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APARTMENT SECURITY TIPS - Chris E. McGoey
Multihousing crime studies have repeatedly shown that consistent moderate to high-crime problems can usually be traced back to a small percentage of your residents. Many times those causing the crime problems are the acquaintances, ex-spouses, or boyfriends of a legal resident who decided to move in without your knowledge. The best way to head off this problem is to have good resident screening and clearly defined and articulated community rules that are emphasized during the lease application process. If residents know up front that their tenancy may be in jeopardy if they bring in an unauthorized (and unscreened) occupant, then most will not run the risk of losing their apartment. Proof of this method is well documented in apartment properties all over the country, as police calls for service seem to fluctuate proportionally as resident screening standards and rule enforcement vary following management changes.
Good resident screening involves checking credit, employment, rental history, and criminal background, if available. A good screening plan should call for all non-dependent occupants to be included on the lease and subject to the same resident qualifications. All children should be identified on the lease along with maximum occupancy limits. In this day and age, resident screening is more than establishing the ability to pay rent. In my experience, properties that tend to have a higher percentage of unauthorized occupants have lowered their screening standards on credit, rental and employment history, and don't do available criminal background checks. A policy of collecting double deposits or getting co-signers for an otherwise unqualified applicant is asking for trouble down the road and is unfair to the other residents.
When career criminals (usually young males) cannot qualify to rent, they will try to infiltrate your property by secretly moving in with a legal resident. As you might expect, these undesirable occupants tend to attract other unsavory characters. From there the character of your property can change drastically, if left unchecked. The problem becomes acute when these unauthorized occupants are unemployed criminal types who hang out all day and all night and begin to ply their trade within your community. A symptom of this condition is high traffic in and out of a unit or group of units.
To fix serious illegal occupancy problems, sometimes you have to clean house and evict residents for non-compliance with your residency requirements. You need to re-emphasize your occupancy standards and then fairly but firmly enforce the rules. A lease addendum with a comprehensive set of community rules can be legally enforced. Eviction rates as high as 60 percent have been necessary to regain control over seriously troubled properties. As financially painful as this sounds, landlords get big paybacks in the long run. It is common to see a property return to profitablity after a few months with 98% occupancy rates and a waiting list.
A fair question often asked is how do you identify an unauthorized occupant versus a short-term social guest? The answer is to "know your residents". Your community rules should have a written procedure for notifying management when a social guest has an extended stay and to arrange for a parking space. To solve this identity crisis, property managers around the country have found creative ways to get to know their residents.
What follows are some ideas to help you identify and deal with unauthorized occupants.
* Don't let emotion or concern about a long vacancy effect your policies on renting to new tenants.
* Establish written community rules for visiting social guests.
* Add new occupants/roommates to the lease only if they pass screening.
* Regularly audit units for unauthorized occupants (formally and informally).
* Photograph each resident for the lease file for ID purposes (helpful for lockouts).
* Assign coded parking spaces and record vehicle information (easy to spot new cars).
* Require parking permit decals on cars and motorcycles.
* Require overnight guests to park in designated guest spaces only (get vehicle info).
* Train staff to be alert for illegal occupants, new vehicles, and new children.
* Periodically, inspect units (smoke detectors, A/C filters, furnace ventilators).
* Always follow up all verbal occupancy warnings with a letter.
* Serve non-compliance notices for every occupancy violation.
* Evict residents who violate community rules and house illegal occupants.
* Be fair, firm, consistent, and document, document, document.
Chris E. McGoey is the Crime Doctor, an expert in the fields of security, loss prevention, and crime prevention.

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GET TENANTS FROM YOUR "COMPETITION"
Here is a leasing suggestion that has helped a landlord greatly in the last couple months. He had a tenant that vacated a rental a month before the lease was up without any notice. While the tenant left the rental undamaged and the landlord had one months security deposit, the subscriber lost the lease up time of that last month, when he normally would have 30 days to advertise and re-rent the property BEFORE the resident moves. The landlord tried to immediately advertise in the local paper, but, he had just missed the paper's weekly deadline.
Instead of letting another week go by of lost rent without doing any advertising, he decided to review the APARTMENT FOR RENT section of the same newspaper he had tried to advertise in. He looked in the paper for apartments that were similar in size to his rental and in the same area. He found three rental ads and called the landlords.
Our landlord offered the three other landlords (his competition mind you) the amount that the newspaper ad would have cost him, $40-$50, if they referred him an acceptable resident that leased his rental. Each of these landlords were only trying to rent one vacancy at the time, but each had multiple qualified applicants (that the other owners had already pre-screened and pre-qualified making his job even easier)..
. This strategy worked great! Our landlord had a resident moving into his rental within 7 days, the other landlords had done the initial screening and it only cost him $45. Now all four landlords call each other when a vacancy comes up to see if they can help each other. What started out as a negative turned into a huge positive.
Reprinted with permission from MR. LANDLORD newsletter.

