Tenant wont pay rent – how to evict??

Once the tenant was 14 days in arrears your pm should have served the 14 day notice and applied to VCAT. once the 14 day notice is up you should have had a VCAT hearing scheduled in the following week or 2. provided the tenant is still in arrears on the day of the hearing you should be given a possession order. from there if the tenant is still in the property you should immediatly purchase a Warrant of Possession. This is served by the police/sherrif and the locks changed while the police are at the property. If your property manager has a good relationship with the local police you should have the tenants out within the week. once you have possession of the property your PM should then apply to VCAT for the bond for rent owing, damage, cleaning and all related costs. Another thing to remember if you have a good landlord insurance policy you should be able to claim all rent owing & damage costs.

VCAT is usually all fine as long as your PM has done all of the paperwork correctly and is organised.

If there is a next time plese do not wait to serve notice. As soon as the tenant is 14 days in arrears jump on it and the process will go a lot quicker.

I manage all my propertys myself because the agent always seems to react very slowly.The best advise I can give you is ring cosumer affairs in Victoria.Ask them to send you information on your rights as a land lord (Landlord Pack)and explain to them your situation.They are always very helpful.This way you will understand how the system work.Dont wait for the agent to solve your problem.Educate yourself became in control of your assets.You can then tell the agent how you would like to see your property managed.[thumbsupanim]

OK, here’s my two handy hints…..that most people always ignore ;

1. Never hitch your wealth aspirations to people’s private lives – by definition….you cannot control that whole machine of emotional nonsense and non-businesslike fluff that the tenancy tribunals always put before your business targets.
2. If you are exposed to the RTA – don’t be.

How’s that for a different frame of reference…..for most people it’s so far removed from their knowledge base and property experiences it simply doesn’t compute.

Of course, none of the above directly helps in your specific circumstances at this moment in time….but it may help you later on when the bigger picture emerges.

Glad to see that your tenant has paid the rent. Make sure your agent does not cancell the hearing, ensure that they seek an adjournment. this is valid for 3 months so if the tenant falls behind in the next 3 months you do not have to serve any notices you just have to fax a request to VCAT to have the matter relister. this saves a lot of time and you will normally have a hearing within 2 weeks.

You can manage the property yourself and can download the forms from the consumer affairs website
http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au

Some insurance policies will exclude self managed properties so you will need to check (terri scheer will not insure self managed).

If you ever need any other questions answered i am more than happy to assist as have been a PM for 9 years (Country Vic)so have some knowledge that may be of assistance. You need to make sure that your PM has expierience & knowldge of the tenancy act & VCAT as they should be doing all the hard work for you and be keeping you up to date. look for an REIV accredited PM as they will have had to have min 3 years exp, and have completed numerous training/courses to get accrediation.

Some policies don’t cover loss of rent if you manage it yourself but others do. Be aware though that if you manage it yourself and it goes to court then you have to face the tenant in court, or even harder, you will most likely be sitting in the same waiting room as the tenant. Are you able to handle this situation?

I recently took a tenant to court and at the first hearing she was talking to me prior with she promises of how she was going to pay back the debt etc, in otherwords she wanted me to cancel the hearing and give them a chance. Can you stay firm and say no. Then when we got to the hearing the magistrate was pushing for a payment plan based on what the tenant was saying about how she could pay. Can you stay firm in the face of a magistrate that this is not what you want. Then when they were given notice to move and didn’t, then we had to get an order to move them out etc etc. Once out and damaged assessed, then had to book another hearing to get an order for the damage to be paid. Do you have the time to go through all the hearings or could you be doing better things?

I ask this, because I’ve done it and it wasn’t hard although it was awkward at times especially when the tenant is begging for another chance outside the courtroom with other peple all watching saying how I was going to make her kids homeless etc, the guilt trip is not nice. Anyone can do it though, the paperwork and things weren’t hard, dealing with the people is a bit harder but even so, still not too diffiucult. But what I discovered was that I had better things I could have been doing with that time. It was time that you either have to leave work for, or time that your not searching for other investments or time not spent with the family.

So I’ve done it and I daresay you could, the question is, do you really want to? I’ve learnt that I don’t.

PK

Hi Danny

Not sure of the process in Vic but have had a similar experience in Qld – you need to get all the info from Consumer affairs and these people have extremely good information about the processes and time frames to get your errant tenant out of the premises (similar to Nick95’s comment) – As you are not manageing the property yourself get the info from the website and say on the property managers back -eg “the rent is 21days overdue have you filed ……” etc etc and get the process “right” in your mind and stay on the PM’s case – Good Luck