As landlords, we know it is impossible to keep our best tenants forever, but it’s certainly worth trying! Some tenants only stay a short while. Be it new to the area and not sure what part of town suits them best, a recent change in relationship, or maybe they are saving to purchase a home of their own, but some tenants prefer to rent for the long haul. Below are some landlord tips on how to improve tenant retention in your rental property.
Tenants come and go, but if we treat them well, they might think twice before deciding to move on. Along with having a solid lease and doing regular inspections, we recommend the following tips to create a professionally run rental property business that makes tenants feel secure and confident about living in your property long term.
Effective September 2018, California enacted Senate Bill 721, the Deck and Balcony Law. This law came about after six college students died from a dry rotted balcony collapse in Berkley, California. The following information pertains specifically to California rental property owners. However, deaths and injuries from unsafe decks and balconies are happening everywhere and ALL landlords should be aware of the standards and how the Calif. deck and balcony laws affects your rental property, regardless of what state it resides in.
California Landlords Whom This Law Pertains To
The holiday season is upon us! Where this is a busy time of year, it’s always nice to remember those who rent from you. Isn’t the true meaning of the holiday season to share the spirit of community and humanity? Whether you have one single family home rental or several multi-family units, here are 5 ways to show your tenants kindness during the holidays:
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Remind them about options for package delivery
Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday your tenants may be getting a lot of packages delivered. If you have a leasing office and packages are delivered there, have your staff create a quick email/text template to let tenants know their package has arrived and is waiting for them to pick up.
If packages are delivered straight to their doorstep, maybe send an email prior to the holidays reminding them that theft is on the rise and to consider asking a neighbor to grab them if they will not be home soon, sending them to a friend or someone with a secure doorstep who will be able to bring them in to safety on their behalf. Another option is to recommend them using a shipping locker that is available at most grocery stores. The company sends them a code to scan when they pick it up and the locker opens up with your package safe and sound.
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Maintain icy walkways and parking lots
With increased package delivery and guests visiting this holiday season, consider providing your property with a service or the tenant with the proper tools to remove ice where someone can slip and injure themselves. If using a de-icing product, choose pet and environmentally friendly options. This shows them you care and let them know they have nothing to worry about should they have a 4-legged friend living with them.
Part of owning any business is keeping your paperwork in order. For rental properties, it is imperative to know where every document is located. It does not matter if you prefer paper trail or electronic files. What does matter is keeping your rental property documents, photos, and records organized.
Documents You Need For Each Unit
We have one file for every tenant. In this file, we keep:
- All documents used to process their application.
- Signed lease copy with addendums.
- All maintenance requests. Plus notes on who, what, and when maintenance was performed.
- Papers and notices served.
- Inspection reports, photos, notes on conversations with the tenant about lease violations found.
- ALL documented correspondence between you and the tenant, including emails, text conversations, and notes written about personal conversations.
- Photos: before move-in, inspections, all maintenance requests, and final move-out inspection (or link to digital file)containing these.
- Move-out security deposit disbursement papers with the tenant’s forwarding address.
If you keep a combination of paper and electronic files on each tenant, make sure you notate the location of electronic files (photos, scanned leases, etc.), plus passwords in case someone else needs to take over management unexpectedly.
How to Organize Documents For Each Property
Tenants come and go, but keeping your rental property documents organized is an essential business practice. With that said, it is also important to have separate, organized files that pertain to each property you own.
If you prefer the paper file method, choose a file drawer/box or accordion folder and create monthly files for receipts. Include receipts for all expenses like completed contractor work, paid utility bills, and maintenance supplies specific to THAT property. The organization of your expenses will make your bookkeeping at the end of the year much more manageable. If receipts pertain to items specific to a tenant (repairs made they must reimburse for), make a photocopy and place it in their file as well.
Good Options for Electronic Receipt Filing
We have found Expensify or SmartReceipts are most highly regarded for electronically storing and organizing receipts, especially when on the go.
Expensify is great on the go. You can snap a photo of the receipt with your phone, and it will pull out the vital information needed (Business name, date, amount, etc.) and save it in your cloud. You can also link it with your credit card for easy downloads of receipts and bookkeeping software like QuickBooks.
