There is a strong likelihood that your renters are damaging the bathrooms in your single-family rental homes without even realizing it. Despite having good intentions on your property, tenants can unintentionally damage bathroom elements or fixtures. The main causes of accidental bathroom damage are usually a lack of regular maintenance or using the wrong cleaning products. By making sure your tenants understand the importance of proper care for the bathrooms on the property, Blackfoot rental property owners can spare themselves a lot of pricey repairs down the road.
Regular maintenance and cleaning are the best practices to implement to make sure your rental property’s bathroom is in good working order. However, there is no guarantee that a tenant will know how to properly maintain and clean a bathroom and may unintentionally damage a bathroom’s fixtures and elements.
For example, hard water (water with a high mineral content) is not unusual in a lot of areas in the country. This type of water can trigger mineral deposits to build up in and around plumbing and fixtures, causing rubber seals to deteriorate, rust fittings, and leave behind an unattractive ring in tubs, toilets, and sinks. Hard water can lead to leaky pipes, toilets, and faucets, and cause a shower to lose water pressure. If left untreated, it can also permanently stain bathroom surfaces, making them look dingy.
Regular maintenance is a significant part of preventing a little rust or hard water deposit from turning into a big issue. In the shower, simply cleaning the shower head and the faucet on a regular basis with vinegar can ensure that they are working correctly and that the water pressure remains consistent. But most household cleaning products will not eliminate hard water buildup, and neither will abrasive sponges or scrub brushes. To clean fixtures without damaging them, tenants need to know the right way to do it or may unintentionally do more additional damage than good.
Some elements of a bathroom that often sustain accidental damage are cabinets and floors. With nearness to so many water sources, water damage in a bathroom is always a concern. A small leak under a bathroom cabinet or a dripping faucet may not appear to be of concern matter to a tenant, but even small leaks are critical warning signs that something has gone wrong with the plumbing and should be inspected and corrected as soon as possible. Otherwise, the moisture from the leak could lead to damaged cabinets and, if ignored long enough, damage to the flooring or even the subfloor beneath the bathroom’s tile or laminate.
Utilizing the wrong cleaning products on cabinets and floors is one more cause of unintentional damage. Countless tenants desire to have a rental home that is spotless and in good condition, however, they may opt for harsh chemicals or other cleaning products that turn out to strip the varnish off a wooden cabinet or compromise the seal on a tile floor. Exposed wood and grout are far more susceptible to mold and other moisture-related problems, and can quickly develop to be not only an eyesore but also a health hazard.
It’s crucial for property owners to ensure that their tenants have a good grasp of appropriate bathroom maintenance and cleaning. But to share this information with them and then make sure they are following through is a difficult situation. If you are not careful, you could end up with a long tenuous conversation that lead to hurt emotions. This makes a professional approach to educating tenants about property maintenance one of the best ways to retain good tenant relations. At Real Property Management Pocatello, we can provide the information tenants need and the oversight that property owners want to ensure that each rental home is maintained in the best possible form. Contact us online or call our office at 208-234-1000 and see how we can help make your rental property ventures go smoothly and profitably.
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