As a Sacramento landlord, there is only so much you can do to childproof your rental property. While most of that responsibility falls on the parents, there are still some things you can do to keep children safe on your property and (consequently) avoid legal drama. Make sure that before your rental property is occupied by a family with children you do everything you can to keep them safe. Here are some tips for childproofing your rental property.

Pools

If there is a pool on your rental property, it should be kept inside of a fence to prevent child safety hazards. Additionally, you should add whatever warning signs might be mandated in your area. If you want to take more safety measures surrounding the pool in your area, consider adding a cover to keep kids from falling in when no one is supervising them. You could even affix a security alarm to the fenced-in area that tenants can disarm when they are swimming in the pool with and supervising their children.

Fencing

The fences that you use on the property should prevent easy climbing for small children. Chain link fences are ill-advised as they create easy footholds for small feet. Any fences with bars that are more than four inches apart should not be used to fence off safety hazards either. If you are installing a fence to keep kids from highly-trafficked roads or to keep them away from other safety hazards, use a fence that cannot be climbed easily.

Window Locks

Install window locks in your rental property to prevent children from falling out of the windows. Small children can be seriously injured from ground-level falls, so even the windows on the ground level should be affixed with locks. This is good practice for tenant safety in general.

Stairs

Make sure that every part of the handrails that line the stairs in your rental property are properly locked in place so that they cannot be pulled loose by a child, leading to a fall down the stairs. Again, this is good practice for preventing liability even without considering the children who might stay in your rental property. Tenants may want to install some kind of gate for further fall prevention, but you can leave that to the renters.

Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

You are legally required to make sure that smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are in proper working order. These detectors are essential to the safety of tenants, particularly children who are more easily affected by carbon monoxide poisoning, and who need help escaping in the event of a fire.

Further Reducing Landlord Liability

You can make every effort to maintain tenant safety and still find yourself in the middle of a liability lawsuit. What further actions can you take to prevent that from happening? Hire professionals to help you draft your lease agreement. This service can be provided by lawyers or by a property management company (who has likely already seen a lawyer about the lease that they will provide you.) At Keyrenter Sacramento, we can assist in leasing and a variety of other landlord tasks. If you feel like you are in over your head with your rental property, give us a call today!

One of the more unpleasant moments of property management is dealing with a potentially abandoned property. Depending on the amount of unpaid rent, the property left behind and the difficulty of confirming the facts of the situation, abandoned property scenarios can be awkward at best and extremely costly at worst. As property managers in Citrus Heights, we have found the following information useful in determining what to do if a tenant abandons the property.

Is the Property Really Abandoned?

In some cases, it can be clear that a tenant has abandoned a property. Neighbors may report seeing a moving truck. The apartment may be left empty or filled with only garbage. The tenant might have left a note explaining the abandonment.

However, in other cases, it may appear as if a tenant has abandoned a property, but it is not completely clear. For example, if the tenant has not been seen in weeks, is late in paying the rent, or seems unreachable, he may have abandoned the property. However, he might also be in the hospital, in jail, or out of town for some extended emergency or business.

If you find yourself in this gray area, make sure you keep an accurate and detailed record of all the clues to abandonment, double check lease agreements and local laws for abandonment requirements, and conduct extra research before taking any permanent actions.

Establishing Abandonment

If you’re uncertain that the property is truly abandoned, you’ll want to take some solid steps to prove the assumption to the best of your ability before repossessing the apartment. Before moving onto what to do if a tenant abandons the property, here are some ideas to establish true abandonment.

• Interview neighbors. Spend some time talking with the former tenant’s neighbors. Be sure to document when and who you interviewed and what their responses included. Find out when the tenant was last seen and if anyone saw people moving belongings into a car or moving truck. Ask if anyone overheard conversations about moving out.
• Call the utility companies. Tenants who have abandoned their properties will sometimes call to disconnect their utilities to avoid paying additional bills. Ask whether utilities were disconnected due to payment issues or if the tenant cancelled service. Document whom you spoke with, when calls were made and what responses were received.
• Contact the post office. Tenants who are permanently moving will often request a change of address or at least providing forwarding information. Besides being one clue to whether or not your tenant is permanently gone, it may give you at least another chance at contacting the tenant.
• Try all your contacts. Attempt to reach the tenant at all the phone numbers, e-mail addresses and snail mail addresses you have. Also, try to reach emergency contacts. Again, document all your efforts and their results.
• Access the apartment. Most landlords have permission through lease agreements to enter apartments under certain circumstances. If you can do so legally, take a look inside the apartment and see if most of the person’s possessions are gone or if it looks like the tenant is planning on returning.

California Law

It’s important to check your state’s laws in determining what to do if a tenant abandons the property. In California, for instance, the civil code section 1951.3 permits landlords to take back their rental property when it is abandoned.

The state allows you to make a reasonable assumption of abandonment when you have evidence of overdue rent, cancelled utilities, closets and refrigerators that are empty, and neighbors who have witnessed the tenant moving out.

Once you have conducted and documented your research and the rent is more than 14 days past due, you can file a Notice of Belief of Abandonment in California. Here is where you summarize the reasons you believe the property is abandoned and tell the tenant that you will assume abandonment unless he or she contacts you within 18 days. Be sure you keep copies of all correspondence before mailing paperwork to the tenant and his or her emergency contacts.

Steps To Reclaim Property

Once you are certain that the tenant has left and is not returning, here is what to do if a tenant abandons the property. In California, after 18 days have passed once the Notice of Belief of Abandonment has been filed, you are allowed to enter the abandoned property and change locks and security codes.

Take a look at your property and inspect it for damages. Unpaid rent and costs for damages can be taken from the tenant’s security deposit. Document this financial summary and send it to your former tenant.

