Attach Moving Rules to Lease to Head Off Move-In/Move-Out Disputes

If you’re going to get into a dispute with a tenant, chances are it’ll happen during the move-in or move-out process. While stress is an inherent part of moving, you can go a long way toward preventing disputes and minimizing disputes by getting the tenant to agree to clear moving rules and procedures.  

Problem: Failure to Communicate Breeds Moving Disputes

Frequently, the problems arise because tenants simply don’t know the property’s moving rules, according to veteran property managers. It doesn’t occur to them that stacking furniture in front of a neighboring tenant’s entrance or monopolizing the elevators during business hours violates building rules. Then, when you tell them that they’re breaking the rules, they claim they’ve never seen the rules or ever agreed to follow them. And in many cases, they’re telling the truth.  

It’s not just the moving process. Disputes often arise over what, to the tenant, are unexpected move-in or move-out fees. For example, a Chicago attorney describes a situation where a tenant became irate when the landlord tried to collect its standard $600 move-in fee to cover overtime expenses. The tenant insisted that it had never been notified of the fee and had no intention of paying it. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, the landlord decided to pay the money out of its own pocket rather than take on an irate tenant.   

Solution: Attach Moving Rules to Lease

Experts say that the best way to prevent these problems is by establishing the moving rules well in advance. Legal strategy: Attach the move-in/move-out rules, including any fees, as an appendix to the lease and include lease language incorporating the attachment as part of the lease.

Model Lease Language

Tenant acknowledges that it has received, read, understood, and agreed to comply with Landlord’s move-in/move-out rules and procedures, which are attached to this Lease as Exhibit A, and which are hereby incorporated as part of the Lease, including all revisions that Landlord may make to such rules and procedures from time to time.

This strategy establishes your right to treat move-in/move-out violations as a lease infraction. Better yet, it makes the need to resort to legal remedies far less likely. When tenants are aware of the rules, they’re much more likely to obey them. And if a tenant does commit a violation, you can simply remind it of the rules and that it agreed in the lease to follow them. The result, in the vast majority of cases, is swift compliance.

Practical Pointer: Tenants may ask you to add a sentence to the above language requiring you to provide them with advance notice of any changes to the move-in/move-out rules. This is a reasonable concession that you should be prepared to make. What you don’t want to accept is the requirement that the tenant agree to the change before it can take effect.