The caring for a rental home necessitates both effort and regular maintenance. A good quality tenant appreciates this and will do their best to help property owners keep their Hartford rental homes clean, maintained, and in good repair. But there will be instances where tenants, who intend to help, inadvertently cause damage to a home’s interior surfaces.
Often, unintentional damage happens simply because a tenant did not know that their actions would bring about that result. Other times, the damage is dealt because of accidents or as the result of a tenant’s poor decision. Knowing the usual ways a rental home’s interior surfaces can sustain inadvertent damage would greatly help a property owner. They would be able to keep their tenants informed and their rental homes operating in excellent condition.
When surface damage goes beyond basic wear and tear, tenant negligence is usually the source. Countertops, floors, and even sinks and bathtubs are typically long-lasting and can withstand daily and heavy use for many years. However, many tenants aren’t aware of the proper ways to take care of these surfaces or how to protect them.
As an illustration, kitchen and bathroom countertops can typically take daily cleanings, food preparation activities, and a few spills. They can go through all that and still be in good condition. But countertops can be tarnished by harsh cleaning products, particularly those containing bleach or ammonia. The cleaning product for your countertops should be picked carefully. They should be picked based on the kind of countertops you have in your rental home.
Countertops can be damaged in other ways, such as placing too much weight on a countertop. They could be damaged when there is an unusually heavy appliance or even a person standing on it. Some countertops may be damaged by placing hot pans or appliances on them, such as a toaster oven or a slow cooker.
Even a curling iron can cause burn marks on a bathroom countertop and can be difficult to remove. Cutting and chopping directly on a countertop can create small indentations that damage the surface, and these indentations could turn into greater problems down the road.
Floors are another interior surface that tenants often accidentally damage. There are certain things that could evade even a watchful tenant’s radar. Things like small leaks under a refrigerator or a drip under the cabinet from a sink water supply line could go on unnoticed, and these could potentially cause permanent water damage in a kitchen floor.
Moving furniture is one of the biggest culprits of unintentional floor damage. Transferring heavy items by pushing them across a laminate or wood floor can cause scratches, gouging, and tears. This is the way most carpets get torn. Setting heavy furniture in the wrong spot can crack or chip tile floors, also dropping heavy items, such as exercise weights or even books. Just like countertops, cleaning with the wrong cleaning products can permanently damage a floor, stripping off finishes and creating unsightly stains or bleach spots.
Bathtubs can also sustain accidental damage from harsh cleaning products. The reverse is also true. Not cleaning often enough allows mineral deposits from tap water to build up until removing them is almost impossible, or worse, allow mildew to form. This is also quite a common mistake. The same with tile, you shouldn’t place anything too heavy in a bathtub as it can cause cracks. The bathtub should be used for what it was made for or else a whole variety of problems may come up, from unfixable scratches in a solid-surface unit to rust or coloring dye stains.
The best approach to help tenants avoid unintentionally damaging your rental home’s interior surfaces is to give them information. When they learn how to properly clean countertops, move heavy furniture, and so on, they will be able to do a lot more for preventing expensive repairs. At Real Property Management Hartford Metro/Greater New London, we communicate with both tenants and property owners to make sure that everyone involved would care for the rental home with more than a desire to help, but with genuine practical knowledge too.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
