I think twice a year is pretty good and as far as driving by I would try to do it once a month just to make sure that cosmetically it looks fine. Driving by too often could be just as annoying if the tenant is aware that is is you which would not be hard if you are doing it once a week.
Every week seems to be too often, but of course if he's just driving by to check the frontage of the house and not really disturbing you, that should be just right. I would say thorough inspection should happen at least twice in a year. That will give the owner ample time to evaluate and make decision whether repairs would be necessary.
I'm a student, so you'd expect that I'd get checked up on a lot considering we're considered the worst tenants, right? Turns out, not so much. Any landlord I've ever had has only ever checked up every few months. It's usually before we move in to ensure everything is fine for us, and that the previous tenants didn't leave any mess-although that didn't work once because there were squatters in my room-then around about Halloween, then in the New Year, and then about April or March, when they start showing the place off to new tenants. And then obviously once we've moved out as I mentioned earlier.
Whoa, I've never actually had my landlord come over for an inspection. I wouldn't mind it at all because she is sweet and we communicate through SMS and email often whenever we have any questions for each other, but I think once or twice a year would be fine. Anything on a weekly or monthly basis is ridiculous and I wouldn't tolerate it if I was renting. No thanks, I'm an adult and I don't need to be babysat.
I believe twice a year is good, because you can not fail to inspect the house, you might not know what is happening on your property, many pretend to rent it for stay yet they are doing some crazy business.
Yes, this is way too intrusive, I think that once or twice per year is fairly reasonable, but in my parents case that doesn't even happen, they have been living there for over 30 years and their landlord hasn't visited, that I can remember.
Well different landlords have different 'modes of operation.' Doing inspections too often will most likely offend the tenants. I remember when I lived in a flat once, the owner never came to inspect them. But any time a tenant wanted to leave he'd send someone over to assess any damage inflicted [on his property] before giving the tenant is deposit which always was three months rent. Anyway, for me I suppose, making inspections every 2 years would be most appropriate [if the tenant stays that long].
An inspection when the tenant is about to leave is mandatory of course, but every two months is a bit intrusive, I don't know, maybe just 5 minutes won't cause any harm, it depends on the case.
I do inspections twice a year, but if I know that the people I'm renting to are up to something I'll check more. I also check about once a month on 6 month leases just to make sure everything is golden. You'd be surprised what goes wrong in 6 months given the opportunity.