SmartReceipts is another convenient option for turning your phone into a scanner. Here are the top benefits of this app:
- Customize PDF, CSV, or ZIP format reports you can export
- Free and open source
- Take receipt photos or import them from your photo gallery
- Tag receipts you’ve captured with metadata to help you find them later
- Track your mileage during travel
- Sync your receipts and reports with Google Drive
- It has an OCR feature to recognize text from your scans
Included with your receipts, you should have a copy of your rent roll. This tool is a monthly statement of what rent and income you earn per property. Typically your bookkeeping software provides this, or you can create a spreadsheet to track it. Having all of your income and expenses in one place makes it easy to evaluate the value of the property and the returns on your investment.
For documents and items that have no time stamp, consider using a binder to store:
- Warranties on machines.
- Maintenance logs (to record when you serviced appliances last)
- List of all makes and models for appliances and HVAC units.
- Back-up keys for units, mailboxes, gates, garages, etc.
- Copy of the updated declarations page for your liability insurance.
If you are more electronically inclined and prefer access to your files from any device, we recommend creating a Google Doc or using Evernote to store the above files in the cloud. The ability to share these files with maintenance personnel from anywhere is worth it. Back-up keys may be an issue, but many units are switching to an electronic key entry, so needing key copies may no longer be a consideration for some. Are you beginning to understand why keeping your rental property documents organized is an important business practice?
Businesses should have Operations plus Policy and Procedures manuals.
An Operation Manual
This manual describes all of the essential practices for operating your rental property business. Additionally, it should explain the following:
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It’s that time of year where the leaves start falling, and there’s a nip in the air each morning and evening. Time to put away the tank tops and pull out the sweaters! For landlords, Fall is the time of year for seasonal maintenance on their rental properties. Here are some reminders on what you or your property manager should be checking out as preventative maintenance:
Inspections
Do a periodic inspection on every unit/property. We schedule one day in November to visit each property, along with our contractor. Generally, we will email all tenants approximately two weeks before the inspection day, describing what we will be checking for in the interior of their unit: water & gas leaks, mold, testing and changing batteries in the smoke/carbon detectors, changing their air filter, checking the heater and thermostat (change batteries), making sure electrical plugs are not overloaded, checking appliances, etc. We also ask them to advise us if they have had any issues to remedy when on site.
Read more: Fall Seasonal Maintenance for Rental Properties
To know all the ins and outs of our periodic inspections, read our blog
Why Landlord Inspections Are Essential.
If we do not hear back from them one week before the inspection, we send a reminder notice to each tenant. Again, describing what actions we will perform and ask if any issues need our attention. This time we ask them to please confirm receipt of the email and acknowledge acceptance of the inspection. If we do not hear back from them at that point, we begin daily calls or texts to them until we receive confirmation. They could be on vacation or simply busy, but we must have their permission to enter the unit to perform this maintenance.
We plan and advise them two weeks prior, so if the contractor cannot fix any issues, we can arrange for the proper repair person to meet us at the property to correct the problem. Think appliances not working, or rodent or bug issues. Maybe it’s time to get the chimney cleaned or have the HVAC tech check the heater. Generally, it takes a few days to get these tradesmen out, so advanced planning is essential.
For the exterior, we tend to do more preventative maintenance to our rental properties during the Fall than any other time of year. We will perform or oversee the completion of the following tasks:
Clean the gutters and downspouts.
Leaves and muck in gutters can cause them to rust and corrode. Clean the gutters, and then make sure the downspouts are clear by running a hose at high power from the top. We’ve seen pods from trees the size of a golf ball caught in the downspout, not allowing the water to drain. Blockages back water up into the gutters causing it to spill over. Continual water exposure like that can cause dry rot damage to the facia boards at the roofline.
Put away patio furniture or cover and move to a protected area.
This depends on what climate your rental is in and who owns the furniture. For our multi-family, we manage the patio furniture. However, the worst weather we usually get in California is rain, so we remove pads and securely cover them to protect the finish. We also own a single-family rental home in California, but we do not supply patio furniture for those tenants.
Turn off all sprinklers and irrigation.
For cold weather locations, open the water valve to release water caught in pipes if needed. Unless you are in a warm climate like the desert or Florida, most states will not need to run their sprinkler systems during the winter months.
