Last year, Oklahoma City landlords filed over 18,000 evictions.
In a city where just 40% of the 294,000 households are renters, that's an extremely high number of evictions. If you're a landlord, evicting a tenant is a worst-case scenario. It's a long, drawn-out process that is a major source of stress for everyone involved.
Fortunately, there are measures you can put in place to reduce the risk of having to evict a tenant. In this guide, we'll explain how to create an eviction protection plan for your rental investment. Keep reading to see how beneficial putting the right measures in place can be.
Learn About Eviction Law in Oklahoma
The first step is to understand what you'll need to do in the event you have to evict a tenant. When you know more about eviction laws, you can more efficiently deal with your tenant issues.
Here, you can evict a tenant for three main reasons: nonpayment of rent, lease violations, and illegal activity. Each of these infractions is served with a particular eviction notice. Nonpayment of rent, for example, gets a 5-day notice to pay or quit.
Lease violations, on the other hand, get a 15-day notice to remedy or quit. Any illegal activity or unresolvable lease violations get an immediate lease termination. Under no circumstances can you perform an eviction outside the bounds of the law.
Tenant Screening
Tenant screening is the best way to prevent evictions. Putting measures in place to vet all of your applicants will secure you a trustworthy tenant who will treat your property with respect.
Screening involves a few key practices. The first is a criminal background check that tells you if the applicant has any concerning past criminal behavior, such as violent charges.
You also need to do credit checks, which tell you more about their financial stability over time. If they have bad credit, it indicates a lack of financial responsibility, so they may struggle to pay rent each month.
You should also contact tenant references. These can tell you more about an applicant's character so you can determine if they're a good fit. The best references are former landlords and employers.
Deterrence Methods
Prevention is important, but so is deterrence. Even if you find a great tenant, you still need to ask for a security deposit and perform regular property inspections.
Security deposits are insurance against poor tenant behavior. If the tenant misses a rent payment or damages your property, you can deduct the amount from their security deposit.
Performing regular property inspections will tell you if a tenant is breaking your lease. Perform them every few months, making a point to look for particular lease violations, such as unauthorized pets, extra tenants, or damage.
How Property Management Helps with Eviction Protection
Even with these measures in place, there's always a chance you'll have to perform an eviction. If the idea of the eviction process stresses you out, you may rather hire a property manager to help.
At PMI OKCity Local, we offer eviction protection services to our clients. If you have to evict a tenant, we'll ensure you don't have to pay out of pocket while it's going on. Contact us today to learn more about this service and how it can help you.
