2 Common Challenges of Managing Multi-unit Apartment Buildings

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Investing in multi-unit apartment buildings has many advantages over other types of rental properties, but there are also common challenges you should be aware of if you've never owned a multi-unit building. If you know these challenges ahead of time, you may be able to take the necessary steps needed to prevent them from happening. Here are two common challenges that are very normal in multi-unit apartment buildings.

Pests

Pests, such as rodents, bed bugs, and cockroaches, are all common to multi-unit buildings, and there are reasons for this. One reason is due to the large amount of space in an apartment building. If pests somehow get in, they will start breeding and will spread to other units.

This also happens when tenants do not take care of their units. If a tenant is extremely messy and leaves food all over their apartment, it can attract rodents. If rodents get in this unit, they will spread to others. If one tenant carries bed bugs into his or her unit, they too can spread to other units.

Cockroaches commonly enter multi-unit buildings through drains. If there are dry drains in the building, they can crawl through them and end up in the units. They will then spread from unit to unit.

To put a stop to these issues, you may need to take the following steps:

1. Run water in all plumbing fixtures weekly. This is extremely important if you have any vacant units. If you keep the drains full of water, it can stop most of the cockroaches from entering in.
2. Hire pest control services. To stop rodents and other pests from taking over units, you may want to have a company come to your building every month to spray the entire thing.
3. Stop problems when they start. If any tenants report problems with bed bugs, you may want to have the company perform bed bug removal services in every unit of the building, and in all common areas as well.

Taking these three steps will stop most pest problems in a multi-unit apartment building.

Noisy Tenants

The second common problem in multi-unit apartment buildings is noise. While most of your tenants might keep to themselves and never bother others, you may end up with a few tenants that are noisy. Noisy tenants can make life miserable for all other tenants, but it can be hard to monitor this without being there all the time.

To stop noisy tenants, you must develop a plan to deal with them as soon as the problem starts. This may include taking the following steps:

1. Including detailed instructions about noise in the lease. The first step is to make sure tenants know your policies about noise. Your lease should state the rules about this and the consequences.
2. Calling or visiting the tenant after one noise report is made. The goal is to stop the problem as soon as it starts. If you inform the tenant that he or she is bothering others, the tenant will have a chance to stop doing this.
3. Sending a warning letter. If the noise continues, you could send a letter to the tenant informing him or her that you will not tolerate this. You could tell the tenant that you will evict him or her if one more report is filed.
4. Evict the tenant. If the tenant continues to bother others by being noisy, you should follow through by evicting the tenant. Failing to do this may cause good tenants to look for other rental properties.

When a lot of people live together in the same building there will be noise, but the noise should not be so loud that it bothers other people at late hours of the night.

If you buy a multi-unit apartment building and need help with these management activities or others, you may want to consider hiring a multi-unit management firm to manage the units for you.  

7 July 2015