Do you complete Fall seasonal maintenance on your rental properties?
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Inspect pathways.
Make sure there are not any cracks or raised areas larger than 1/8″. Check gravel and asphalt areas to make sure there are no washed out or broken areas. Inspect stairs for loose nails or steps and make sure the railings and handrails are tight. Adjust timers and make sure the pathway lighting and motion sensors are working correctly.
Make sure there is a plan in place to maintain walkways during freezing weather. Whether you hire a maintenance company to come out on a scheduled basis or write it into your lease that a tenant must manage snow removal, a plan needs to be in place.
Inspect all fire safety components.
Check that the fire extinguishers are secure and in good working order and that the escape plans are easy for tenants to locate, usually near all exits of the building. Make sure all exit lights are on and working. Check that fire escapes are not blocked and work correctly or that the escape ladders you provide are in an easily accessible area within the unit(s).
Make sure to clean all sewer drainage areas of debris.
Leaves and garbage clogging a drainage pipe can cause flooding to your home or basement. Even if this drainage is not on your property but in the public roadway, take a minute to check it out. Municipal agencies tend to get overwhelmed with the first rainstorm and they may not get to it promptly.
Cover or insulate exterior hose bibs in areas with freezing weather.
For our homes in the mountains, we use these outdoor insulated faucet covers. They’re easy to install; simply slip over the valve and tighten the Velcro! They come in different sizes, depending on your application.
Keep cold out.
Inspect all exterior doorways for proper weather stripping, and that windows seal tightly. Maintain exterior window caulking to keep water from leaking through into the windowpanes, down into the wall, or the unit. This issue is a prime opportunity for mold to grow.
Check the roof, chimney, and wood stove.
It’s essential to be ahead of the game on roof leaks. First, look for missing, curled, or damaged shingles. Next, check the metal flashing around the chimney, vents, and valleys for damage. Finally, make sure the chimney cap is present and attached correctly.
If the fireplace is used often, have a chimney cleaning company out to clean soot from the flue, or it’s been longer than three years since the last cleaning. Make sure you can open and close the damper to the flue.
For wood stoves, inspect all components for corrosion, cracks, or loose joints. Toxins can leak out of the stovepipe if these ailments are present. In addition, make sure the wall protection is correctly installed and (if provided) a child-proofing fence is in place.
Inspect trees surrounding your property.
Look for low-hanging or weak branches that could break off and potentially injure someone, block walkways, or bring down power lines in a storm.
Check HVAC units and replace air filters.
Every other Fall, we have our HVAC tech out to inspect the heaters. We have them check for any cracks or corrosion that could lead to carbon monoxide leaks, plus make sure the pilot light is lit and all electrical components are safe. They also check the thermostats to make sure they are functioning correctly.
Although it is stated in the lease that replacing the air filter is the responsibility of the tenant, we do it ourselves. Why? Quite frankly, they never do it. Having a clogged filter can cause the heater or AC to work harder, therefore shortening it’s lifespan. Also, it’s just not healthy to have all that dust matted within the filter that is supposed to be keeping the air clean. Many tenants have no idea that there even is a filter that needs to be replaced! Sometimes the air filter is hard to access as well so it’s just easier to add it to our tasks to complete during inspections.
Finally, we replace the batteries in the thermostat as well. Nothing worse than getting a late-night call that the heater is not working, only to find out the batteries running the thermostat had died! TIP: So you know when they were last changed, use a permanent marker to write the date on the batteries and the air filter before you install them.
Walk the exterior and check for cracks or peeling paint.
Sometimes you do not need a whole house paint job but nipping these issues in the bud early on will keep your future paint maintenance minimalized. If needed, caulk and seal cracks to keep water from penetrating behind siding or trim. If you find peeling paint, sand it and get a good coat of primer on there before touching up.
Also check these items:
- Look at fences to ensure they are secure in the event of strong winds.
- Check that the gas wrench is still attached to the gas meter for easy shut off in case of a fire or leak.
- Inspect sump pumps in basements and under the home to make sure they are cleaned and working correctly.
