Hi All,
I have been scouring this forum for a few days now and have not come across any posts that give me the info I am after.
(if there are a redirection would be appreciated!)We have 2 rental properties in WA in the same suburb similar age and quality too. 1 house has rented beautifully for 5 years with very minimal complaints from the tenants (she is a dream tenant really). The other we have only recently rented out after it being our POP for 2 years.
We have nothing but complaints from these tenants for the past 6 weeks.
Some of the things are valid, like a broken pool filter and (possibly) a broken dishwasher but there are many other things that I have me wondering if we have got the wrong people in! Including things like the place is messy we should hire a cleaner for them and the yard is messy we should clean it up for them or hire a skip bin so they can do it.
I thought that is what a property condition report was for…
I assume they saw the place before they applied for it and before we offered them the place and before they said yes and moved in.I guess my question is at what point can we say "NO" we are not going to fix that or tidy that? At what point can we say this is the property "AS IS"
I really appreciate any thoughts on this.
take a step back. Are the comments valid? Would you expect those items to be fixed before you moved in if you were leasing the house? were you aware of the faults as it was your ppor?
I agree with you. They accepted the condition of the property when they signed the lease.
quarram wrote:Hi All,
I have been scouring this forum for a few days now and have not come across any posts that give me the info I am after.
(if there are a redirection would be appreciated!)We have 2 rental properties in WA in the same suburb similar age and quality too. 1 house has rented beautifully for 5 years with very minimal complaints from the tenants (she is a dream tenant really). The other we have only recently rented out after it being our POP for 2 years.
We have nothing but complaints from these tenants for the past 6 weeks.
Some of the things are valid, like a broken pool filter and (possibly) a broken dishwasher but there are many other things that I have me wondering if we have got the wrong people in! Including things like the place is messy we should hire a cleaner for them and the yard is messy we should clean it up for them or hire a skip bin so they can do it.
I thought that is what a property condition report was for…
I assume they saw the place before they applied for it and before we offered them the place and before they said yes and moved in.I guess my question is at what point can we say "NO" we are not going to fix that or tidy that? At what point can we say this is the property "AS IS"
I really appreciate any thoughts on this.
I do agree that some of their points are valid and am MORE than happy to do repairs on the valid things.
The house is not perfect but it is definitely comfortable.
They want us to do things like pay for retic when we did not advertise the house with retic and there is no grass and only succulents the garden is slightly messy but livable.
That is just an example of the list of things they are asking for…Everyone is different I suppose – where one person will whinge about the smallest matter and another would never whinge about anything. But which is better?
It does come down to what is an improvement and what is required maintenance. Maybe you have a house proud tenant who wants you to pick up your act so that they can maintain the place in the style that they are accustomed to.
Hi,
You said this was your PPOR. Did you leave items there when you moved out? Our current landlord left many items in the backyard. These items are useable but the expectation is that we care for them.
If there are items like dead pot plants or general 'stuff' left in the yard they may want to dispose of them, or have you dispose of these items. They may have children who want to use the yard etc and not want to have to dodge you old 'stuff'.
As for the interior, they should have asked you to clean it before moving in if it was an issue. Did you tell them you would clean it before they moved in? Did you promise them anything before they moved in?
As for the broken items. I would expect that the dishwasher be fixed, and the pool filter be fixed as you expect them to take care of these items. If they move out in a years time and the pool filter has never worked how disgusting will the pool be?
Tenants generally have expectations and these are that things that are broken will be fixed
Good luck
D
DWolfe | www.homestagers.com.au
http://www.homestagers.com.au
Email MeHi Quarram
Suggestions.
Sounds like you didn’t prepare the premises for the tenant. Time to show them by example your true expectations of looking after the premises.For your own benefit, you should immediately do the big cleanup, after agreeing in writing to a change in the condition report which will show that the tenants agree to leave the premises in the same condition when vacating (meaning the new cleaned condition). Take photos.
Obviously the repairs to dishwasher and pool equipment are urgent and necessary.
Every landlord should respond fast to tenants reasonable requests and urgent necessary repairs, about as fast and timely as you would like the rent paid. You can’t differentiate between whingers and good tenants until you’ve completed your own duties and finalised all reasonable requests or outstanding work.
Cheers
thecrestthecrest | Tony Neale - Statewide Motel Brokers
http://www.statewidemotelbrokers.com.au
Email Me | Phone Meselling motels in NSW
Thanks guys,
I feel like a lot of the things they are asking for are home improvement things.
Obviously the pool and dishwasher are already fixed.
There were no conditions on their application about cleaning or yard or anything…
I guess I feel that because they are pushy and jumping up and down I have to do everything they ask.
