Provide the service, incorporate the cost into the rent.

I provide the lawn service to the tenant  as part of the services. It does two things for me in the long run.  First off I don't get complaints from the city that the lawn is not cut.  The second benefit  is the lawn service  cuts the grass every two week in the Summer and once a week in the winter.  More then once i been called and been advise of thing like Bees on the property , broken water pipe and even one time squatters moved in.  I add the amount  to the rent to cover the service.  I get the yard cut with no excuses everytime.

As the wise Fred Griffin answered, I also suggest that the gardening service be incorporated as part of the monthly lease.  You can have better control and maintain the property's value.   

Well  we up the rent and cover the yard maintenance for 2 reasons 1) want the property to be kept up (typically they're in a little higher end hoods and 2) we've got another set of eyes on the home every 2 weeks to month and if anything is amiss we'll hear about it. That goes for pools as well although you guys don't have pools up in WA.

Write in the lease you will take care of it and adjust the rent appropriately. Only way to assure your property is well maintained.

No - not for the tenant.  However, include yard maintenance with the rent and hire a gardener to maintain. 

I agree with Fred Griffin .  It is the simplest solution. A

Cattle prod. LOL.
Better to hire a monthly service and budget into the rent.

Have someone show up every Saturday morning at 7am and mow it, weed eat it, and blow it, and have all 3 engines running at the same time.

I keep it simple...its in the contract.

If they want to do the yard service themselves, no problem. It has to be maintained regularly and always look good. 

If is is not up to my standards, I hire yard service and add the cost to the rent.

I agree with many of  the answers. Incorporate the service it into the rent. Or you could give a monetary incentive for the tenants to mow the lawn, like a dollar percentage off the rent if paid on time and the lawn mowed by a certain date. But that is a bit more work. 

There's no pride of ownership while renting therefore I hire crews to take care of lawn and landscaping for investments just as I would my personal home.    

Eviction?

I was going to say exactly what Fred Griffin said - that's the only way you can be assured that it gets done!

Finding a tenant that actually cares. I know that is not always easy. I usually speak to them about this up front and build in lawn care in some where they have no desire to do any lawn care.

We've found 3 day notices work wonders :)

However, I prefer to include it in the rent and hire someone to do the job - that way I know it's getting done and one less thing to worry about with a renter

Go by the terms of the lease.

You may wish to include yard services in the next lease.

On all my properties I have incorporated the cost of lawn care. It is easier than running behind the tenant. 

I am with Fred Griffin on this one

Yes.  As Candice A. Donofrio can confirm, Yosemite Sam does work in the enforcement area!

You pay for yard service and add it to the rent.

In my location, the LL usually pays for a gardener and a pooler ( all maintenance is included in the price of the rent)

Maybe hire professional landscapers and fold it into the rent.

Many have said to put the cost of a professional into the lease to ensure the work is done properly.  This is a good idea, but how you take it from there is the critical part.

Tenant gets a discount for good upkeep.  More than one missed mowing (in case he got sick; life happens) in a 3-month quarter means no discount at the end.  Give rebates in 3 month chunks.  This rewards consistency, not just doing the lawn for one or two weeks and deserving a tiny rebate.  If tenant doesn't do it for the first month, hire the service for the remaining 2 months and tell tenant he can try again for the rebate next quarter.  If tenant flunks out two quarters in a row...maybe he has struck out.

1. Tell them all the rules right up front.  Don't let them assume the wrong thing.

2. Tell them they can try again, but only so many times.  How many depends on you, but I have little patience for being toyed with. With me, two strikes and I know you didn't really care about this, did you?  Or else, you aren't well enough to take this on right now.  However, you can't say those things.  What you can say, without laying blame is, this isn't working for me, and I'm withdrawing my offer of discount.  Word the contract so you can do this.

It should be in the lease about lawncare as well as the right to the owner to have it mowed and edged and charged to the renter. We have our own property management company and it is monitored.

I always hired my own landscapers....I knew the job would be done properly....

Paul S. Henderson, REALTOR®, Broker, Tacoma Washington include that as a part of rental - or penalties for that works. (Sometimes incentives are better than penalties - like $25 off from the rent.)

I know a few landlords here who provide the gardner so they know the work gets done but not sure that's a common thing. I suppose even if upkeep us covered in the lease someone can still not do it, and then you are faced with possible eviction.

I was going to write what Fred Griffin said. The more the owner controls, the easier it is to see if problems exist with the renters, or to minimize problems that renters can cause to the property. 

Offer to give them a small discount at the end of the lease if they comply during the lease period.

Raise the rent by the cost of the yard care and have a contractor take care of it.

Hi Paul,  As a property manager, I always provided yard maintenance.  It was calculated into the rent.  I would say monetary incentives are better than penalties.   You can do it a couple ways. Offer to rebate part of the rent each month that the property is properly maintained... or rebate at the end of the year if you don't have to hire yard service.  This could be a great Christmas boost for a tenant.  

Good question.

Never works. Best to hire out the service and add the cost to the rental rate

Paul S. Henderson, REALTOR®, Broker, Tacoma Washington Fred Griffin has this one.

Up the rent & include the service if the tenant is the lazy type. Most of the time fines, etc don't help. They just don't want to do it.

Also, ask them to move to a townhouse in 2 months.

The reality is the renter is going to pay for yard service through sweat or in the rent.

My preference is to remove the variable from the equation. Maintenance Free living is more expensive.

The reason most rent is because the lack discipline. Expecting renters to care is wrongly applied expectation.

Theres nothing that works here, either tenants like to do it or we send our crew and bill them.

I don't deal with rentals in my office. We have a property manager that deals with over 80 rental units. Most of them single family homes. He has gotten compliants from neighbors on some rentals. He deals with the tenant and tells them the owner will evict them if the problems aren't taken care of 

I guess his lease agreement is pretty comprehensive. 

Some of my landlords pay for the lawn and just charge a slightly higher rental rate.  

I like to have tenants with a green thumb and encourage those who are interested in putting in a garden.

For those who are not interested, we just do the mowing for them and bill them for it.

No, I don't and I wish I did. Both our rentals have underground irrigation, the grass always looks dead with a bunch of weeds growing.

They take care of it for a rent reduction, failing which the monetary allocation is added to the rent! Usually only takes one warning for them to get serious about doing a good job!

No I once had a tenant say she had no idea there was an irrigation system in the yard when the control box was in plain sight on the wall in the garage.