What is a Landlady?

A landlady, or female landlord, is the term for a woman that oversees the administrative duties of a rental property such as apartments, rental houses, strip malls, and office complexes. Responsibilities of a landlady would include anything that falls within the realm of ensuring that the property is kept habitable and safe, such as taking work requests for maintenance issues, showing rental properties and making than market-ready, collecting rents, and writing up leases. Many times the landlady is the actual owner of the property in question, but that is not an absolute – she may just as often be employed by the property owners to carry out the responsibilities as the landlord. In the latter case, she shares virtually all off the same responsibilities as the owner does and will oversee renting the properties as well as the ongoing care and maintenance of them. In the event of eviction, the landlady will also stand in as the power of attorney of the property owner.

Being an arduous task to find appropriate rental candidates, the landlady is responsible for employing numerous checks and applications in order to ensure the highest caliber of tenants. These checks can include criminal and background checks, credit checks, and past rental history. Once the appropriate checks have been approved, the landlady will typically draw up and prepare legal papers for the prospective tenants, which will include the lease and utility agreements, if any. After the apartment or property has been rented, her duties will vary and may include lawn care and general groundskeeping, as well as ensuring all other maintenance is performed in a timely fashion. The duties that are expected and required of the landlady typically will be carefully detailed in the lease.

The landlady is the person that a tenant would go to in the event of a problem with an apartment or rental property to facilitate its speedy correction. She may or may not have a license to sell realty depending upon the legal ordinances of the locality. When a tenant vacates the premises, the she is responsible for ensuring that the security deposit is returned to the former inhabitants, generally within 45 days. In the event that there are excessive damages to the property, she is responsible for providing written notice detailing what those damages are to the former tenants, or she could risk forfeiting the security deposit entirely.