Hi this is Tanya with Envy Property Management, a good question we will occasionally get here at Envy PM from our investment property owners is, “Will I get a key to my property?” While this may seem like a completely legitimate question, today I’m going to talk about the 3 reasons why giving out keys to property owners is never a good idea.
#1: Liability
The most important thing property owners need to know is keys equal liability. Whatever happens to any key out there, your property management company holds liability. If you as the property owner have a key to your rental and you happen to lose that key, someone could pick it up and easily go inside. Let’s say this bad person steals something or even worse, causes harm to the tenants. This is a huge liability when a property management company cannot control what happens to keys. Keys represent liability. This is why a good property management company should never ever allow a property owner to have a key.
If something bad did happen at your property and the police got involved, the first thing they are going to ask is, “Who has a copy of the key?” It isn’t going to make you as the property owner look good if we have to say, “Well we have a key and the property owner has a key and so and so has a key…” The police are then going to investigate every single person who has a key to this property. The liability is simply way too big to have an unknown number of keys floating around out there.
#2: Trust
Another important concept surrounding keys in property management is keys equal trust. When you as a property owner hand over the keys to your property, you are putting complete trust in your property management company. Likewise, tenants aren’t going to give us money for these keys unless they trust us. Keys equal trust. A good property management company will be able to tell tenants that no one else has a copy of the key to their home that they are living in. They need to trust that they can live in this home and that no one other than the property management company has access and a copy of their key.
#3: Control
When you hire a professional property management company and you hand over those keys, you are also handing over control of your investment property. You need to trust your property management company and you need to give them complete control over your investment property business. Doing this alleviates all the headaches of being a landlord. You hire a professional property management company to help take away your liability and part of this liability is having complete control over who has keys to the home. We keep all our keys in a controlled area, locked up and we always track who has a copy.
If you as property owner ever need access to the home for any reason, we are always more than happy to arrange this with the tenants and we will walk through the property with you.
That’s it for today’s video, I hope this video about keys and your rental property was helpful. If you want help choosing a Northern Utah property management company with years of experience, please contact us at Envy Property Management. We are a wealth of information when it comes to professional property management of your investment property. You can always ask us for valuable tips and extra resources to make the choice simple and painless. Give us a call today, 801-337-4337 or visit our website at envypm.com where you can easily view our three-tiered pricing plan, so you can choose the package that best fits you and your needs.
