

1. responsibilities related to the property being rented out;
2. responsibilities to the tenant who is renting the property.

Property Related Landlord Responsibilities

Firstly the property being let has to comply with all the building and home codes where the property is located. Before the tenant moves into the property, landlords must ensure it is clean, safe and habitable.

Landlords are fully responsible for maintaining all appliances that are included in the lease agreement, for the functional supply of utilities such as water heaters, heating and if applicable air-conditioning.

The tenant is normally responsible for the utility usage costs in a single family residence not part of a complex owned by the private landlord.

The landlord must fix anything in the property owned by the landlord that breaks or malfunctions that affects the safety of the tenant or makes the residence unfit or uninhabitable, in a timely manner.

Where the residence is part of a complex fully owned by the private landlord such as an apartment building the private landlord has additional responsibilities for keeping common areas clean and safe.

In an apartment building owned by the landlord, the landlord responsibilities include making sure that every tenant has clean running water at all times, hot water, and adequate heat from the first of October to the beginning of May except where the tenant has full and independent control of such utilities.

Where appliances owned by the private landlord require maintenance, if any of these appliances are in the tenant's residence, the landlord has to give reasonable notice to the tenant that they are going to be coming in to do repairs.

The private landlord can't just open the door any time they feel like it, and in many cases, unless it is an emergency, has to give a minimum of 24 hours notice.

Tenant Related Landlord Responsibilities

Landlords are responsible for finding and selecting their tenants and making an agreement with the tenant for the tenant's use of the landlord's property.

The landlord responsibilities to the tenant include setting the rent, frequency of payment and rent collection. The landlord has the option to charge a security deposit but this may not exceed one month's rent unless permitted by the laws in the state in which the property is located.

For example if the rent is $600 a month, the private landlord can only charge a total of $600 in deposit. This is inclusive of any pet deposit if the landlord allows pets on the property.

When the tenant has signed the rental or lease agreement, paid the deposit and the rent as required in the agreement, the landlord is responsible for providing the tenant immediate access to the property. At this point the property becomes the tenant's home and the landlord is not entitled to enter the property without reasonable notice.

When the tenant moves out the private landlord has fourteen days to return the deposit. If there was any un-repaired damage to the property beyond normal wear and tear during the period of the lease, or if the residence was not left in a clean condition as stated in the lease, the private landlord may deduct costs of necessary repairs and or cleaning from the security deposit.

All such deductions must be itemized and a receipt must be given to the tenant.

These are just a few of the landlord's responsibilities. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act has a complete list of the responsibilities of the landlord, and is revised and updated on a regular basis. You can download the complete URLTA from the internet.

The URLTA is the base for all residential letting but each state may have its own individual laws and there may also be local laws that apply to the landlord for the letting of residential property.

To fully understand your landlord responsibilities you need to check federal, state and local laws.

Landlord responsibilities is a big subject and there is far more to know than we were able to cover here, for more practical information visit our website http://hubpages.com/hub/Private-Landlord-Responsibilities