Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend.

Have a SFH that I am hoping to bring online very soon. This will be my first rental with a garage. It is a detached 2 car garage. This is in a blue-collar area and near a university. I am unsure of how much more rent that I could get with the garage, but I don't think it would be enough to justify putting a lot into it. I have already repaired some walls, replaced some siding, washed and painted, took down one newer metal garage door, reframed the opening and rehung the door properly. The other door is an older wooden door in fair condition, but someone has disconnected the cables at the bottom hinges. I am going to reconnect the cables, respring the door, and see what happens. I think the door will be fine for at least a little while.

Now, getting to my main question. The newer metal door needs a new lock mechanism because the current one is having problems. The older wooden door has not lock assembly at all as it was removed at some point, probably because they had an opener on it. My thoughts are that, if I put locks on the garage doors, every time I have a tenant move out than I will have to replace the locks, which are more expensive than an entry door lock. Also, these types of locks seem to cause problems more often. I don't know how well tenants take care of garage doors or locks either. So, I am thinking that I am just going to not have locks on them. What are your thoughts?

How do you treat detached garages, when it comes to doors and locks?

Do you bother putting locks on them?

If so, do you change the locks every time a tenant moves?

Will it matter if I don't put locks on them?

What if I just remove the doors and have an open garage?

How do you address detached garages in your lease?

Thank you for your time

How bout a hasp and lock ?

Depending on the size garage, shoot for a hundred bucks.

Gotta start somewhere.

Thank you everyone for the replies thus far.

In a pinch, a clap can be used to secure the door.

Rent the house out for say $1,300 and the garages out for $200 extra if they want them. Do they have their own power?

Also charge a $150 utility fee and include x number of units of water, sewer and regular trash service

Thank you, Ray.

This is a SFH. Tenants will be responsible for their own utilities. I am thinking around $1800 - $1850.

Jason, how would you work that?

I always charge more for use of the garage. Why? It's an expensive item to maintain! Roof, gutters, doors, electric openers, etc etc. And then there's the cost of cleaning out all the junk left behind.

You can NOT go cheap when it comes to securing garage doors on rentals.

I rented a million dollar home to a family with a detached garage on the lot. I could have written a commercial lease for the garage asking for two rental payments each month. One for the house and 1 for the garage, but I didn't go that way this time.

The couple, husband and wife had large vehicles. The man had a Jeep and the wife had an SUV. Before i rented to them I had them pull each vehicle into the garage and took many pictures. Then fit height wise, length and width. This was a valley home with a 2-1/2 car wide garage, (Extra Storage Space).

Within months I found myself in a law suit with my tenants, their Insurance company and my landlord insurance as well. Everyone was screening at me, it's all my fault.

In no time at all, the tenant stated that my garage door failed and could not be closed securely. The SUV was stolen and the Jeep and was burned to the ground.

I counter sued my tenants, their vehicle insurance, their renters insurance and my landlord insurance carrier and won the maximum amount against them.

You see on the regular 36" x 80" door from the inside yard door into the garage, I had installed a Metal Fire door with security hinges, frame and jamb plate. No one without a metal saw and a massive sledge hammer and 100 hits to the door could get in, so that wasn't the entry.

But the main roll up double metal with insulation door off of the alley way was altered. Instead of having the arch circular track, someone replaced it with a High arch pivot to add 6 inches extra height to the door once opened. The husband added larger tire and suspension to his Jeep so the door had to be raised, without my permission.

The original DROP LOCK in the center of the bottom of the roll up door was disconnects so anyone with a tall jack could lift up the door. They modified my door to add height but lost the security.

SO I wasn't responsible for the easy access. They sued me for $150,000, cost of the vehicles and $100,000 loss of income. Which they would have won, except I had pictures of before and after plus pictures of their cars when they moved in and afterwards. They lied and tried to do me in.

I provide storage sheds with my rentals, and I have master keyed knobs and locks on entry doors. I don’t change them out at turnover. Overhead doors latch from inside unless it’s the only entrance, then a padlock that resident uses.

We have three places with garages, and they have all been turned into ADUs: one studio over the two-car garage and two have become one-bedroom cottages.

We wouldn't waste a good garage on storage for a tenant when we can turn it into a rental returning $$$$ :)

We have three places with garages, and they have all been turned into ADUs: one studio over the two-car garage and two have become one-bedroom cottages.

We wouldn't waste a good garage on storage for a tenant when we can turn it into a rental returning $$$$ :)

Thank you everyone.

For the places I have with garages, detached or not, I let the tenants keep them. Add a little more to the rent and leave them be.

I am still clearing one garage out as my kid was there and I used it for storage. Now I have nowhere to put the stuff so my personal garage is storage and not for vehicles.

Have another 1.5 garage that is basically full of my crap. The deal was that I would have it cleared out when the note came due. Think I have about ten years on it.

Yes they will store stuff in there. But then they are saving money because they are not storing at the U Store down the street.

Keep the doors on as long as they are safe. No openers unless they pay dearly for them.

If you can and want to do the ADU route that is a different topic. For a garage just rent it with the place. If they break something make them fix it.

One thing I would like to mention.

If you have a garage door that uses extension springs, be sure to use safety cables. These cables run through the extension springs and tie off on the supports and track on each end. That way if a spring or cable breaks, it doesn't send the spring flying off doing damage to person or property.

Whoever hung these extension spring doors, not only did they not install them correctly, but they didn't put safety cables on.

This will be especially important for rentals.

Torsion springs are better all around. Also now they have some that you wind with a screwgun.

Absolutely wonderful. I have had one break in all the years I have used them. On my old garage. Went to Menards, bought another one that was set to the weight of the door and installed it.

I have them on both doors at my current house.

1) Buy two locks, then swap them back and forth each time they move.

2) If they have an electric opener, don't need a lock