Hi All, What is your experience with Centrelink tenants or those who pay rent via their Centrelink payments? Agents are advising they are better to have during this pandemic than those who are employed as Centrelink payments are more stable/ guaranteed unless change of circumstances. But then I was told that tenants can also ring up and cancel their payments easily. What are your experiences? cheers
Of course they can. Anyone can. But why would they? They’ll have an eviction process started almost immediately. So they’ll be out and also with a black mark on their record and won’t be able to rent again (except from private LL’s who don’t pay for access to bad tenant databases).
I don't have a problem renting to tenants receiving centreline as long as they have affordability and suitable other references. They can easily stop paying via centrepay (and this method of payment costs the landlord 99 cents each time) i just have tenants set up direct payments from their accounts.
Single mum with kids on centrelink - best tenants ever! usually totally grateful for roof over kids head and keep property neat and tidy. Usually their father or brother around to help with mowing etc.
Parents had a centrelink tenant in a property for years and never had a problem. I guess there are two types, the long term stable and mature centrelink types, and the younger transient types. The former a more reliable bet I suspect.
There's definitely negative generalisation of people on centrelink. However, in my parent's boarding house, they have rented to a number of people on centrelink benefits. Got to say, they're very nice people and pay on time. Never had an issue.
Do those tenant databases even get used? I figured since they're distributed through so many competitors, if there's no one central DB to poll then how useful could it really be?
Centrelink tenants are just like any other tenants. You get good, and you get bad. The only difference is that the bad ones are very bad. If you've got a good PM, they should filter out the bad ones.
+1 from me too, PMs arent magicians, they can only do their best to reduce the bad ones, but occasionally no matter how good the PM is , one will slip through going to cop some flack here for this comment but "generally" in my experience, the ones on centrelink long term are more likely not to care too much about being listed on TICA or references, and have lower financial literacy so as @skater says, when they go bad, they will go really bad, but at the same time they generally tend to be less fussy with the state of the house or minor issues ie you get what you pay for
We just sold a house after 20 years with Centrelink tenants, aged/disability. Always rent paid on time, we forgave two weeks rent once, for genuine illness. They stayed on with the new owners.
Yes, we've got some like that in our ex-PPOR. They've been there since we moved out. About 12 years now! They don't want to move, they pay the rent with precision, and keep it in good order.
My experience was the same. ISingle mum + 3 kids on centre link but like many earned some cash on the side waitressing, who had no-one around beside's parasites her mother actually sold her to a deviant conman @ 16 yrs old, desperate to get out of a bad situation in a bad housing commision area who wouldnt be given a lease a from agents who prefer to lease to entitled older Australians. I put her into a brand new house. Very appreciative and got a house better than she dreamed possible kept house in pristine condition never complained even paid for repairs she shouldnt have such as TV antennae and she established the lawn. Agents wouldnt rent a house to her yet she paid more then the agents said they could rent it for. It is what makes RIP so rewarding making a difference to somebodies life and their kids future.
There's good and bad people from any demographic or stereotype. I have a very high prevalence of people receiving centrelink benefits on my books given we work primarily in lower socioeconomic areas and they're generally fine if we do our job vetting them before moving in. I certainly echo the sentiment that the stable income (and lower rent) has been a blessing in COVID times. I have 0.5% of tenants on a rent reduction. That all being said, people receiving centrelink benefits have a much higher chance of being disadvantaged in some way compared to people with employment, seeing as centrelink is effectively a safety net for said disadvantaged people. Sometimes that disadvantage can have something to do with their ability to manage their finances, take care of their house and cooperate with others.
