The rental industry in the US is worth roughly 170 billion dollars. That makes renting a property an exciting investment opportunity.
However, Any property management effort requires specific knowledge about the area in which you're renting. It's no different when renting to Denver tenants.
There are specific laws and regulations with which you have to abide, and we're going to cover four key ones in this article. We hope the ideas below make your real estate investing journey a little easier as you start to find tenants.
Let's get started with our Denver tenant guide.
1. Fair Housing Laws
Some of the most important landlord-tenant laws in Colorado pertain to the right to fair housing. As a landlord, it's essential that you understand what sort of things you can and cannot use in your decision to rent to someone.
Notably, you cannot discriminate against anyone due to their religion, race, skin color, family status, ethnicity, country of origin, disability (mental or physical), or gender. Similarly, these laws extend to ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, and more.
Discrimination based upon these factors could bring you to court, draw legal fees, and ultimately ruin your ability to continue renting property.
2. Denver Tenant Rights
Denver tenant's rights encompass a wide range of issues from maintenance to rent collection.
These lay out fair and reasonable practices that a landlord should use while leasing a property. Among the most important are rights pertaining to the quality and living conditions of the home.
You must fix repairs in a timely manner. Further, anything relating to the habitability of the home falls under your purview and should be addressed right away.
3. Retaliation
New landlords often forget that there's a personal element to leasing your home. You might not imagine it during the tenant screening, but there's a real chance that you and your tenant will have disagreements.
In some cases, tenants might take legal action or complain about the way you're running the property. It's very important, no matter your perspective, that you don't retaliate when these things come up.
For example, evicting someone because they filed a notice about the quality of the home is unacceptable. These actions only bring more consequences and complicate your legal situation.
4. Providing Notice
Terminating a lease, increasing rental value, and making other changes to things specified in a lease require appropriate notice. Making those changes suddenly is against the law and could draw legal action.
Note that the lease-specific end date of the tenancy doesn't require notice. If there's no specific end date on the lease, however, you need to give the appropriate amount of notice.
For leases of one full year, that means giving notice 91 days before the end of the lease. Shorter leases warrant a shorter time period of notice.
Need More Real Estate Tips for Denver Tenants?
We hope our look at handling Denver tenants was useful. There's a lot more to learn about managing property, though. From tenant screenings to running rental inspections, we all need a little help.
Contact us today for expert property management and guidance on finding tenants in Denver.