As a landlord or property manager, you will find it ultimately inevitable that illegal activity occurs on your premises, at one time or another—even if your property is in the most upscale area. What should you do when you discover that unlawful acts have occurred within your rental property? Learn some best practices in the following paragraphs.

First off, if a crime occurs on your property, what should you do? In many cases, theft or burglary occurs from time to time. Another fairly common crime that your tenants may be victim to is mugging or battery. Obviously, your first concern is your tenant. Make sure that he or she is alright, call the proper authorities (i.e,, the police in most jurisdictions but sometimes the country sheriff), and take care of the immediate situation. Safety and the well-being of your tenants should be your highest priority.

As Fall has just arrived, it’s very easy to push off winter preparation for a few months. However, NOW is the right time to be thinking about preparing for winter, especially when it comes to preparing for winter storms.

Each year, Mother Nature wreaks havoc on rental properties all across the land, from damage causes by snow, water, hail, lightning, and myriads of other things. Winter storms cause billions of dollars in damage each year and property management companies spend considerable money and time preparing for winter storms and cleaning up in their aftermath.

When you and your tenants signed the rental agreement, listed on the agreement were all the tenants (i.e., roommates) who would be ultimately liable for payment of the rent and carrying out the obligations specified in the rental agreement. Over time, you may find that people other than the originally-listed tenants are living in the rental unit.

While most rental agreements run their course without any changes necessary, on occasion, you may find that your rental agreement needs updating. One situation where this becomes painfully obvious is when the people seemingly living in an apartment are clearly not the original tenants.

For the vast majority of move-outs, you will conduct your walk-through, determine what is necessary to bring your rental unit back to your standards for your next tenant, and assess any applicable charges against the exiting tenant’s security deposit. Most times, this process moves along without a hitch.

However, on occasion, a tenant will leave without notice, and you are left having to deal not only with finding another tenant to rent to, but also having to handle properly removing the personal property that was left behind.

In any business hiring and managing employees is a difficult and challenging process. It is also a legal and bookkeeping nightmare and can cost a lot in terms of bureaucracy and record-keeping. You may be tempted—for good reason—to hire independent contractors. Here’s why.

First of all, let’s address the nuts and bolts of hiring independent contractors versus employees.