Issue link: https://nest.uberflip.com/i/1188750
But these expectations vary from lease to lease. Even if your landlord handles the major repairs, there are plenty of daily duties that could land on your plate. Before you sign a new lease or re-up your current agreement, take a close look at the fine print and make sure you understand your responsibilities as a tenant. Below you'll find some common maintenance tasks that in our lease (and most others) tenants are responsible for. Yard work and outdoor maintenance If your rental has a yard, you might have to play groundskeeper. If you scored a big backyard with your rental, you may have also scored a part-time gig as your own personal groundskeeper: Some leases require tenants to maintain the lawn, sidewalk, and other outdoor spaces, ours does. that includes keeping the moss off of decks and walks and making sure that the grass is neat and tidy as well as the beds and shrubs/trees. Sometimes owner opt to pay for basic yard care for the tenant (usually this cost is built into the rent), however more often than not this is a general service (called a mow and blow) not a high end estate gardener, so you would still need to deal with snow removal, moss removal, watering the lawn, weeding, etc. Cleaning of the gutters and pest control, in our leases anyway, are the owners responsibility. When in doubt, refer to your lease or ask your landlord to clarify who handles what. 1 Minor plumbing issues Chances are, your landlord or property manager is responsible for keeping your plumbing systems running, which includes leak prevention and repairs, but plumbing clogs may be an exception, depending on how the lease is written. "A simple toilet clog? The tenant can handle." It never hurts to keep a plunger available. The thing that most tenants who live in single family homes don't often realize is that every time a vendor is called out to the house there is a service fee which usually start at about $65 (as opposed to an apartment building where they may have on-site staff), so if someone calls and they are having issues with one outlet in the house I always tell them to check the breaker box. If tenants get lazy and just expect for a property manager to send someone out and it is a simple fix that they could have done—that is often times a tenant charge. Look it up on YOUTUBE or see what you can do—not so much with electrical work, but with plumbing. Calling 2