As you can see, most of the preventative maintenance is for the exterior of the home. Of course, the location of your rental property will make a big difference in the timing of this maintenance. All our properties are in Northern California, so we have a reasonably mild climate. This allows us to wait until November to perform these duties. For landlords in areas with freezing and snowy winter climates, you might want to start this maintenance in late September or early October. Regardless, you won’t want to avoid planning your Fall seasonal maintenance for your rental properties.
We hope you find this guide on how to raise rents without sacrificing a good tenant helpful in your landlord journey. We started Your Landlord Resource for this reason!
Prefer to listen to our podcast on Fall Maintenance and Year End Prep? Check out these episodes!
Fall’s Checklist: Rental Property Maintenance for a Hassle Free Winter
Fall is the time to prepare for a potentially harsh winter ahead. So, we are in Northern California and with the exception of our mountainous areas, we don’t see exceptionally harsh winters.
But that doesn’t mean that we do not prepare our rental properties located here for the winter months. We still get pretty big storms with high winds and last year, quite a bit of unexpected rainfall. The point is inspections are always a good idea. Even more so just before the cold winter months set it.
In this episode we give you suggestions on what fall seasonal maintenance items you should be doing for your rental properties, especially if they will experience freezing temperatures this coming winter season.
Where we touch on the things you should focus on inside the unit, most of the tasks are for the exterior of your rental property. We discuss what to do and why it is important. The rest is up to you.
Winter and End of Year Prep for Your Rental Property Business
Where we do this in the Spring season, one of the best times of the year to perform these tasks is during Fall, in preparation for the winter months.
This week on the podcast, we are discussing what landlords should focus on to winterize their rental property.
We also dive deep into year-end business preparations in the office, which is something that really should not be overlooked. Budgets, analysis, planning, and tax prep are just a few of the items we will be discussing.
Check out our other blogs to guide you on your self-management journey as a landlord:
How to Raise Rents Without Sacrificing Tenants
A Landlord’s Guide To Fire Safety In Rental Properties
Security Deposits: 5 Tips Landlords Should Know
Cash Reserves for Rental Properties, How Much is Enough?
Tips for Taking Great Rental Property Photos
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Looking for a community of DIY landlords you can ask questions and bounce ideas off? Join the Your Landlord Resource Facebook Group, a discussion group for support, tips, and guidance to help create successful landlord-tenant relationships.
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October 8-14 is National Fire Prevention Week, and being that many of our relatives are firefighters, we thought we would honor their employment by offering up tips to keep them from having to work too hard! But seriously, for landlords, this guide to fire safety is essential to follow ANYTIME when managing their rental properties.
Many elements can potentially cause fires in any home. Still, when it comes to rental properties, these potential fire hazards likely occur from tenants just not thinking thoroughly about their surroundings. As a rental property owner, it is your responsibility to do periodic inspections. We do ours twice yearly in spring and fall. Ensure there are no maintenance issues to be fixed, no lease violations you need to address, and absolutely no fire hazards that the tenant needs to remedy.
Below you will find our landlord tips to guide you when inspecting fire safety in your rental properties.
Know Your Local and State Fire and Building Codes
Codes differ from state to state, but many are just plain common sense. Please know you may not be covered by insurance if you violate fire codes. Some items you will find addressed in these codes are:
How many persons can live in the unit? In California, a single-family home rental is capped at six separate tenants. In apartments, our state goes by the two-plus 1 rule. This rule allows two persons per bedroom and one additional for the household. It is important to remember that these are guidelines, and should no health or safety issue be present, we cannot discriminate on familial status.
What is the requirement for fire extinguishers based on square feet of living space? This code may differ for single-family homes vs. multi-family complexes, but the theory is the same. You need to provide fire extinguishers for the tenants to use in the event of a fire. More on how we handle that below.
What kind of fire escapes or ladders do you need to provide for rentals with more than one story?
Where do I need to post escape plans?
Do I need to install sprinklers in my rental property?
How many smoke detectors do I need in each unit?
Can I have a locked gate at the entrance of the property? If so, how will fire and police access the property in the event of an emergency? Does said locked gate need to swing outward to allow easy and quick escape for my tenants?
To find general information on the fire code for your county or region, visit the National Fire Protection Agency Code Finder Page.
