Tenancy Application – PM won’t provide details to landlord

Why do you want to see the application itself? I usually have the PM ring me and give me a few salient points eg "They've been employed by Telstra for 3 years and are still employed there, they last rented in Geelong and the PM there says they were great tenants, there'll be 2 adults and 1 dog living in the property, and they want a 6 month lease." What else do you want to know?

I'm wondering now if I'm too trusting. Well, OK, I know I'm trusting – but don't you have to be, to let somebody occupy a multi $00K asset of yours?

I think your having been sent the applications in the past was unusual. I've had about 20 tenants over about 15 years and about 7 properties, and I've never seen an application. I think that you should be allowed to have any relevant reassurance that you want – eg if they're on a tenancy database, if they've been bankrupt, or if they've entered a debt agreement – but I confess I can see the agent's concern at providing you with the entire package. The agent verbally telling you the information is very different to you having that information in writing. If you go public and say "I was told that my tenant John Doe has been bankrupt", that garners very little attention, even if John Doe is famous. But if you can publish a signed declaration in John Doe's handwriting that he's been bankrupt, it's an entirely different thing…

The agent is responsible for controlling the information. In the office, they have policies for handling and storing sensitive information, and everybody's signed non-disclosure agreements, but if they give it to you, they have no control over what you do with it. Whilst I'm sure you're not going to be irresponsible, imagine if you or somebody in your household posted it on the internet? The real estate agent would get sued!

I think you have a right to ask any relevant questions that you want and get answers, and even have the agent view the proof. But providing you with personal information about the tenant in writing is, in my view, unnecessarily invasive of the tenant's privacy. If you were managing the property yourself, the tenant would know that, and by applying, would be choosing to entrust you with that information. But when they provide it to a big organisation like a brand name real estate agent, I think they (reasonably) anticipate that the organisation will protect their privacy, and wouldn't expect that copies of the entire application would be provided to the landlord.

For what it's worth, I also think that with the vast majority of tenants that go bad, there's nothing in the application that would give you any indication that you should expect problems. And most tenants who default on rent choose not to pay, rather than being unable to pay, or their circumstances change during the tenancy, eg job loss. Not much you can do to prevent that!

If you know your PM and have a good rapport with them, I'd be inclined to trust them to provide you with a summary of the salient points.

We engage a PM to do what they do. You give them specific instructions as to the type of people you want to lease the property (within reason) ie you can't ask for a specific however the area may dictate a specific type of tenant eg area for migrant settlement or itenerant workers etc.

The PM will keep you informed of the types of tenants and will discuss them with you (after culling out the non-suitable ones). At the end of the day, you can request that the PM provide you with a copy of the front page of the lease with all of the tenants details.

Hi Daedalus

The solicitor's interpretation of the RTA is bollocks.  The application for tenancy is, by its very nature, an authority for the customer's (tenant)  information to be supplied to the client (you).  You have instructed the PM to be your agent (agent being a person who acts for you), so if they are entitled to look at the information, of course you are also entitled to look at that information.

Having said that, I have had over 40 tenants over the years and I have never asked to look at an application. When my PM calls me about an application, I just ask her "is there any reason not to lease the property to this person".  If my PM thinks they will be fine, then I go with her judgment.  I have a great PM and she is worth her weight in gold.  I absolutely trust her judgment.

I also have landlord protection insurance in case there are problems with the tenant.

Cheers

K

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to information—

(a) used or disclosed for a purpose authorised in writing by the client

or customer; or

Daedalus,
I have not seen any applications, I trust our PM's.  If you can't trust them with this, how are you going to trust them on inspections unless you are there.  Aside from the issue at hand, have you asked the property manager how many properties they manage?  I have found this has a big impact on performance and how much chasing I have to do.  I usually pay accordingly as well.  Good luck
JL

I was just looking at one of my property management folders yesterday on another matter and I saw that when one of my properties is leased and I get a letter of confirmation of lease from my PM, the front page of the application is always stapled to it. 

I would be reluctant to engage a PM whose solicitors misinterpret the law!!

As to confidence in PMs, I have had my share of bad ones.  I will never again invest in a town of less than 10,000 because of the lack of competition amongst PMs and the subsequent poor quality of their work.  But in a capital city there is plenty of competition and some very good PMs.  To my mind, commission is not a factor to be taken into consideration when engaging a PM.  A good one will do the whole job for you, an incompetent one will make your life a misery.

So if anyone out there is looking for a GREAT PM in Darwin, I have just the girl!

Cheers again

K

Trakka, the agent acts on your behalf. If you sack them, then you can do all the dog work yourself ie reference/credit checking, trust accounting, issuing of statements, inspections, advertising/marketing, open houses etc.

I'm having trouble making clear the distinction between information, and "the entire application". Let's see if some examples (even if imperfect) give the idea.

To check their credit, your agent may need their TFN, DOB, maiden name, etc. The agent uses this info to ring the credit checkers, confirm they have the right person, then get the credit check info back. You're entitled to know the results of the credit check, but there's no need for you to know their DOB or TFN yourself.

They have former addresses and agents listed so that your agent can ring up and check what they were like as tenants. You're entitled to know anything relevant that the agent finds out about that tenancy – eg if they paid on time, if they damaged anything, etc – but you don't need to know the street address of their last residence.

And yes, I'm talking about where you go through an agent; it is different if you're managing privately, as outlined. Once you involve an agent, that agent has a legal obligation to only give you the information that you need, which as illustrated, is a subset of the entire application.

Hi all

The crux of the Privacy Act is the purpose for which a person gives information and the use to which that information is put.  A tenant provides information in the lease application so that the landlord is able to make a decision on whether to lease the property to that person. 

Firstly filling out all the relevant information on the form, the applicant is consenting to that information being given to the landlord.  The purpose for which the information is given is to allow the landlord to assess the application.  The agent's job is to recommend an applicant, not to make the decision.  The landlord is entitled to EXACTLY the same information as the agent is entitled to.  The only exception to this would be if the applicant specifically stated that the information was for the agent's use only and not for the landlord (and in this case why would you have them as tenants?)  I, as a landlord am also able to conduct my own enquiries about an applicant.  I do not have to rely on my agent's recommendations and only on the information they give me  For that reason I am entitled to the same "relevant" information as the agent is.  What if I want to find out from the applicant's old next door neighbours what they were like as a neighbour?  I am entitled to do that.  For that reason I am entitled to a previous address.  What if I don't want 18 year olds renting my property?  So I am entitled to know the date of birth.  What if I want to hire a private investigator to check out the history of my applicant?  I need the same information as the agent knows.  I also am entitled to the information which will enable me to check the credit history independent to the agent.

The first issue is consent.  The applicant consents to that information being disclosed for the purposes of ascertaining whether their application is successful.

Which leads me to the second issue, which is the purpose to which that information is put.  Once the agent and/or the landlord has that information, it can be used only for the purposes of assessing whether the landlord wants them as a tenant.  It cannot be used for anything else.  If, in doing my own research I find out that the applicant has grown dope in the back yard of the last place they rented, I cannot give the police the applicants details (although this is where the Privacy Act gets complicated.  Information can be passed on to "enable justice" or words to that effect).  But you all get my drift.

The view of the agent's solicitor and the Office for the Privacy Commissioner are taking an unworkably conservative interpretation of the Act in relation to this issue.  Trakka, I don't know whether you spoke to a solicitor at the OPC or just an admin staff member, but their interpretation is VERY narrow.  The agent is my agent.  I authorise them to act for me in my absence.  The agent is just a conduit between the applicant and me. 

I stand by my words in my first post on this subject.

I hope this all makes sense. 

Cheers

K