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Major Changes to Nevada Landlord, Tenant Relationship Laws Part TWO

Some sweeping changes took place in the 2019 Nevada legislative session affecting the relationship between landlords and tenants. All of this change was in SB151 passed in the 11th hour of the last day in session.  Like my blog post Part ONE, these changes affect the landlord essentially in time and cost. Check these out;

1> Eviction related notices must be served by Constable, Process Server, or Attorney. This means a property manager or apartment complexes cannot serve notices themselves.  Imagine the apartment complex with 300 units where 10% of them are late on any given month. What used be a leasing agent walking out of the office and post on a door, now a service must be used. At almost $50/door – this could impact operational expenses significantly. For mom and pops with detached housing units, this could add dollars to the expense of enforcing leases.

2> Constable lockout times will extend as well by a day on average. Current law allows a Constable to post a “24 Hour Notice” on a door informing the tenant of the lockout within 24 hours. The new law changes this to mean no sooner that 24 hours but no later than 36. Hmmm.

3> Former tenants get 5 days to retrieve “essential items”. Under personal property eviction law a landlord has to store items left behind in a property for 30 days. The landlord would have to send out a notice advising the tenant of their right to retrieve their items. The new law does not change process just described but adds a fun little provision. The landlord must provide access to the house within 5 days of vacating to allow “essential items” to be retrieved. These items could be diapers, medicine, baby formula, medical devices, etc. Unfortunately, lawmakers did not stipulate how many times this could be requested during the 5 days nor how much time the tenant gets during the access. Now for the bite in this provision. If a landlord refuses access during this 5 day period if requested by the vacated tenant, it can be ordered by the Court and a penalty of $2500 assessed for refusing. Ouch.

Any questions about these new laws, the ones reviewed in Part ONE or professional property management, please reach out to me.

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