Practical Conflict Management Tips to Help Resolve Tenant Disputes

Source: rentredi

Tenancy disputes are an inevitable part of managing properties. Roommates are certain to fall out, and damage to your property means you’ll need to take legal action. 

However, as a landlord, it’s your job to retain a professional, kind approach throughout. The space you lease may be your property, but it is home to your renters. This means you must take steps to de-escalate emotionally fraught conversations and focus on mediating conflict when it arises. 

You’ll also want to ensure that your paperwork and documentation properly protect you. This is key if you’re concerned about late payments or find that tenants are abusing the terms of your lease agreement. Setting clear expectations in your initial paperwork ensures that everyone understands their responsibilities before handing over the keys. 

Communication

Clear, regular communication is the key to a happy tenant-landlord relationship. Getting in touch with your tenants before you schedule maintenance work or are planning to visit the property can help you proactively avoid disputes and disagreements. Maintaining a polite, professional tone throughout shows that you care about looking after the property and take your responsibilities as a landlord seriously. 

If conflict does arise, you must be clear about everyone’s responsibilities. This is key, as some landlords can fall foul of the politeness paradox. Sometimes, striving to be “too nice” can undermine your efforts to be assertive and may mean that your boundaries are crossed and your generosity is taken advantage of. While you should never take a rude or aggressive tone with tenants, it’s important to know when tenants have crossed a line and require polite but firm communication. 

Taking an assertive, professional approach is particularly important if you feel that tenants are crossing boundaries. This can put you in an awkward position and lead to friction if left unresolved. Rather than falling into the politeness paradox, assert your boundaries and maintain a professional relationship with tenants by practicing the art of saying “no” and gracefully leaving conversations that have become unnecessarily heated. 

Mediation Techniques

Tenants who raise disputes are usually in an elevated emotional state when they report their aggrievement. This is entirely understandable, as tenant disputes usually arise when something is wrong with the home they are living in. Rather than escalating conflict during a dispute, use emotional intelligence (EI) strategies to calm everyone down. Effective examples of EI include: 

• Self-Regulation: Utilize mindfulness and relaxation techniques to reduce your cognitive stress and improve your impulse response in the heat of the moment. 
• Empathy: Actively listening to your tenants helps you understand the root cause of their conflict. This can help you avoid hasty judgments and ensure you maintain your reputation as a good landlord.
• Recognize Your Feelings: Take the time to name your feelings to navigate conflict with more grace. Recognize when anger or frustration is getting in the way of good decision-making. 

It’s also worth noting that some conflicts have nothing to do with your responsibilities as a landlord. Sometimes, roommates fall out or relationships break down. When this occurs, you may need to take mediating measures to ensure that rent is paid on time while folks are given time to sort out their new living situation. If this does occur, you’ll want to have a clear understanding of the next steps already outlined in your documentation. 

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Proper Documentation 

Clear, legally binding documentation is crucial during a conflict. If you haven’t covered an issue in your lease agreement, it’s much harder to find a productive path forward with upset tenants. At a minimum, you should have paperwork that covers common landlord-tenant disputes like: 

• Housing discrimination;
• Termination of tenancy;
• Eviction proceedings;
• Unlawful detainers;
• Rent abatements;
• Maintenance responsibilities. 

Unless you happen to work in housing law, you probably can’t assemble this document yourself. As such, you should seriously consider working with a legal professional who specializes in lease agreements and rental law. Having a specialist on hand can help you move forward in a professional, polite manner, too. You don’t have to worry about arguing your case when you know the law is on your side, and you shouldn’t worry about wrongfully evicting tenants if you’ve squared things away with proper legal guidance. 

Conclusion 

Conflict and tenant disputes can be an almost inevitable part of renting a property. Eventually, you and/or your tenants will raise disputes that can be emotionally straining. Rather than getting drawn into heated arguments, put forward a clear, professional persona by working closely with trusted legal advisors who understand rental law. This will also ensure that all your paperwork is in order, which can act as a deterrent to tenants who might otherwise overlook their responsibilities.

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