The key to a successful relationship in almost any situation is communication – having an open, honest, and transparent dialogue helps to establish a solid foundation of trust and to overcome any challenges. In order to create and maintain a healthy landlord-tenant relationship, both parties must be willing to communicate in a productive and respectful manner, being fully transparent about any issues that arise. Failure to communicate can result in resentment, frustration, and anger for both parties, leading to easily avoidable disputes and other messy situations. Here’s how Toronto landlords should be communicating with their tenants.
Establish healthy communication guidelines early in the relationship
It’s critical that as a landlord, you establish healthy, effective communication guidelines with your tenants immediately upon establishing a landlord-tenant relationship. These guidelines should be identical for all tenants, and should be strictly enforced. This is where you’ll set what communication medium you’ll use (telephone, texting, email), when you are and aren’t available to take calls, advance notice of maintenance, inspections, and showings, what to do in the event of an emergency, and how to best contact tenants when the primary communication method fails. These guidelines will help to establish trust in the relationship, and both you and your tenants will be able to take comfort in knowing that there are concrete ways of communicating effectively with one another.
Take advantage of the technology at your fingertips
In the age of instant connection, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to successfully and easily communicate with your tenants. Giving your tenants the option to text you when they experience problems can encourage them to address issues immediately instead of procrastinating, letting you tackle maintenance and other common issues proactively. Instant communication also gives you a quick and easy option to nudge tenants in the event that rent payments are missed, make community announcements, and to book appointments for inspections and showings.
Social media channels also give landlords with multi-tenant units the opportunity to establish pages will that keep tenants up to speed on minor and major announcements, letting you get messages out to groups of tenants instantly rather than having to track each one down or visit your properties to pin a notice to the community bulletin board. Having the ability to text message and email your tenants also gives you an easy opportunity to keep thorough, organized records of your interactions with each tenant. Having in-depth recordkeeping giving you instant access to past interactions to draw that you can easily draw from and make reference to in the event that you are summoned to the Landlord and Tenant Board.
Keep an open line of communication and transparency
With all these modes of communication at your disposal, keeping an open line of communication with your tenants is easier now than ever before. This means responding to all inquiries in an open, understanding manner, and being fully transparent with your tenants in regards to issues that arise. Keeping tenants in the know and being fully transparent with your practices is a great way to increase retention, helping to make sure that your tenants will be staying for the long-term, and motivating them to do things like leave positive online reviews and recommend your services to their friends and family. Remember to listen intently to any issues, suggestions, or comments that your tenants may have – showing that you’re listening and taking them seriously is another great way of retaining them as tenants for the long term.
Enlist the help of property management experts
Properly communicating with your tenants is a crucial part of maintaining a relationship with them – like with any relationship, effective communication can take up a great deal of your time, especially when you’re dealing with multiple tenants with their own unique needs. The most effective way to continue creating strong relationships with your tenants while at the same time freeing you up to take care of the more important things in your life is to enlist the services of property management experts like the team at Highgate Properties.
Our friendly team is experienced in effectively communicating with tenants and working tirelessly to resolve problems as they arise, with a heavy focus on tenant satisfaction. Highgate works to ensure that tenants are always satisfied and that their needs are addressed, and our team has instant access to a number of industry leading contractors that solve maintenance problems efficiently. For more information about the property management and realty services offered by the experienced team at Highgate Properties, contact us today.
