Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Whether you’ve been forced to evict a tenant or if they’ve decided to move on, it’s important to manage your vacant properties to ensure they’re ready and waiting for the next person. Saying goodbye to previous tenants, especially if they’ve always been a good renter, can be quite a sad experience because it means you’ll be losing some stable income. However, it’s bound to happen sooner or later and it’s a good idea to understand how you can manage a vacant property in advance.

So in this post, we’ll be taking a look at how you can avoid ruining the property while it’s vacant and also how you can protect it to ensure that it’s clean and ready for the next tenant.

1. Make sure everything is sealed so nobody can get in

Make sure you’ve sealed everything such as letterboxes, doors and windows to ensure that nobody can get in. This is one of the first things you should do to prevent people from coming in and taking up residence in your property illegally. It’s also important to do this to prevent people from vandalizing your property. If people realize that there’s nobody living in your vacant property, then they might try to break in to steal something or even live inside of it without your consent. To avoid this, make sure you seal it up so that it deters people from trying.

2. Remember to cut off all of the utilities

Make sure you drain all of the plumbing and turn off all of the services. Depending on the type of property, you may need to manually switch everything off and maybe even contact your utility providers saying you no longer need their services for now. However, if you’re confident that you can find a new tenant soon, then you could always skip this step.

3. Make sure your insurer knows

If you’re going to be insuring a vacant property then you need to let your insurer know. Even if it’s only going to be partially vacant, you absolutely need to inform your insurance company and also conduct an assessment risk of your property. Should something go wrong, you’ll at least be able to claim some compensation thanks to your insurance company.

4. Arrange for trash and unwanted things to be thrown out before you decide to refurbish

It’s a good idea to give the place a thorough clean before you even try to renovate it, fix things or invite a new tenant. Make sure you throw out all of the trash and get rid of aging appliances that you don’t need. You may need to contact a rubbish collection service to make this easier.

5. Hire someone to inspect it on a regular basis

A weekly inspection is a great way to ensure that your property is still in great condition for when it’s finally sold or rented by someone. Inspections will help you find out if anything needs to be fixed or changed before you advertise it and invite someone to take a look at your property.