When a tenant reacts inappropriately to a stressful interaction- how do you, as a landlord, handle the situation?
Emotionally volatile situations can occur in any life
context.
Even the best intentioned landlord or tenant may have limits
to their patience when life’s twists and turns, get the better of us.
So what do you do?
Here are some vital tips from the team at RealRenta- number
5 is the MOST IMPORTANT.
· Always remain calm and professional. Your overly
emotional tenant may choose to follow your lead.
· Terminate any toxic communication.Don’t say
things like "just relax” or "calm down”, take actual steps to de-escalate the
argument. Calmly state your purpose and let the tenant know that you want to
help and address the issues.
·
Take your tenant on a brief walk. Get your
tenant to step out of the fog of their anger by giving them different stimuli.
Our moods can be altered by the simplest of sensual cues ie, a bird chirping,
some sunlight etc. Use your environment to your advantage.
· Don’t relinquish your power. The goal is not to
be right but to address your tenant’s grievance and restore sanity and
productivity to your relationship. Your opinion is low priority right now and
objectivity is your greatest resource.
· Harness the power of listening and empathy. Your
tenant may be in fight or flight mode: their adrenaline and pulse may be sky
high. Allow your tenant to speak their piece and no matter how unreasonable
they may sound, just listen. Let the tenant know that you truly hear them and
just LISTEN.
By enacting these five tips, you may be able to help your
tenant calm down and de-escalate a tense situation.
Engaging in a white-knuckle argument will not help
accomplish any goals and neither should you just agree to everything, for the
sake of peace.
Every successful relationship needs to be WIN-WIN and
employing these tactics, will help you set an example of cool-headedness for
any challenging life situation.
Use RealRenta to communicate with your tenants and take advantage of
the automated date and time –stamping for all transactions and interactions.
Start your Free trials: https://app.realrenta.com/Signup.aspx
Marlene Liontis
Friday, 15 November 2019
