Commercial Renters Best Practices

[Amy_ISS]

A recent thread discusses changing the contact person for a unit rented by a company. When you rent a unit to a business, there are bound to many questions and even problems that could come up. What are the most common concerns and how do you handle them?

[KrisinCali]

Companies change personnel like people change underwear. You'll have one person, Joe, rent the unit as a rep of the company and then he's gone in 6 months and it's rinse and repeat.

[BusyProperties]

I had one last month, the employee had left & I mailed the invoice that I had previously been emailing. The supervisor called & had no idea they were paying for a unit for the last couple of years. She proceeded to ask me what was in it I told here there was no way for me to know. I met her out there and come to find out it was full of old desks & chairs from years ago. She was so mad they had paid to store it. She called someone that day to take them to the dump.

[Amy_ISS]

What policies do you have for these renters? For example, one name on the lease, extended hours, autopay, etc.

[BusyProperties]

What policies do you have for these renters? For example, one name on the lease, extended hours, autopay, etc.

Depends on the business BUT the only true policy we have is that they don't run their business out of the unit. We do have 24 hour access for all tenants. While we would like for them to notify us if someone new takes over, that usually is not the case. Most of ours have a CC on file for autopay so I usually do not find out a new person is in charge until it is denied. I probably should have the agreement updated each time but as long as the original has the business name listed, I just update the file & notes accordingly for the point of contact. I have never had any issues with it. Curious to see what other processes are!

[fishhu1968]

I put the lease in the name of the Business and just change the contact person's name/info. Just as KrisinCali stated, sometimes these people change constantly. I rent to a local Fraternity, which means each year this is a new set of officers. And, of course, I spend a month trying to contact these new people for payment. It's just a routine now that I have to go through. It's part of the business.

[Willar]

We rent to several local businesses and several national/multinational companies. The main thing is to get several contacts in case someone leaves or the position changes. The bigger the firm the more complicated it can be as someone decides to rent, another signs the lease, and another department is in charge of payments. Many times they want to pay by ACH initiated on their end. We've had good luck with many of these and once established they tend to stay for a very long time.