Install Smoke Detectors
OK, so this one is obvious, but there are some things you should know about the type of detector you provide and where the placement should be. You can choose to provide standard smoke detectors with 9v or newer ones with 10-year batteries. As they are new, we have had several units fail and find some kinks the companies need to work through.
There are newer smoke detectors that are wireless/battery operated but interconnect to communicate with the other sensors in the home. For example, if a fire starts in the living room, that detector will trigger the hallway one and continue until all sensors signal a fire warning for the tenants. You have on average less than three minutes from the time you hear a smoke alarm to escape a fire. The sooner you hear an alarm, the sooner you can get out safely. Smoke alarms that link together so that when one goes off, they all go off, are called interconnected alarms. These alarms provide more warnings in more places, giving your family more time to escape a house fire. Houses built after 1993 are required by building codes to have interconnected alarms that are wired into their electrical system.
We use this wireless interconnecting smoke detector in our 100-year-old single-family home rental. For under $30, you really can’t beat the price considering the advanced safety you receive.
If you’d like to add an interconnecting smoke and carbon dioxide combo unit, this is the one we recommend.
How many smoke detectors do you need to provide?
Every six months, we spend an entire day at our six-plex doing inspections and routine maintenance. However, when checking on our single-family rental homes, it only takes 1-2 hours at most. Inspections may seem like an invasion on the tenant, but it is standard procedure for most business-minded landlords. Keep reading to understand why landlord inspections are an essential element to operating your rental property successfully.
We do our inspections and routine maintenance every six months, regardless of when the tenant entered the rental unit. But, of course, if it’s only been a few weeks, we do pass on that unit.
We like to structure the inspections to be completed in the fall and spring months, usually November and April, respectively. Working in these gentler weather months allows us to prep for the most impactful winter and summer seasons. For efficiency, we inspect all units in the building on the same day.
When we say routine maintenance, we are referring to items within the units themselves. We do not perform exterior maintenance these days, which occurs more often and does not impede on the tenants or their units.
Behind the Scenes
Before we discuss the actual tasks performed, it is important to note two items.
- Make sure it is written in your lease that you are allowed to do periodic inspections. Do not say quarterly or semi-annual. Use the word periodic. Why? Leave yourself open to do checks more often if you suspect the tenant is violating lease terms. This terminology is not a hall pass to enter the unit weekly. That is harassment. It also allows you some grace if you cannot perform the inspections as often as you’d like. Life happens. Build yourself some leeway in case you need it.
- YOU MUST GIVE AMPLE NOTICE to the tenant before the inspection. For most states, at minimum, you must give 24-hour notice. However, we opt for at least 48-hours, usually more. Ample warning allows the tenant time to tidy up the unit (hopefully) and be ready for you to spend an hour or so working in there.
Notice can be via email or text. Our advice is to make sure it is in writing, as all correspondence with tenants should be. Explain in the notice precisely what you will be doing during that inspection and maintenance visit. Ask the tenant to let you know if there are any issues they have noticed that need to be addressed. This is a perfect opportunity for your tenant to let you know that the window won’t close all the way or if the toilet is running. Now you can have parts ready to repair the issue or schedule the appliance repair person to fix the screeching noise on the washing machine.
If you give them more than 48 hours’ notice, send a reminder email the day before, letting them know the approximate time you will be in the unit. We usually will give a 2-hour window. If they want to be present, they can make arrangements to be home when you are there. Conversely, if they prefer to be out or need to change the window time due to a remote meeting, you can work around them.
Still with us? Keep reading to see why inspections are so essential to a landlord’s success.
The Inspection: Use Your Team Members
When we schedule the inspection date, we also hire our contractor to join us that day and assist us with it. We pay him his hourly wage, and he will take part of the list and check the items he can repair right there on the spot. Most common repairs will be a running toilet, leaky faucet, loose handles on cabinets or drawers, closet doors that have come off the track, and loose door handles.
It is also why we ask our tenants in advance about any issues they are noticing. Then, we can make sure our contractor has all the necessary parts to repair those issues right there on the spot. If necessary, we can plan for a specific repair person to be present if needed as well. Often, we will need to have our appliance repairman out during that day to check on a refrigerator or a washing machine.
