is already known and in business relations with the agent.

Organization and Forms of the Rental Department.— The organization of the rental department will vary according to the amount of rental work done by the company. The manager of the department occupies an important place and must be chosen with discretion. He probably will want to subdivide his department so as to have divisions responsible for contracts with owners, for leases, for repairs, and for accounting. If the work is not voluminous all these functions may be performed by the same man.

A copy of an owner's contract is given in Figure 1. It is important that some such agreement be signed by the company and by the owner so that responsibility is fixed and authority definitely and legally established. The main features of such a contract, indicated in the margin, are (1) the term of the contract and description of the property, (2) enumeration of the powers and duties of the agent, (3) the compensation of the agent, (4) method to be used in accounting to the owner, (5) freedom of the agent from liability, and (6) renewal provisions. It will be noted that under the contract here reproduced the agent is given wide powers so as to relieve the owner of all details of operation. His trouble is reduced to an absolute minimum. The company which uses this form is very enthusiastic about its method of handling repairs indicated in this contract, and exploits the plan in its advertising.

As soon as a property is listed for management it ought to be inspected by the manager and carefully inventoried. As soon as possible the whole property should be checked over and recommendations made to the owner regarding necessary repairs and any matters of policy which should come early to his attention.

OWNER'S REPAIR REPORT

Cleveland, Ohio..

.19....

M....

your tenant....

has called upon us to make the repairs as listed below, which same are recommended by this office after an inspection by us. Kindly consider carefully the work recommended and such work as you desire done O. K. by writing your initials at the left in the column indicated. IT IS VERY NECESSARY that this sheet be returned to us at once with your wishes indicated thereon, as it may assist us in obtaining a new tenant or retaining a present tenant. If it is your desire to yourself supervise the working out of repairs listed hereon, you may retain this sheet and advise us that you are going to give the repairs your immediate attention

A list of tenants and prospective tenants should be kept. The F. B. Arnold Company, of Cleveland, keeps such a list on seven by four cards, a reproduction of which is shown on Figure 2. This card is self-explanatory. Another more complete card which shows the prospect's preferences as to location, amount to be paid, date of occupancy, address, references, and so on, is reproduced in Figure 3. When tenants are not difficult to find not much attention is given to such a file, but it becomes more valuable when tenants are scarce and housing accommodations plentiful. These cards can be filed according to date when application is made and cross-indexed according to price to be paid. The back of the tenant's card is also shown in Figure 4. This furnishes a large amount of information about a tenant which is valuable if he should apply at a later time.

Another important form in the rental department is the statement to the owner, rendered with settlement every month (Figure 5). This statement should show gross rentals collected, amounts expended for repairs and other expenses, with a balance showing net in

come.

The form for keeping the account of each apartment house is shown in Figure 6. This form shows gross rental and collections, amount of fixed charges indicating how they are divided, the expenditures for repairs and the net receipts. The items shown at the bottom of the sheet are valuable and present summaries in a succinct and easily grasped form.

Additional forms which will be found useful are owner's repair report, shown in Figure 7, which enables checking on the part of the owner and written permission on his part for the work to proceed, and the lease. The ordinary short term lease is discussed in Chapter III.

Organization and Forms for the Insurance Department. -The chief instrument of the insurance department is the policy itself. A copy of the New York Standard Fire Policy is shown in the appendix. The chief provisions of the policy may be grouped as follows: '

1

I. The parties to the contract, including insurable interest and agency.

2. Description of the property.

3. The risk assumed.

4. The term of the contract.

5. Other insurance on the same property.

6. Special endorsements and privileges.

7. Provisions applying after a loss has occurred. Some of the special provisions of the insurance policy will be discussed in Chapter IV.

Another important record is the "insurance expiration" card. This card is shown in Figure 8. By using these cards the agent can give the owner service by reporting to him the date of expiration and calling on him several weeks beforehand to renew his policy so that he will be always covered. This advance information affords a strong competitive advantage as well, for it prevents competitors from stepping in and writing the policy.

The insurance department should also have some means of recording the amount of business which is done from year to year and from month to month. A chart can easily be constructed showing in parallel columns or by graph the business done the current month as compared with the preceding month and at the same time as compared with the business for the corresponding month of the previous year. By consulting this chart, the manager of the insurance department will be led to apply the stimulus necessary to secure volume of business, if the volume

After Huebner, "Property Insurance" (New York, 1922), p. 27.