In addition, if the tenant has left any property in the unit, make a list of the items and send this list to the tenant as well. In California, the law says that landlords must safely relocate and store the property, notify the former tenant and his or her contacts, and offer at least 18 days for the tenant to come and reclaim his property. The law requires that the tenant pays a storage fee in exchange for his property. If a property goes unclaimed, California law requires that anything worth more than $300 must be put up at a public auction. Summarize this information and send it to the former tenant.

Once the former tenant’s property is managed, you’ll simply want to clean and repair the apartment and get it ready for the next tenant. Our property management company in Citrus Heights can help you market, manage and maintain your rental properties easily and affordably.

Owning property can be a worthwhile investment. However, as with any other investment, you need to know how to get the most out of it. While there are several taxes associated with property ownership, the good news is, there are also various provisions in the U.S tax code for tax breaks. As a property investor, a sound tax strategy could significantly reduce your taxes and save you money. In this article, we’ll explore some useful tax tips for property owners looking to reduce their taxes.

1. Be keen on your bookkeeping

The IRS scrutinizes tax deductions very thoroughly. Always keep a detailed record of all expense related receipts, bank statements, rental income receipts e.t.c. Proper bookkeeping ensures you don’t miss out on any deductions you are entitled to and that you don’t get fined for filing incorrectly. If there is too much paperwork to keep track of, consider hiring a tax professional or accountant.

2. Identify all your deductible expenses

Your taxable rental income is total rental income minus expenses. You need to be aware of the expenses that are deductible.

There are two types of property expenses- current and capital. Current expenses are short term expenses incurred to keep your property in a habitable condition. You deduct them during the tax period they were incurred. Examples of current expenses are repairs, utility bills, and property management fees.

Capital expenses are costs incurred on improving the value of the property or extend its life. They are therefore considered long term and include insurance, maintenance costs, and legal fees.

These are some of the typical deductible expenses property owners incur:

• Loan Interest- any interest accrued on loans spent on a mortgage repayment or maintenance and repair costs
• Insurance premiums- all business related premiums including homeowners, flood, theft, fire, and mortgage insurance.
• Maintenance costs- expenses incurred on items such as landscaping, pool maintenance, pest control and smoke detectors.
• Repairs- expenses incurred on fixing broken fixtures, fittings or the structure of the property e.g. painting, plumbing, air conditioning.
• Utilities- gas, electricity, water/sewer, heating bills paid for by property owner.
• Local taxes- city, school, and county property taxes are deductible when filing your returns.
• Asset Depreciation- the annual depreciation costs of the property structure, fittings, and equipment.
• Travel expenses- any costs incurred by the property owner traveling to visit the property.
• Advertising- costs incurred on advertising the rental property.
• Operating Costs- if you have an office, whether rented or at home where you conduct your rental business, operating costs are deductible.
• Asset management fees- money spent on property management companies, on-site managers, etc.
• Professional fees- expenses incurred on lawyers, accountants, court fees, tax professionals or professional software.
• Commissions- incentives paid to property agents or for tenant referrals.

For any of these expenses to qualify as deductible, they must be deemed necessary, ordinary and reasonable by the IRS.

3. Hire a property management company

A professional property manager can help increase your rental income by ensuring occupancy is at its optimum. They can ensure the property depreciates slower by carrying out the repair, maintenance, and remodeling on your behalf. Your operating costs including traveling and advertising will reduce. Additionally, from experience, they may offer you tax tips that save you even more money. Also, because their management fees are tax deductible, this means fewer taxes for you. If you are in California, it is easy to find a property management company in Carmichael.

4. Deduct losses on rental activity

This is one of the less known tax tips; you can report up to $25000 loss on property income if your non-property income is less than $100000. For example, if your property depreciates by $50000 in a year and you only collect $40000 in rent, you can file $25000 loss in that year.

5. Avoid Capital Gains Tax

The IRS charges a capital gain tax on any rental property you sell. To calculate capital gain, subtract the property’s purchase price, total maintenance costs and sale costs (conveyancing, realtor, local taxes e.t.c) from the sale price. The federal and state capital gains tax is between 25-30%.

To avoid paying this tax, you can buy another rental income after the sale. According to the 1031 exchange, if you purchase a property valued at equal to or more than your sale price within 45 days of the sale, you defer capital gains tax. This transaction is known as a like-kind exchange. If you are planning to sell your rental property, this can be a great strategy to avoid extra taxes.

6. Get your Property Valued

Many homeowners pay higher taxes than their property value dictates due to many reasons including:

• Errors in property cards- your home’s acreage, size, and value could be mistakenly overstated at the town hall.
• Your neighborhood’s property values may be depreciating, or your property is deteriorating due to natural causes.
• You may have approved but unfinished remodeling projects which the state has already factored into your property value.

For the above reasons and more, it would be worth investing in a professional property valuer to give you a genuine reflection of its current value. A valuation may reflect in lower taxes in the long run.

7. Explore tax exemptions

You may not be aware of or taking advantages of some tax exemptions to which you are entitled. For example, a state may have exemptions for senior citizens, veterans, or people living with a disability. There may also be exemptions for energy efficient properties. Other states may offer exemptions for owners of historic buildings. Therefore, finding out your state’s tax exemption policies is one of the tax tips that could earn you a much-needed tax break.

8. Refinance Your Rental Property

If you’ve owned rental property and have paid up your mortgage, you have built up some good equity. You could qualify for a second mortgage to purchase another rental property or to improve your current property. The interest on this mortgage is tax deductible, provided all the proceeds go to maintenance or acquisition of another rental income.

As you can see from these tax tips, there are several ways you can save on taxes and maximize your property investment profits. Other than freeing you to concentrate on other issues, Property managers in Carmichael may be able to offer you advice on getting the most out of your rental properties.