I am just not used to that kind of behaviour.They are quite rude for example we sent a locksmith around because we had lost the key to a window lock so sent him round to put in new locks (fine) but they told him he had to do the garage lock too, but they had never mentioned it to me so the locksmith had no authority to do it (I would have been fine for him to do it) but the tenant abused the hell out of him and he has refused to ever go back there… That is the type of person i am dealing with. So I feel very pressured
Sounds like they're turning in to the tenants from hell.
Might be worth giving them the flick as soon as possible and scout around for some new tenants.Sounds like you are self managing? TIme for a PM – we went through a similiar thing with renting out a house we lived in. All too personal
I would love to bevk but they have signed on for 12 months and I am sure it is not that easy to get rid of them…
are there any link on here about getting rid of tenants? Mind you we are not at that point just yet.Was thinking about doing a walk through of the house with them and the agent getting a list together and then doing a new prop condition report after we have worked through the list.
Does that sound like a good idea or does it sound like i am asking for trouble?! Hard to know when dealing with people like this…
I would like to get them on side though and I thought if we went and listened to them and discussed the issues (also the might see that we are real people and not just a open bank) they might feel better about the whole thing…maree_bradross, we do have a PM she is just proving to be useless!
which is a whole other issue…how was it all resolved with your property?
What does the agent say, where is the agent, why are you getting all these items on your shoulders? I would be asking way more questions of the agent and asking them what they are doing, what they think needs to be done, what should be don and what can wait.
The agent should do a walk through with them and field questions and issues, take notes and photographs then present items to you later that must be done. You seem very involved.
Too much you, not enough agent for my liking. I'm not saying completely let go, but you are the manager of this thing. Think about a business. The top manager doesn't take every call asking when the shop is open…the desk/receptionist does, the manager handles the big things that need their attention like the shop being on fire (
) running the overall business etc you get the point.If the agent is useless you need to get another one. You are giving them something worth $$$$ to you…
D
DWolfe | www.homestagers.com.au
http://www.homestagers.com.au
Email MeDWolfe,
You are right we are too involved, we initially were letting the agent field all the requests until we got our statement from them with invoices attached for repairs we felt were unnecessary. So I have asked her to run everything by me now because she was just saying yes to everything, including things like a cleaner to go in AFTER they had been living there for over 2 weeks, and that was after I had paid my own cleaner to go through it after we moved out because I was trying to be as removed as possible due to us living there previously….We are doing a lot of extra running around but feel I cant trust the agent
The tenants have been there for 3 months and we are yet to see any money in our bank account due to agent fees and repairs… I am starting to think I should not budget for any rent this financial year!
a little bit of preparation goes a long way – surely the Agent’s fees couldn’t be that much.
Hi Baden,
we had/are having the same issue:
https://www.propertyinvesting.com/forums/property-investing/help-needed/4334775We were like you. Not sure when to say no. So we decided to just go ahead and meet all the tenants requests.
We're hoping once she's settled the requests will stop.
If they do fine, but if they don't we'll have to rethink once the 12 month lease is up."The tenants have been there for 3 months and we are yet to see any money in our bank account due to agent fees and repairs"
that's unbelievable!cheers,
—
MarkScott,
It is not the agent fees that are really that much, just the usual signing of lease costs. It is actually the repairs are adding up and she was just saying yes to everything, which is why I have asked her now run every repair by me for the time being, giving me the option to say NO I will not be painting the eaves because you dont like the look of the discolored section, rather than her just sending in the painter…
We went with that agent because we have used them with our other 2 rentals and have actually had no problems with them until this property.It has made me really grateful for our fabulous tenants in our other place… I will be trying to hang on to her!
Baden wrote:They are quite rude for example we sent a locksmith around because we had lost the key to a window lock so sent him round to put in new locks (fine) but they told him he had to do the garage lock too, but they had never mentioned it to me so the locksmith had no authority to do it (I would have been fine for him to do it) but the tenant abused the hell out of him and he has refused to ever go back there… That is the type of person i am dealing with. So I feel very pressuredTenants from hell mate. Get rid of them as soon as the lease is up!
Hi Baden
We are having similar issues. The tenant we have in at the moment has issues with everything. We recently fixed a curtain rod at their request (they asked for heavy curtains because of the heat but we decided they could buy the curtains and we would fix the rod, only). They are yet to put any curtain up, though!
I am not sure what kind of tenants you have and thier history – but the history for us painted a thousand words (after they moved in, sadly). Our tenants were renting somewhere which the landlord looked after themselves. They never had a rent increase in 5 years, so, when we raised their rent by $10 they were extremely mad… even though our house is below market value due to a dodgy PM we had previously.
I am hoping they leave after this 6 months, as the garden is already ruined. It's got to be a win- win. You can only satisfy your tenant so much. Our tenants have a mentality that they are poor and we aught to be looking after them – they said to the agent that we have 2 properties and they don't own anything so we owe them a favour (using different words).
Best of luck, let us know how you go.
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