I’m a reluctant landlord. I never wanted to rent out my home, but given that we’re choosing to keep it off the market at the moment, there’s little recourse other than to find tenants.

Often tenants will engage in a “work for rent reduction” situation and while I believe most of the time these arrangements work out great, it’s a really good idea to have your expectations in writing. Here’s what I mean - lawn care is really subjective. Putting something in your agreement like “the yard must be tidy” isn’t all that helpful. What is tidy to one, isn’t tidy to another.

Here is some sample language on how to qualify the subjective - to which I add the disclaimer SHOW YOUR LAWYER. This is only meant as an idea-generating sample and should not be cut & pasted into your legal document without legal consul.

- Caretaking duties include keeping the lawn to be mowed to within 2 inches of the lawn height of the adjacent neighbors’ lawns.

- Caretaking duties include shoveling 1” or greater of snow fall within 24 hours. Shoveling includes the front walkway and the driveway.

-Caretaking duties include raking seasonally so that there are less leaves than would fill one standard leaf bag.

-Caretaking duties include weeding the garden beds once a week for 30 minutes.

-Caretaking duties include cleaning out gutters monthly during summer months, washing windows once a year and providing yard spring clean-up so that the yard has no piles of yard waste including, but not limited to, leaves, sticks and other plant matter.

Should these expectations not be fulfilled, the landlord reserves the right to cancel this work arrangement upon providing the tenants 30 days notice.

Seem harsh? It may SOUND harsh, but it isn’t meant to be. And are you really going to be out there measuring the lawn - no.  But it is meant to provide a measuring stick to evaluate working off the rent and to give you a leg to stand on when talking to tenants about the quality of their work.

When presenting this language in a document I think its important to say something like, “I believe this is going to be a great arrangement, I really do. However, I did spell out expectations here in the lease just so we’re all clear about what the caretaker duties entail.”

Good luck. And remember, get legal consul on your leasing agreement!