Since September 1 is a major date on the calendar for any landlords and tenants in the Western University or Fanshawe College student rental bubble in London, Ontario, it is essentially to be prepared for this specific day. As a landlord or owner of a property, it is very difficult to turnover multiple units at a time as:
1. You cannot multiply your tradespersons. Your cleaners can’t all clean on the 31 of August, so you must stagger the painters, carpet cleaners, maintenance, repairs spread over several days.
2. Organization is lacking. Landlords need to make an excel document these days with the staple turnover items and that add/subtract items when dealing with specific properties as some are better than others.
3. Keys. To deal with the key situation for new tenants, especially if you are a Landlord who doesn’t live in London, I would invest in a front door lock with a key code that you can change every year, which will save you money and grief in the future.
4. Parents. Many student rentals are 4,5,6 even 7-8 bedroom houses in London. It is very difficult to deal with (usually) a disaster that the students leave behind, and less than 24 hours later have the house back up to par for the multiple tenants who are moving in. Students are slightly more forgiving then their parents though. Dealing with roughly 5 students moving in, and 5 sets of parents helping their children move in, who all have different ideas and requests, is impossible when you are dealing with turning over multiple properties.
5. Early move ins. This year was particularly difficult for Landlords, since Labour Day lands on September 2nd is when school starts for Fanshawe College students. A lot of these students (and parents) could not get a truck/time off on September 1, so they request to move in earlier (August 27, 28, 29, 30) and this is impossible to accommodate when there are tenants currently occupying the units until August 31.
To organize and solve these issue, Landlords in London, Ontario need to address the following in regards to new tenant expectations:
1. Keys will only be handed out on the first day of the lease. If you are a smart landlord, change your locks to a keycode lock so you won’t have to meet tenants at the property
2. No one will be moving in early. When signing the lease, make sure that you are clear that you need some time to turn over the unit, and moving in early will only hinder this process.
3. End leases 5-7 days prior to the end of the last month. This will be difficult with students (who usually have exams in the last month of their leases expiring in May) but would really help out Landlords who would have 5-7 days of an empty house to clean, empty, repair and maintain for the next group as opposed to trying to accomplish this task within less than 24 hours.
4. Parents need to be put on notice that only those who signed a lease with the Landlord will have conversations with the owner/landlord of the property. A good landlord will have 99% of the problems solved prior to the new tenants moving in, and there will be no problems with the parents.
5. Tradespersons sometimes are not reliable, or are also extremely busy to accommodate your requests. It would be beneficial to make a few phone calls and have another crew of cleaners, painters, handymen, etc. waiting in the wings to lend a helping hand if the turnover does not go over as planned.
1. You cannot multiply your tradespersons. Your cleaners can’t all clean on the 31 of August, so you must stagger the painters, carpet cleaners, maintenance, repairs spread over several days.
2. Organization is lacking. Landlords need to make an excel document these days with the staple turnover items and that add/subtract items when dealing with specific properties as some are better than others.
3. Keys. To deal with the key situation for new tenants, especially if you are a Landlord who doesn’t live in London, I would invest in a front door lock with a key code that you can change every year, which will save you money and grief in the future.
4. Parents. Many student rentals are 4,5,6 even 7-8 bedroom houses in London. It is very difficult to deal with (usually) a disaster that the students leave behind, and less than 24 hours later have the house back up to par for the multiple tenants who are moving in. Students are slightly more forgiving then their parents though. Dealing with roughly 5 students moving in, and 5 sets of parents helping their children move in, who all have different ideas and requests, is impossible when you are dealing with turning over multiple properties.
5. Early move ins. This year was particularly difficult for Landlords, since Labour Day lands on September 2nd is when school starts for Fanshawe College students. A lot of these students (and parents) could not get a truck/time off on September 1, so they request to move in earlier (August 27, 28, 29, 30) and this is impossible to accommodate when there are tenants currently occupying the units until August 31.
To organize and solve these issue, Landlords in London, Ontario need to address the following in regards to new tenant expectations:
1. Keys will only be handed out on the first day of the lease. If you are a smart landlord, change your locks to a keycode lock so you won’t have to meet tenants at the property
2. No one will be moving in early. When signing the lease, make sure that you are clear that you need some time to turn over the unit, and moving in early will only hinder this process.
3. End leases 5-7 days prior to the end of the last month. This will be difficult with students (who usually have exams in the last month of their leases expiring in May) but would really help out Landlords who would have 5-7 days of an empty house to clean, empty, repair and maintain for the next group as opposed to trying to accomplish this task within less than 24 hours.
4. Parents need to be put on notice that only those who signed a lease with the Landlord will have conversations with the owner/landlord of the property. A good landlord will have 99% of the problems solved prior to the new tenants moving in, and there will be no problems with the parents.
5. Tradespersons sometimes are not reliable, or are also extremely busy to accommodate your requests. It would be beneficial to make a few phone calls and have another crew of cleaners, painters, handymen, etc. waiting in the wings to lend a helping hand if the turnover does not go over as planned.
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