From Outraged Landlord.
Having just read about another tenant from hell I thought I would tell my story.
Purchased property with two houses on it and proceeded to rejuvinate.
After completing the smaller, (3bedroom 1 bath huge kitchen) we advertised. Response came from very chatty friendly lady with one daughter(later had two more sons) and hubby on workers comp. Said she would love to go into larger home later and could she help finish house 1 without pay. consequently Negotiations were made to reduce the rent,for the smaller home,and omit a bond.
When the lease was provided the lady was either too busy or had not had time to sign. The larger house would be dearer to rent. 4×2 she did help with some cleaning pianting and smaller jobs.
Like all renovations there are problems which hold up problems and the tenant always under our feet right next door, started to lose patience.
Decided in her wisdom to take over larger house without signing lease as requested, or paying any bond or advance rental.Unfortunately the house was not completed and the electricity work was not completed or connected. Having called out the police several times to claim we were harrassing them, while we were trying to finish the renovations, she then called the gas people claiming we had interfered with the gas installation. This too was not completed when she illegally took possession of house A. The gas company undertook to shut down the gas, in response to her complaints, so the work could be completed and the lady then commenced cooking outside using timber required for renovations. The way the lady took possession was to contact all her relatives and friends to come and assault us, and then break into the premises.
The courts requested us to allow the tenants to remain for a further 6 weeks. In this period the tenant was obliged to sign a lease A lower rental rate was offered as incentive to encourage the tenant to sign the lease and do the right thing.None at all was paid. After 48 hours it was evident that no lease would be signed and the tenant fully intended to remain in the house free. She approached the Fair Trading making inaccurate claims which had to be corrected.She also made claims to the police which were unfounded.
A violence restraining order, granted earlier, was lifted, as the court took the view the “rental relationship” was ended.
Prior to the final court case,although having vacated, the tenants left an old battered car in the driveway. Despite being carefully removed three times by the landlord to the road verge the ex -tenants brought it back, each time and claimed they were justified to assault the landlord because of this removal
There is now security on both houses.
The landlord was left with big bills for the unpaid electricity, broken glass doors and windows, a stolen water fountain pump, and the loss of three months rental as well as the cost of security guards to prevent further damage to the property until the court case. To add insult to injury the lady requested back her “fictional”bond from the magistrate!!!! despite being two weeks in arrears on the smaller house and not having paid any rental for a further eight weeks. So much for justice. It appears tenants are not expected to be accountable by law in the same way that landlords are!!!I’m just curious in why you decided not to use an agent to manage your properties?
Unfortunately, you learned a hard lesson – don’t try to be too kind – do things by the book, so that you have legal backup.[
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Often you will find that people who sound so nice are quite the opposite – most aren’t bad, but they bear the brunt on behalf of those who are.
The law acknowledges that such people exist and will rip you off, and this is why bonds are necessary.
Kevman is so right – an agent can do the dirty work for you, and is worth the money, to give you time to be out there doing other deals.
Better luck next time[]Hi All
This is a really frustrating situation for Persistent and I have heard of another similar incident that happended to a friend years ago, where she could not get the tennant out of her house who had defaulted on rent, ( they still had to pay banks etc for their loans) He then continued to stay free of charge on the grounds of bereavment due to the death of his wife that placed him in difficult circumstances. I can’t remember just how long it took but it was many many many months before they could get him out.I would like to know if the LAW is looking at addressing the rights of owners / landlords in these situations.
In this situation where they are paying no rent etc. What happens if you decide to sell the house? Does this make the house unsaleable until the tennants are out.
Cheers IsagoldThe other advantage for using an agent is for protection specially if you have rental default insurance. In the top post the insurance company may not pay out as it deemed that the landlord was negligent in not having a signed lease or bond. If an agent did all the above things you could still claim your insurance and the insurance company would chase the agent for restitution. If you didn’t have that sort of insurance you still may get some sort of restitution from the ACCC or other consumer advocacy group.
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