Only a generation ago, the only way to contact a tenant was to call him – on a landline. Well, either that or to knock on his door. Either way, the “sorry, I wasn’t at home” excuse was a mainstay for rent delinquent tenants.
That excuse is gone with the wind. Anyone and everyone is accessible 24-7 – if they want to be. But while technical constraints on contacting your tenants are a thing of the past, there are new social, and legal, conventions on when and how you should contact your tenant. Conventions which can often leave you wondering what communication method is best.
There is no one size fits all solution for this dilemma – each type of communication actually serves a very different purpose. Below, we outline specific considerations which may lead you to favor one over the other, give a few tips for optimizing this communication method, and help familiarize you with pertinent regulations and best practice norms.
Reasons to dial up your tenants
It seems a bit old fashioned, but sometimes there is no substitute for a live conversation. Occasions on which this is called for include:
Emergency – every disaster recovery plan includes protocols for contacting your tenants in all possible ways – including phone calls.
Courtesy reminders – a quick and friendly call may just prevent late notices and lease violations, resulting in less hard feelings all around.
Clearing things up and digging for more information – as convenient as emails and texts are, they just don’t have the give-and-take dialog that result in details, clarity and cooperative problem solving.
Calling your tenants: best practice
Calling people up all too often results in missed call, voice mails and frustration for both parties.
The key to success is patience and courtesy. While younger generations are perceived as being call-averse, preferring emails and texts to voice calls, there are several techniques you can use to make your tenants more comfortable with call from their landlord:
Be professional: always start with stating your name and the purpose of your call. Overfamiliarity, chattiness, overt friendliness and vagueness will merely upset your tenants who may misconstrue your intentions.
Leave detailed voicemail messages: realistically, you are going to reach your tenant’s voicemail quite often. Simply saying “call me back, please” is not going to actually increase the chance they will call you back. Also, keep in mind that a professional tone is even more important in voicemail as it is a recording that may well be admissible in a court of law.
Add a personal touch. Being personable is just good manners, as well as good customer service. Keep your tone friendly, and add a greeting or salutation.
Only call during business hours.
With the exception of severe emergencies, stick to business hours when calling tenants, whether current or prospective. By the same measure, make the call only for business reasons and be careful to avoid overstepping as that may violate the privacy rights of your tenants.
Are phone conversations legally binding?
As discussed above, phone calls and courtesy go together. But is this courtesy legally binding? If you call to let a prospective tenant know that they are accepted for the rental unit does that mean there is now a binding verbal agreement? It all depends on your country’s legal code –in most of countries the answer is No. However, to be sure we are all the time specify to all potential renters until we don’t have signed rent contract or reservation contract to secure the flat everything is open, and we can give the flat to someone that will be faster.
The other side of this coin is to follow up phone calls with documentation to back up whatever you discuss with your tenants. This could mean filing your call notes into the tenant note section of your property management software and/or sending a follow-up email to your tenant.
Why email?
There are many things you can do by Email which simply can’t be done by phone
- Sharing visual data
Pictures, graphs and so forth can be highly informative, and the only way to really get them across to your tenant is via Email.
- Memos
Most property manager software sends tenant automatic reminders, saving you precious time and aggravation. Tenant invoices, added charges, due rents, and overdue reminders are all perfectly suited to be sent via Email, with no need for you to trouble yourself or your employees.
- Spreading the word –
Whether it is building renovations, ne policies or maintenance projects, sending group messages, if you own or manage a multi-unit property is a great way to spread the word.
- Documentation storage and record keeping.
Email provides you with date and time-stamped communication records. This can be critical in case of later disputes. Indeed, some landlord software even has options to copy-paste email replies into your tenant notes for exactly such eventualities.
Emailing your tenants: Best practice
Every Email should be composed in a purposeful and professional manner – if your emails are unclear, rambling or incoherent you will not secure either better communications or tenant cooperation.
- Indeed, if the email lacks any clear business purpose then it is simply spam – and that is how it will end up.
- Be absolutely sure to include your contact information in your email.
- Double check to ensure any mentioned attachments are included.
- Schedule the emails to arrive during their business hours. You might work in the evenings and on weekends, but they probably don’t and should not be expected to respond to your electronic communications during their down time.
Is an Email a legally binding document?
The short answer is yes – emails can be considered written documents. They may or may not be considered sufficiently legally binding for notifications of move-out, lease violation or evictions. It all depends on the country you are in. Double check with your real estate board or real estate attorney to be informed of your own situation.
Possible reasons to text your tenants
- You can be sure that they will actually read your communication. The year is 2022. Text messages have a 99% open rate – and 94% of them are read within 5 minutes. Your tenant will not be able to claim that they missed your phone call or that your email was somehow identified as spam.
- Accessible. Even tenants without smartphones can send and receive texts. Emails, in contrast, require a computer or smartphone- and an Email account.
- Responsiveness. It is 2022, remember? People reflexively respond to texts, both for reasons of convenience, habits, and social norms. Indeed, according to Text Marketer, people respond 6-8 times as much to text messages in comparison to emails.
- Image and competitiveness. Communicating via texts positions you as tech-savvy and millennial friendly managers/landlords. Unlike, you know… the other guy.
That said, every tenant is an individual and you might have tenants who either cannot receive texts or who are averse to them. The best way to prevent miscommunication is to discuss their preferred communication option with them before you sign the lease – and even include said option in the lease contract.
Getting started with texting
- Get their written permission to text – your lease contract should include a clause defining preferred means of communication, including tenant willingness to receive texts.
- Manage expectations.
Let your tenants know just how often you expect to be texting them – and what type of information you intend to convey in the texts. It is probably best to limit texts to rent due date reminders and maintenance/repair updates. Every text you send them should be both purposeful and meaningful to ensure your tenant pays proper attention to them and responds accordingly
By the same measure, provide your tenant with guideline for texting you. You may require them to use your tenant portal for all of their maintenance requests for example, rather than texting you. You should also make clear to your tenants that truly crucial issues such as late rent, or notice to vacate their lease need to be communicated in writing and confirmed by phone call – as a well written lease contract will stipulate.
If you are using property manage software you might well have texting features, including automated and group texting features. You should absolutely familiarize yourself with them (and consider updating or replacing your software if they are absent – the year is 2022, remember?) as they will save you much time.
Using these features you can automatically notify tenants whose rent is due, or late, or received, create automated seasonal maintenance reminders, or craft single-use messages for individual tenants or all tenants in a given multi-unit property.
Are texts legally binding documents?
As of now, most jurisdictions do not attach the same legal force to texts as they do to Emails, let alone hard copies. Accordingly, you will be better served by providing hard copies of all your essential communications, particularly changing lease terms, rent increases, notices to vacate and he like. Texting tenants should be viewed as a reminder, or a follow-up to Emails and written communications.
Summary
When communicating with your tenants consider the purpose, importance, urgency, and need to meet legally binding documentation requirements. Then consider who your tenant is. Millennials and generation Z individuals will likely favor texts. However, preferences are individual and constantly shifting. Many people prefer old-fashioned phone calls to electronic communication. Rather than pigeonholing your tenants according to age categories and expectations it is probably best to simply ask them what they prefer and adapt your communication methods accordingly.
