Tenant Responsibility- Are you holding up your part of the lease?
Ah, renting! There are many pros and cons of renting a place in Austin and one major perk is that your owner is responsible for maintenance and when things go wrong. You won’t have to worry about spending hundreds, possibly thousands on repairs, unless of course you were the cause of these issues.
However, as a tenant in West Campus, North Campus, Central Austin, South Austin and the rest of this beautiful city, you have tenant responsibilities to the owner which are located in your lease contract. Of course the responsibility isn’t anywhere near the owners responsibility to you to keep the house, apartment, or condo in good living condition. What are these responsibilities?
Well, let’s start with always keeping your doors locked, especially, when you’re not home. Not only do you need to protect your belongings, which is a given, you’re responsible for making sure the owners appliances and home are not damaged or ruined. Also, remember to lock windows and other access points to the house. Another responsibility you will have is changing your AC filter! What is an AC filter? Look around your living room, bedroom, etc and you will find a vent apart from where the air comes out. That is your AC intake which has a filter that collects, dust, hair, dirt, and all the other dirty objects that you don’t want to breath in from your AC. Once that filter is completely full, it is very difficult for air to get through the spaces in between the dirt, leading to less cool air coming through your vent or even worse, serious damage to the AC system in genera. That can be very expensive and guess what, you’re responsibly for that damage if the AC filter is the cause. This is why it’s so important to change the filters either every month in the Summer or three months depending on the kind of filter you buy. They are relatively cheap and of course much cheaper than replacing parts or an entire AC system. You can pick up these filters at most grocery stores, Target, Home Depot, Lowes and more.
Along with those items listed above that is your responsibility as a tenant, you also want to remember to always report issues in the home immediately. You’re not a hassle for your owner when you report malfunctions and problems because the longer they sit, the more damage that could potentially be done. They want to hear about the issues to get them fixed!