I have a few rental properties. I always seem to get tenants that are very rough on the houses and break minor things like door handles, stopping up the toilet, etc. and have an idea I wanted to check if it would hold up legally. Can I offer my tenants $100 monthly discount on the rent if they agree to a $50 deductible for repairs? This saves the tenant $100/month to maintain the house in great shape and save the landlord the money too. Would this hold up legally if they accept the monthly discount in their lease agreement?

Answer:
You might need to word it differently like make it a cash bonus at the end of the lease if they have less than 10 service calls. You want them to call if they have a leak or important item. Making them pay $50 will make them slow down calling. Then they might say you didn’t fix things that you legally had to without charging them. Making them pay the entire rent then giving them the a free month every year or reduced January 1 rent by a few hundred gets you the same answer that they call less but makes them feel more free to call when they should. So if they called 10 times and you deducted 500 from the 1,200 they would get 700 off January 1 rent.