Residents and landscaping don’t always mix, especially if you’re particular about how things look on the outside of your rental property in Littleton.
That doesn’t mean residents can never be trusted to take care of the lawn and the landscaping. Sometimes, we find residents who rent single-family homes specifically because they want a lawn to take care of and snow to shovel.
When you’re asking about who should be responsible for the landscaping at your investment property, you really have to consider your residents, your expectations, and the size, condition, and complexity of your landscaping before those residents even move in.
Should your residents be responsible for the landscaping? It depends.
Landlord Landscaping Responsibilities for Littleton Rental Homes
Because the property is yours and you are responsible for general maintenance issues, landscaping is typically considered a landlord responsibility, not a resident responsibility.
That doesn’t mean you have to do it, but if you’re unsure that you want to trust your residents with this responsibility, there’s plenty of precedent for making it yours to manage. How will you manage that? Well, you have a couple of options.
You can mow and care for the lawn yourself. You can shovel the snow and treat the walkways in the winter. Plenty of landlords do this, especially if they’re only renting out one or two homes and it seems manageable. This might work for you if you feel strongly about your grass and the landscaping at your property, and you want to be hands-on. In this case, you can go to the property every week or so to mow and prune. Remember that you cannot simply show up; your residents need to know when they can expect you at the property to do this work. You should not expect to enter the property while you’re landscaping, but you still want to provide notice so residents don’t feel like their privacy is being invaded.
You can hire a landscaping service to manage the mowing, weeding, mulching, and other yard care responsibilities. This can also help in the winter when it snows. Having a service contract in place will cover the needed work without requiring any labor from you or your residents.
When your resident is not responsible for the landscaping, you can have more control over the condition of your lawn and the attention that landscaping receives. If your property is in an HOA, you also have to worry about violations if the grass or weeds grow too high.
Putting the Landscaping in Your Resident’s Control
That’s not the only way to do things.
Some owners prefer to pass this responsibility onto the residents. If you’re renting out a single-family home, this is more common.
Residents can also be responsible for the landscaping without actually doing the work themselves. You can have residents be responsible by hiring a landscaping service and rolling the cost of that service into the rent.
Whoever is ultimately responsible for the landscaping, you want to make sure it’s agreed upon and reflected in the lease agreement, which should explicitly assign lawn care to either the resident or the landlord.
Multi-Family Littleton Rental Homes and Landscaping
Renting out a multi-family property? It’s more difficult to hold residents responsible for lawn care and landscaping in this situation. The responsibility will usually need to remain with the landlord.
Hire a service and have the residents share the cost by incorporating the cost into the rental amount. Or, pay for the lawn care yourself and use it as part of your marketing so residents know they’re getting the lawn care included. This could be a major selling point during the leasing process.
Include Landscaping in Your Littleton Lease Agreement
Part of the reason you have a strong lease is to be sure it’s documented somewhere who is responsible for what when it comes to maintaining your investment property.
The lease agreement needs to reflect who is responsible for landscaping at your Littleton rental property. This is especially important if you’re going to assign lawn maintenance to your residents.
Be specific. The lease shouldn’t simply say that the resident is responsible for lawn care. It should include all the specific responsibilities for which your resident should be responsible. If you’re vague there may be confusion and conflict.
Some of the specifics that you want to have reflected in your lease agreement are likely to include:
- Lawn mowing and the frequency with which the lawn will be cut. This will, of course, be seasonal.3
- Trimming bushes and branches. Be careful here. You don’t necessarily want your resident on a ladder to take down tree branches.
- Snow removal during the winter.
- Fertilizer treatments; both the frequency and the type of treatments that are required.
Weeding, watering and irrigation responsibilities.
Talk about these details before your resident signs the lease so they know what is expected of them.
If you’re going to hire a service or maintain the lawn yourself, the lease should also reflect that so the resident isn’t confused about whether they should be mowing or shoveling. Talk to your resident about who is paying for the landscaping. If you want your residents to cover the cost, it’s probably easier for everyone to simply include that cost in the monthly rent.
This is an important detail for you to work out before you rent out your Littleton property, but don’t overcomplicate things. If you already have a landscaping service that has worked well for you at this property or another Littleton rental property, there’s little reason to switch things up. What matters is the appearance of your property, and you should do whatever is required to keep it looking attractive to potential residents.
The landscaping question is not one that’s always easily answered. If you’d like to talk through the options based on what’s best for you and your property, we’d love to help. Please contact us at PURE Property Management, Lakewood property management experts serving residential landlords in West Denver and the surrounding areas, including Littleton, Golden, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, and more.
