What are the landscaping responsibilities for your Southern Maryland Rental Property?
First of all, tenants are responsible for landscaping in the lease for the majority of our rental properties. The only exceptions are if the owner has a certain situation such as a yard larger than 1 acre or special trees, scrubs, or flowers maintained a certain way. Then the owner may hire or have us hire a landscaper to handle this scope.
Generally, the tenants are responsible for keeping the grass and shrubs around the home in reasonable condition as determined by the landlord. If we get a call from the HOA or it is not up to standard during one of our property inspections, we will send the tenant a letter alerting them that they have 72 hours to correct the issue, or we will have our maintenance department take care of the situation and bill the tenants.
Most tenants do not do any landscaping above and beyond basic lawn and shrub maintenance. If you want new mulch put down, new scrubs or flowers planted, irrigation, seeding, or tree trimming, you are encouraged to hire or take care of it yourself. Our maintenance department can also assist if you’re working with us.
We do not recommend putting gutter cleaning in the lease as a tenant requirement due to the liability issue if a tenant were to injure themselves climbing on your house. We do highly recommend having gutters cleaned at least once a year to prevent roof and gutter damage. Our maintenance department usually runs a bulk special in Spring and Fall which you can opt into if your working with us.
Lastly, the landscaping needs to be maintained while the home is vacant. We recommend basic grass-cutting every 10 to 14 days. The cost of this service is dependent on the size of the yard. In our mgmt. authorization form you can authorize that we take care of this for you if the service is $65 dollars or less. If it is more than this we would contact you for authorization. This will be paid with your escrow reserve on the property.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to our office.