I have a friend who is new to a property investor world. He is going to rent his first property out. He is still living in this property & moving out in 2 weeks so that he can rent it out. At the moment, he has found a property agent to find a tenant for this property. This property agent has been authorised by him to start the first inspection on 2nd of July.
A week before 2nd of July, the property agent has contacted him for a good prospective tenant who is a lady with a steady income & 2 kids.
My friend only told the agent that this lady sounds OK, however he still wants to have more options for some prospective tenants. Also, he told the property agent that he is happy if the agent wanted to bring the lady to the property for an inspection before 2nd of July. However, the property agent did not contact him back about any inspections before the 2nd of July.
On the 2nd of July, the first inspection was held, 24 hours before that, the property agent has contacted my friend to let him know that inspection will be held from 4.45 pm to 5.00 pm. Since he always gets home around 5 pm, he was waiting outside when the people were inspecting his house.
He was happy when he saw there was some people came to the house & looked like they have some interests on it. Therefore, he was waiting any news from the property agent that night. However, nobody contacted him that night. The next day (3rd of July), he got a phone call from the agent that the lady with 2 kids will lease his house. He was quite surprised by this since the agent did not discuss any other prospective tenants after that first inspection.
He asked the agent what’s going on. Apparently, there is a bit of misunderstanding between him & the agent. The agent always assumes that he agreed for the lady to lease his house when the lady likes the house too. Apart from that, there were 2 other applicants from that first inspection who do not sound as good as this lady. Therefore, the agent decided to get this lady to lease my friend’s house. Also, since my friend will only move out from the property in 2 weeks, the lady will only move in after that.
At the end, my friend agreed to this. On the same day (3rd of July), he got home & got a couple of mails in his letterbox with a stranger name (let’s say it’s Mrs. Smith). First he thought it’s a lost mail or something but he got curious when he saw one of the letters has the property agent’s name on the envelope. He opened those two letters. One is from AGL (congratulating Mrs. Smith for new connection) & one is from the agent itself (congratulating Mrs. Smith for leasing the house).
The AGL letter had 30th of June stated on letter & the agent’s letter had 2nd of July stated on the letter. My friend only knew that his property would be leased out to a lady on 3rd of July. He called the agent to ask about this. He found out that apparently one of the agents had brought that lady to inspect the house before 2nd of July & nobody notified him about this. This sounds like somebody had been in your house while you’re still living there. Does this sound right to you? Please give me your opinion so that I can help my friend out.
Thank you in advance.
What did your friend agree to?
Maybe he signed an agreement which allowed the agent to decide the tenant and for the agent to have access.
I wouldn't like it myself, someone coming into the house while not there – issues of theft and privacy. And also the fact that the agent lied.
Even if this was agreed to in the original agreement, I would change agents asap.
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
Hi Terry thanks for the reply. I had my friend to go through the contact he signed with the agent for few times. There is no agreement mentioning about agent can decide the tenant. Also, he mentioned that before he signed the contract, this agent always tells him that they will always discuss any potential tenants with him before signing the leasing contract.
The most thing that he is not happy about is the agent never told him about the lady had been brought in to his house before the first inspection & no one ever told him that while he’s still living in the house with all his belongings.
I reckon he will change the agent although there will be more cost with this, since the tenant has signed the leasing contract & he still has to accept this. Then, he will still pay the cost for whatever the agent has spent (i.e. advertising cost, etc).
Does anyone know a good rental agent for outer eastern suburbs in Melbourne (Ringwood area)?
Hi,
I have a good relationship with Philip Webb. I found them to have the finger on the pulse of all issues, and even proactive in others. I believe their fees are 7.7% including GST.
I like them as they put back into the community through various means –
Karen
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