It appears to me that some of my tenants don't know how to mow, or don't like to mow, weed eater is broke, always a reason for grass being knee high.

Has anyone included lawn service with the monthly rent for SFH, if so, what was your fee? Did it work? More trouble than it was worth?

Thanks in advance.

I'm fortunate in that overgrown grass is a code violation. Tenants either get a warning from the city/county which I get also and then they typically comply. If they were to be fined they'd have to pay of course. Most don't let it get bad enough to get officially warned because they feel embarrassed when I get a notice too.

as we do not want our SFH rental to be Id'd as "oh....that's a rental" we include the lawn care in the rent. There is no real upcharge and so far the T's that we have had were more than Ok with it.

Here un-mowed tenant grass is a constant never ending problem. If I threaten a rent increase, the grass will get mowed that day, but two weeks later, we are back to square one.

I have one place where the woman kicked out the non-working husband last summer. At the same time, she signed a new lease (had been M2M). Signed lease without hubby.

After signing, she let's me know she doesn't know how she will get the grass cut. She is physically not able. Besides, hubby did a crappy job of it.

So I agree to have it done by the neighbor that is doing a vacant lot across the street ( and who tells me all the comings and goings).

In April, it is time to sign a new lease. She has since gotten a raise. I let her know that it cost me XXX to have your grass done last summer and so far this spring. I need to raise your rent by $75 a month to cover it. I'm charging enough to cover the roughly 2 times a month and put a dent in what I paid out last year. It was worth it to keep the city off my back last year, but I let her know I could not keep absorbing it.

Fast forward a couple of months. Hubby is back (for now). She asked if he could start mowing and the extra could go toward their arrears. (Long story, one of these days I'll explain )

My response was not just yet. I want to see if he stays. Plus, he does a crappy job and is the reason you ended up with mice last year because he let it get so long and didn't trim. She agreed.

I have and do. I include it for $40 a month, because it'll be $80 a month in the summer. So they pay for it all year. Some take it, some don't.

If they don't keep up on the grass, I'll just text them and ignore whatever excuse they have and give them a courtesy deadline. If they don't do it by then, I will give them a firm deadline or I'll hire someone and back charge them.

I've gotten a few notices from the city this year for tenants letting the grass get too long. Once I remind them they will be responsible for the $363 fine if the city cuts it, all but one have taken care of it.

The remaining problem yard was cut by the tenant earlier in the season when we got the first violation notice. But, they have not cut it since and a new violation was issued. The city made it to the point of sending their contractor to mow, but they couldn't because the tenant's dogs were in the yard. My mowing contractor will have the same problem. These tenants are a pending eviction case and may be moving soon. But, if they don't move, they will need to get the lawn mowing issue taken care of.

In SFH's, tenants are responsible for lawn care. If I get an overgrown notice from the city (rare), I forward a copy to the tenant via email/text with a "get this fixed in 48 hours or my guy is going to do it for $75 and you get to pay me back for that."

In plexes, I provide the lawn care. Tenant mowers never did a good enough job or kept up with it and I was still getting occasional notices.

I've offered paid lawn care for SFH's, but at $25/week my guy is too expensive for most renters even if we spread it out over a year's time. However, it's a good deal for me on my plexes because it's only $12.50 per unit on my duplexes and $6.25/unit on my 4-plex. Tenants won't mow for that little.

In SFH, the tenant is responsible for lawn. If we get a rare ticket, tenant will also as it goes through who pays water bill to the city.

That's a lease violation. Most mow and keep it mowed at that point.

In multi, lawn care/sidewalk snow is offered to one tenant as a way to drop rent. We provide mower. I think this is a mistake, but I'm only 50% :). We get a ticket, we hire it out and tenants discount is revoked.