With many countries going through a global crisis, people have been renting their homes so far not to affect their monthly income. However, as people started losing their jobs, it became difficult to pay the rent of the houses. Most of the bachelors were found to move out from the rented homes.
In this situation, you should talk to the renters about preventing the spread of the crisis and share ways to maintain a healthy environment. Here are some ways that can help you protect your rental property at a time of global crisis.
1. Improve the Outer Security of the Place
Whether it is a global crisis or not, security is an essential factor for a property. As people are focused on the pandemic, the property can be vulnerable to theft, robbery, or unnecessary gathering. There must be complete protection at the door and around the house. You can install industrial fencing panels, trespassing boards, and security cameras based on rented property. This may be helpful in any possible situation of robbery or even protests, riots, vandalism, or natural calamity.
It is the responsibility of the property owner or manager to keep the renters safe and prevent any damages. You should follow the local laws about required property maintenance and do the needful to keep them safe.
2. Close Common Areas that Aren’t Essential and Regulate Others
Suppose the apartment has an area where people can gather, such as pools or gyms. Then make sure it must be closed until further permission of health authorities. Similarly, laundry rooms can be overcrowded if there is not a scheduled time for their usage. So if your property or apartment is shared by multiple people and has a laundry room, then make sure to schedule its usage.
In this way, people will all get chances to use the room while being distanced and safe. The entry must be restricted to a maximum of two people at a time, and the room must be disinfected every day.
You should also restrict the tenants/renters from inviting other people to the place and avoid gathering. As social distancing is the best way to avoid being infected by COVID19, limiting the number of guests will help keep your rental safe and free from exposure to any germs or viruses.
3. Implement Information from Official Sites
The government of each state provides regular briefings on how to stay healthy during the crisis. You can keep posting these guidelines around the housing or complex. This will educate both the renters and the local community. Besides, it will also prevent any false information from spreading.
Alongside educating the tenants, it is also vital to ensure that they follow all the necessary guidelines. The owners should clarify that the rent payment and maintenance request must be processed online for safety measures.
4. Clean and Disinfect Regularly
There are many common places that people usually cannot avoid touching. For instance, people tend to come in contact with stair rails, elevator buttons, doorknobs, etc. Cleaning everything daily may not be possible. Hence, you can hire someone to clean and sanitize the common areas and the most touched places to keep them safe.
In addition, place hand sanitizer stations in common places such as lobbies, doorways, laundry rooms, etc. Placing them at the right places would increase the renters’ and workers’ sense of security before or after touching anything.
5. Provide Help to the Renters
Despite all the precautionary measures, there are chances that a renter is tested positive. In such as situation, you must educate the other renters to take all the necessary precautions and avoid going out of their houses. It is also advised to ensure that they do not panic.
If someone is tested positive, you should stop calling the workers and cleaning staff. If there is any construction going on, then you are recommended to stop that too. You should put out important notices to keep the locality informed of any such situations. Make sure that the symptomatic people are tested and, if positive, then taken care of.
Also, the owner must be compassionate and tolerant if any of the renters face difficulties paying the rent at any time. You must understand that most people during this crisis have become financially weak. People are even evicted from their ongoing jobs. Hence, you should be flexible with them and provide them a few months.
Nobody was ever prepared for a health crisis like this. Facing this is the biggest challenge of the entire humankind. In this situation, we must be there for our renters or neighbors, whoever is in need. The rental property will only be safe if the people in it are.