Our contractor inspects the unit before the tenant moves in, so he is acutely aware of the level of wear and tear and how easy or rough a tenant may be treating the unit as he does this semi-annual inspection along with us.
What To Inspect:
Tenants, termites, and tenting, OH MY! A few years ago, we had the unfortunate situation of termites in our six-unit apartment complex. This blog covers how to navigate the process of termites in your rental property. We cover how we discovered them, the tenting and fumigation process, communication and method of guiding our tenants, and all the nuts and bolts that came along with this experience.
Discovery
Our termite story begins with a tenant informing us that she noticed a few tiny pinholes around her front door frame and molding. On the floor directly underneath, she saw fine dust. Under the advice of our pest control company, she was asked to place blue painters’ tape over the holes. If the hole appears through the tape again, we have termites. Indeed, holes were there a few days later. Ugggh! How could we have termites in our rental property?!
After picking our stomachs up off the ground, we immediately scheduled our pest company out for a complete pest inspection. The apartment in question is in the front of our six-unit building. After investigating the basement, the inspector confirmed there was a small infestation of dry wood termites. Dry wood termites, unlike subterranean termites, live inside the wood, making soil treatment pretty much useless.
We were given two options:
Back when I started as a landlord, I had no idea what I was doing. My brother was my partner and was a general contractor so, he handled all of the maintenance responsibilities. I had to learn how to market our vacancies, process applications, price the rents, account for the income and expenses, and most importantly, have good customer service to our clients, the tenants. When my brother became injured and could no longer work in the family business, I needed to learn the importance of an excellent team to call upon when needed. I quickly learned that landlording is similar to a team sport.
For clarification, a team member does not necessarily mean an employee. These are tradesmen, legal counsel, bank/loan companies, real estate professionals, CPAs, cleaning companies, appliance repairpersons, landscapers, etc. Essentially, a team member is ANYONE who can make your life easier by completing the tasks they know and do best.
Our Top Five Team Members
Choosing the five most critical team members is like only picking two of my three children to go in a lifeboat. Where Kevin and I can handle many jobs, every person on our team is crucial to our success.
Maintenance
We have our general contractor on speed dial. We were lucky enough to find a contractor that does not do large projects. He worked for years on large jobs and, as he has gotten a bit older, decided that smaller jobs have fewer headaches and likely more income for him. In addition, he lives in the same area of our units (we live 2 hours from our rental properties), so he can quickly head over when a maintenance issue arises.
He does not mind being on call when we are on vacation, and he is very protective of our properties. He is insured and bonded because he is a licensed contractor, so we have no trust concerns with him being in occupied units. For the most part, he will do almost anything except new electrical. For that, we hire his electrician.
How did we meet him? He was referred to us by the painter. You will find that referrals are the easiest way to secure a team member, so do not be shy about asking fellow landlords for direction when in need.
Legal Counsel
As a landlord, we cannot express enough the importance of an excellent real estate lawyer. We have called upon our real estate attorney multiple times for
Differing Opinions
Offering our tenants some incentive upon lease renewal has become a more explored policy in the last few years. However, landlords sit on both sides of the fence on this policy. Some landlords who see themselves to be fair, responsible, and kind to their tenants believe that offering an incentive to tenants as a bonus upon renewing the lease is a waste of time and money. Instead, they feel the tenant should appreciate their relationship and be grateful they are not dealing with a nightmare landlord. They even will go so far as to believe that if the tenant were to move out, it would be an opportunity for them to raise the rent higher. That certainly can be true in rent-controlled areas, but a view of “take it or leave it” is not uncommon for many landlords.
The other school of thought on incentives in exchange for lease renewals is that landlords will do what they can to retain a good tenant instead of losing income due to a vacancy. Their issue is the time it takes to flip a unit to get it ready for a new tenant. Meeting for the pre-move-out inspection, after move-out inspection, dealing with accounting for security deposit returns or losses the security deposit must cover are seen as a pain. These items do not even consider ALL the other typical maintenance issues: replacing/cleaning carpet, painting the unit, repairing broken blinds, replacing run-down appliances, marketing the property, and then going through all the rigamarole of the application process to place the new tenant.
The adage that time is money runs very true for our family. We have hectic lives and honestly will do what we can to avoid a vacancy.