End of Year Safety Tips

As we close the books on 2009, here are some tips to keep your rental properties in excellent condition and your tenants safe:

While it’s not cold everywhere in the winter, frozen pipes are not unknown to even Florida landlords. So if you know freezing temperatures are in store, check your pipes! Call your tenants and hark back them to leave a modest water dripping and the under sink cabinet doors open.

If your tenants celebrate the holidays with indoor plants and peripheral illumination, it’s a excellent thought to stop by and check that overloaded circuits are not a concern. Too many house and apartment fires are started by Christmas plants. Your rental agreement should clearly disorder what holiday lighting is allowable—but a private inspection is also a very excellent thought.

Make sure your tenants are not using interval heaters improperly—if at all. Portable and fixed interval heaters are associated with nearly 22,000 residential fires all year in the U.S., with approximately 300 deaths. They should not be used to warm beds, dry clothing, thaw pipes, or cook food. They can be perilous, and should be avoided. If heating systems function properly in your rental units, there should be no need for interval heaters.

If you allow smoking in your rentals, this is a excellent time to hark back tenants of proper disposal of smoking materials. No smoking in bed; no placing cigarettes on counters or windowsills. Encourage tenants to extinguish cigarettes under running tap water.

Check your insurance coverage for water hurt and give somebody their cards. In fact, the end of the year is a excellent time to schedule time with your insurance broker or sales representative to review all of your coverage. You do not want to find out you’re underinsured after something catastrophic happens.

Keep your concord of mind by keeping your rental material goods and your tenants safe into the new year!