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SMILE!
Keep a disposable camera in your vehicle for recording damage, trash, etc at your buildings. Record the unit, date and the number of the shot. Pictures make good evidence in court. The cameras are also useful for taking family portraits, remember to include pets, on move in day. Everyone on the lease must be in the portrait. Always get cameras with the flash so you can take indoor pictures too.
The cost of the camera is as low as $7.50 at the Dollar Stores. Developing is another $4 or $5. It's an inexpensive record that can make an impressive statement when trying to prove a point.

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PROPERTY DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
What is considered property damage that the resident is considered liable for (and not just normal wear and tear)?
* Carpets - when they get stains or burns on them.
* Cupboard doors and shelves - when they get damaged and broken.
* Doors - when they get holes in them.
* Drains - when they get plugged before the main drain.
* Fires - resulting from smoker's or guest's carelessness.
* Keys - broken off in locks.
* Light fixtures - when they get damaged.
* Pets - Any and all damage they do.
* Sliding doors - when they can not be put back on track.
* Storm doors - with broken closers or springs.
* Toilets - when they get plugged.
* Vinyl covering - torn or otherwise damaged.
* Walls - with holes or writing on them.
* Window screens - when they get torn.
* Windows - when they get broken - regardless of fault.
Remember to document the condition of the apartment with before and after photos and a checklist which tenant signs.

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UPDATE - LEAD BASED PAINT WARNING
We are still having problems in EPA Region VII (Kansas and Missouri area) with the forms. EPA is really beginning to step up enforcement of Landlord's use of the disclosure forms. EPA officials addressed our group and stated that they recently fined several KS and MO landlords between $10,000 and $20,000 for not complying with the law.
Update from the law firm of Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C.

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ADDITIONAL WARNING
Attorney General Janet Reno and Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced this summer multiple court actions of over $1 million against landlords who violated federal law by failing to warn their tenants that homes may contain lead-based paint hazards. These actions, the first ever filed under the Residential Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act, include four settlements totaling more than $1 million worth of lead paint abatement and $259,000 in fines. In addition, HUD has undertaken 45 administrative enforcement actions under the Act in 20 cities.
This additional warning by Attorney Tom of Real Chek.

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CELL PHONE / CALLER ID ALERT
You may be giving your tenant (and others) more information than you want them to have without knowing it. Most people who use cell phones only give their number out to select people as you pay for a call whether you make or receive it from a cell phone. But, did you realize that when you call residents from your cell phone these days and they have "Caller ID" (which everybody is getting) residents now have access to your cell phone number? This is a pretty messy matter to resolve: just call your cell phone company and request a blocking of Caller ID. They can take care of this almost immediately upon request. If not, you may find yourself getting and paying for calls you never wanted on your cell phone.
Tip from Freeport, IL. Area Landlords 815-233-HOME..

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NEIGHBORHOOD AMBIANCE
One of the assets that unites better city neighborhoods, like our own Holly Hills, Bellerive, and St Louis Hills is the presence of stately mature trees lining the streets. The city will plant trees, free of charge, in front of your property, in the area between the sidewalk and curb. This program was made possible by the Capital Improvements Sales Tax which voters enacted several years ago.
Trees produce oxygen and remove carbon dioxide and particulates from the air, conserve energy, give wildlife a home, hold the topsoil, and keep our rivers running clear, as well as being an aesthetic addition to the overall appearance of your property. You can request trees by calling your alderman and asking. The Forestry Department will examine your property to insure that there is enough space to plant the tree and allow it to grow. Trees will be planted during the appropriate season if the results of the Forestry examination are positive..
And after they plant one by the curb, plant a couple more in the yard. Trees are beautiful and so is shade.

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NEXT MEETING

Place: Southern Commercial Bank - 5515 S. Grand [ map ]
Date: Monday, September 20, 1999
Time: 6:30pm - 9:00pm

AGENDA TOPICS

6:30 - 7:00 Social
7:00 - 7:05 Welcome
7:05 - 7:15 Business Update/Aldermanic Report
7:15 - 8:00 Dir. of Public Safety and Bldg. Commissioner speak
8:00 - 8:30 Jim Magnus
8:30 - 8:55 Discussion of Members Concerns
8:55 - 9:00 Raffle

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