Doing work on a sub-let

 It's not uncommon these days for short term rental operators (airbnb, vrbo, etc...) to lease a house from a property owner,  especially in locations distant from them, just to rent the property out on one or several of these short term rental platforms.

In some cases, a professional handyman, like myself, is brought in to do maintenance and install work on these properties on behalf of the rental operator,  the leasee,  not the property owner.  In these cases, we have to keep in consideration the permanency of the work we do on these properties.

We might be asked to install a wide variety of tech devices like alarms, smart devices, sensors, fingerprint door handles/locks, etc...  When we do put in these devices, sometimes we are directed or restricted to not make them "permanent."  Largely because the actual property owner probably won't want certain modifications that accommodate the work after the rental/lease agreement ends.

Take for example a smart door handle/lock.   In many cases, they come with hardware that might require, for "proper" installation, a notch to be cut into a door or a wall.  This device is for the rental operator buy not necessarily something the property owner will keep.  Therefore, the cutting in of notches to accommodate the plates on the door and wall is restricted, even though it may not look right.  As long as it is operable and able to be restored to the equipment or condition of the property owner, that's the primary concern.

So, the installer is required to leave things looking less-than professional.   Perfectly functional,  but not necessarily how it should look if it were a permanent install.

"The customer is always right- in matters of taste."  Meaning, if they only want it to function but not look like a professional install because it can't be cut-in, that's their call, not mine.

The difference of doing work on rental properties is often quite a different beast than working on properties for a home owner.  It makes judging work done on a rental a very subjective thing.  Lack of permanency can dramatically affect the appearance of things being installed.


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