I'm mark Cunningham with grace property management here a few months ago we recorded one of these videos and we called it our top 5 lease agreement clauses and that far and away has been the most commented on the most watched video we've done so we're creating a part 2 what are the second top 5 lease agreement clauses that we recommend for all property management companies to have in place as you deal with tennis so the first one of these relates to access once you have a tenant in place how do you as the p.m. access the property well you want to have a clause in your lease agreement and may say something like this this is the actual clause from our lease agreement agents may enter property for any inspection purposes with a 24-hour notice to tenant now your Clause does need to be exactly like this but you want to have some type of a clause in there that grants you as the property management company access with a reasonable notice whatever that is into the property so that you don't have problems trying to get into your property to see what's going on review your lease ensure that you have this inspection clause in place now the second aspect we want to talk about is when is rent considered late different property management companies have different late terms late fees built in but one thing you want to do as you define your late fee or when later when rent is considered late is be very very specific on when it is late so for years for example we just said in our lease that rents is considered late after the third day of the month well what does that mean exactly does that mean if somebody comes in at 10 o'clock p.m. on the third day the month and they slide the check through the drop slot in the door that is considered on time and if they get there 12:01 it's late I mean how do you define that so recently we made a change in our lease agreement to narrow that down and this is what it says if your rent is not received on or before 12 o'clock noon on the third day the month you will pay a late charge of and then put in whatever late fee you happen to charge but we love that 12 o'clock noon deadline because we're in the office at 12 o'clock noon so if they come in at 11:59 and they beat the clock it's on time once we had 12 o'clock noon we're processing those late fee notices getting those demand notices out to be prepared but I like the 12 o'clock noon deadline it just gives you a little bit more control - for that process of processing rents as they're received number three utility transfers new tenants moving in it's such a hassle isn't it making sure that they transfer all their utilities do they do it before they move in do they do it after they move in do you do it for them how does that work well sometimes we do it for them we don't like to we encourage them to do it but we have a clause and release that addresses it and it says this failure to transfer utilities within three days after the lease start date will result in a charge of and put in what you think is appropriate X number of dollars per bill that the landlord transfers we want to be realistic with this for our tenants and give them an opportunity to transfer because they don't always get it done before they move in and that's okay but we don't want it to go beyond three days they've got three days to get those transfers done and on day three we're gonna call the utility companies and if they haven't transferred it we're gonna do it for them that they're gonna be billed per the terms of the lease agreement management agreement clause number four relates to having multiple residents in the property let's say you've got roommates let's say you've got three roommates four roommates you want to make sure that you are legally able to talk to one roommate as if you are talking to all of them legally so you want to have clause in your lease agreement that's gonna have the title maybe something to do with jointly and severally liable it means all of you tenants are one legal person we're not separating you out just because you paid a part a portion of the rent doesn't mean I can't evict you and I can evict your roommate know you're all one legal person so the clause is this each resident is jointly and severally liable for all these contract obligations if you or any guests or occupant violates the lease contract all residents are considered to have violated the lease contract this is an important provision because you want to talk to one tenants and have that legally be in effect that you're talking to all if you serve a notice upon one it's legally served upon hall so have this joint and several liability clause in your lease agreement now obviously different states have different rules governing lease agreements if you want to use this language feel free but have your attorney review it to ensure it's proper for your state now before I get to number five let me tell you two quick current event issues that are going on if you are interested in attending our pulling back the curtain events come Atlanta in January check that out we're bringing that on for a second go-around in Atlanta it's gonna be awesome event or gonna have a one-day session we're gonna have an optional day to session this is gonna be kind of a small intimate event more information on the website so check out our pulling back the curtain in Atlanta coming up depending on when you're watching this video it's gonna be in January 2019 second thing real quickly is you know I do a fair amount of individual one-on-one coaching I keep a very small group of clients and as of next month I'm gonna have one opening on that so if you've thought about getting some individual coaching and you want to potentially talk about that drop me an e-mail be happy to save you some information on that all right number five as relates to damage reimbursements you're doing an inspection of the property you see a holes but knocked in the wall how do you legally go through the process of charging your tenant we all think we can do that and we hopefully can but your management or your lease agreement must have some language in the lease agreement allowing you to do so so our lease agreement says this within 30 days of notice you will reimburse us for loss damage repair or service calls for the cost of the repair caused in the premises by you or any guests or occupants is because of improper use or negligence now that's a mouthful I get it this is obviously written by an attorney but the point is this gives us the authority to send them the bill for the hole in the wall that they caused and they've got 30 days to get it paid now hopefully you have clauses like that in your lease agreement and other good ones and even better ones but pull out your lease agreement review it as we finish the year and look to the new year now is a great time to make those changes in your lease agreements ensure it's up to par on how you want it to be so that you have a healthy strong relationship between you and your tenant