Is the ex-tenant, the lease-holder, your friend? Are you still in touch with him/her? If yes, you can easily go together to the agent and explain the situation and request the lease be put into your name. the agent will of course need to do reference checks (and will treat you as new applicant) but I'm sure they would rather keep the unit occupied than have it empty and have to re-advertise. Good luck
I'm sorry to hear what an difficult time you are having. I would have thought that you could turn up Tuesday morning – an extra day for carpet drying time??? What rot!! I wish I had some good advice – good luck.
Yes Andrew, I've just emailed the agent to ask them to arrange a quote, plus I am arranging my own builder to quote on the upgrade. I am usure about the safety issue though. I've lived in a lot of rentals before, most of them period homes and there were always items there that would today be considered safety issues. It never occurred to me, nor anyone else I knew, to ever complain about those things. I guess we live in a far more litigious society today
Thanks for your comments . I am going to make an appointment with the rental manager and talk about how they are not meeting my expectations. We had to sign a 2 year Management contract with the agency and looking through it last night I am unsure how I could get out it if I wanted to.
The funny thing is the tenant herself: she is the receptionist for a real estate company in the area so she knows (probably better than me!) all the rules and regs! I suspect she is pushing to test me and see how much she can get done for nothing.
I'm insured with Allianz……. I've never had to make a claim yet though so I don't really know what they are like. I also got a quote from Terri Scheer but Allianz was a few hundred cheaper
In case you are interested, here is the comparison and breakdown of costs between the agents standard, and their blue ribbon package, taken from IP guide:
Our Scenario – property rent of $250 per week for comparison – calculations for a 12 month period.
Weekly rent $250Management fee $24.75
Yearly rent$13,000Yearly Management fee$1,287.00
Letting fee (2.2 weeks rent)$550.00
Routine Inspections – 3 per year – with our compliments
Administration fee – 12 months$66.00
Lease renewal fee (remember this could be a letting fee if the tenant vacates)$275.00
Total minimum investment for 12 months$2,178.00
If we were to compare this to our Blue Ribbon package
My IP is in the Barossa Valley and (I am a little embarassed to say….) I am paying 14.5% inc GST. I interviewed 3 agencies in the region and they all charged 9.9% plus first two weeks rent plus this and plus that. The agent we went with also charged 9.9% as a a standard but we decided to sign up for their Blue Ribbon package which is all inclusive. On paper it looked like better value and as I am very new to this game I am still hoping it is!!