Landlords sometimes make the assumption that the ideal tenant is the one who sticks around for a long, long time.
For instance, a landlord may assume that the long-term tenant guarantees monthly rental income, making the rental a good investment. It can seem like less work to keep the same tenant and avoid the hassle of finding new ones, and that the tenants who like where they live will take better care of 
the property.
Unfortunately, these assumptions don’t always ring true. The long-term tenant can, over time, become the tenant from hell. Take the case of the “ideal” tenant who remained for years, but turned out to be a hoarder, the one who sublet the property for a higher rent and made a monthly profit, or the one who now has so many pets they couldn’t live anywhere else.
There is no such thing as “auto-pilot” when it comes to managing rental properties. Extending the lease or allowing an existing tenant to remain long-term does not guarantee that the tenant will always pay rent or keep the property clean.
When considering offering a long-term lease – more than one year — to a new tenant, pay special attention to the applicant’s rental history. Have they stayed in one place for a long time in the past? What incentives does this person have to stay in the property — for instance, do their kids go to school nearby?
When renewing leases for tenants who want to stay, don’t let down your guard just because the first year went well. Inspect the property before you agree to a renewal. Ask for an updated rental application and, if your local laws allow, consider running tenant screening reports to see if the tenant has lost their good credit rating or is otherwise unqualified. Consider the possibility that the tenant wants to renew because they no longer qualify for a new lease somewhere else.
When the same tenant remains in the rental for a long time, it is easy to lose track of needed maintenance on the rental property. Don’t forget to make a plan for routine upkeep.
This post is provided by Tenant Verification Service, Inc., helping landlords reduce the risks of renting with fraud prevention tools that include Tenant Screening, Tenant Background Checks, (U.S. and Canada), as well as Criminal Background Checks, and Eviction Reports (U.S. only).
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the information provided here. It helps me a lot.
Very good information, did not think about some of these points you raise.
Thank you.
There are also the long term tenants who develop a sense of ownership. Somehow they believe the rules don’t apply to them, but rather that they should decide how the building is managed – another nightmare.
Thanks for some of these tips… Another tip that I may offer is the rent increases.. unfo. your provincial laws may allow you to increase your rent by a measely 2.5% to 3% whereas some of the utilities and taxes have gone much higher than that… With a new lease agreement, you can start fresh with a new rent price that should hopefully cover ALL your costs associated…
There is nothing wrong with a month to month lease after the initial one year lease. A tenant isn’t going to stay just because he/she has signed a one year lease. Many one year leases are broken/breached and usually there is not much the landlord can do about it. So instead of pressuring the tenant into a one year lease, go with month to month.
I don’t think it really matters to the tenant, but the month to month if tenant is agreeable can certainly alleviate any hassle. Don’t get hung up on a one year lease, is what I’m trying to say. I have two long term tenants now who are on month to month. I believe that they will stay because want to, not because they signed a one year lease.
Totally agree with Paulette!
We had a couple on a long-term lease who decided that they didn’t want us to take out a rotted wrought-iron fence and replace it with a new pool safe barrier wall because it would ‘violate the implied covenant to their right of quiet enjoyment of the property’.
Ugh. It took us two months and lots of lawyer bills and finally a violation notice from the city’s building department to get it through their thick heads that this was a pool/life safety issue that they had no control over.
Plus, although they said they were having a gardener take care of the property (and that was in the lease), all the guy must have done is mow-anbd-blow as the yard was a mess, with overgrown pampas grass, dead flowers, diseased roses, etc.
If there EVER is a next time that we have tenants, we will make sure that our lease is VERY specific and detailed in protecting us as landlords.
No ‘assuming’ that anyone will be reasonable or logical, or proper care will be taken.
The laws seem to protect the tenants FAR more than they do the landlords, and that should be recitified!
Wish I had read this several years ago. I had what I thought was a good long-term tenant. All started well the first three or four years. The family grew, and the father was fired from his job–by his own father! (Turns out he was into drugs and who knows what else!) Things got worse so gradually, and I didn’t clamp down on the mess being created. Eventually, he stopped paying rent and I had to evict. I was left with a horrible clean-up. He took out his anger (over lost job, ruined life due to drugs, etc.) on my house, including holes in the walls and nails in the garbage disposal. It didn’t matter that I had been helpful and had kept the rent lower than the going rate for several years! It was a hard lesson for this landlord to learn!