Difficult Tenants - Solar Panels

Just another item to include in the lease agreement, like a pool
That the solar panels are provided, but the landlord is not liable for performance of said system.

The checking of such systems will in time likely become an annual safety check item.

 

No obligation to provide NEW facilities, but, as stated by others, if the facility/infrastructure was there when the tenants signed the lease, then there is an obligation to rectify (or renegotiate lease I guess...)

Cheers,
Inertia.

 

No, that takes only one isolationist, and you can be President then....

 

Oh don't say that.

We will have the local resident PMs telling us over and over why this has to be an expert third party and for a very reasonable 150 bucks per display read out that then requires many technical innovations to transfer that to an electronic system that can be tracked and traced in case we all need to blame someone ?

Maybe the next idiot tenant who electrocutes themselves can tie your non compliance of Solar checks directly to their unfortunate passing....or at least the relos who listen to the no fee legal ads

 

Each to their own I guess. For me, the readout on the inverter is objective fact which the tenant can be referred to (assuming that the panels are actually working). Many inverters can also be liked to web or phone apps which track and log generation.

 

Charming. You may as well have wrote:
"Maybe the next idiot tenant whose family burns to death can tie your non-compliance of Smoke Alarm checks directly to their unfortunate passing's once the prosecution is made aware that the smoke alarms were non-operational, not to Australian standard and/or not properly placed".

Back on topic.

@Dark Phoenix, there's some great advice here already. I'll just draw your attention to what I'd suggest are the most important points with my 2 cents.

It's HIGHLY unlikely that poorly or not functional solar panels are solely responsible for a 270% increase in power from one quarter to the next.

You need to get a copy of the tenants Electricity bills, ideally for the past year. This will establish;
1. How much power they used directly prior to the current excessive bill, and how much they used for the same period last year.
2. How much solar feed-in power was recorded on the current and previous bills, which will tell us straight away whether something is dramatically wrong with the panels.
3. Whether the current and/or past bill(s) was an estimate or a reading.
4. Whether there are any other charges attached to the bill not directly related to the usage.

The tenant is unlikely to admit to you if THEY are responsible for anything that might have contributed to the bill since they've made a complaint, so you need to go back and cross off as many possibilities as you can first.

You also want to figure out as much as you can before engaging contractors, because someone has to pay for that. What happens if they come back and advise nothing was wrong?- Do you dip into your pocket out of charity, or does the Property Manager have to make that awkward call explaining to your tenants that they're responsible for the investigation costs. Neither is a great option.

I actually come across similar situations reasonably regularly- and I'm personally dealing with something similar in my own house right now. We were using $450-$550 per quarter (big house) like clockwork up till last year where the bills hiked to around $700-$800. They sat there until the last quarter which came in at $1,300. I nearly died. I did my own investigation before throwing it at the Property Manager, but I can understand if the average tenant goes straight for help first. Turns out for me there were a few causes;
- No one put the hot water system back on off-peak when our powerlines were replaced (storm)
- We got charged a $300 fee by Energex for the install that was discreetly listed on the invoice
- AND.... We've just started using more power of late.

 

The inverter might have died. That happened to me twice. Stopped the export of solar power so I got no credits at all.

 

No.

Lets be real.

Lots of legislation id directly due to a few idiots.

Tom, maybe you come from a different time, but when I grew up, when people did idiotic things that caused *own* death, then not too many were sorry...

So yeah, you can say charming, but I do not care, if people do stupid things and get it in the neck, I am not going to fake outrage or sympathy, surprised you would, but there you go...

 

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for your replies!

I did not expect to have several helpful responses from our PC members, which is great; and of course some other comments too.

The panels had been there before they moved in so as I had said above I understand it is my obligation to have things repaired and maintained during the current tenants' tenure. I kindly asked my PM to go out to the property and check the inverter. He mentioned that it had been switched off. We also asked them to provide the previous bills and are currently waiting for their response.

I agree with @Tom Rivera . The reason why I posted and asked for your experience was some tradespersons would charge me a fee for a quote of their service unless you want to proceed. This is for their travelling expense, which is reasonable. Having said that, I do not want to fork out my hard-earned money if nothing is wrong. I am in my late 20s and am on my single income doing rentvesting in Sydney. I thus have to save and pay off the mortgage with every single cent I earn.

Once again, thank you for your constructive suggestions. I appreciate it!

Cheers,

DP

 

Great news, DP. We hope this will easily resolve the matter for you.



If the inverter operates fine now, then all good. If it switches itself off straight away, then I would suggest calling the company that installed them to come out and check everything, ie ask for a warranty call out.

 

There is a difference between shutting itself down and being turned off, if the isolator or supply was turned off, it is not much to do with you.

On the costs, everyone should be watching the income and outgoings, it is a requirement really.

Plenty of businesses have run at a loss when costs are not watched and managed.

 

Hello everyone,

Here is an update about the matter.

Recap of the previous episode:

· The tenant claimed their last bill nearly tripled

· They only moved in late last year meaning the last quarter bill of 2017 is only 2 months' time

· It is my home so I lived there before and had my own energy bill

· They use the same energy company (thank God!)

· They sent in their previous 3 bills

I am in investment banking plus I was born and raised overseas where mathematics is mandatory in all schools. So the only one thing I am proud of myself is my skills in Algebra and please forgive me for any grammatical error in this post.

Here we go, tenant’s bills:

· 1st bill: $600 after deducting buy back solar rate of $130+

· 2nd bill: $950 after deducting buy back solar rate of $100

· 3rd bill: $840 after deducting buy back solar rate of $155

I checked all the figures, performed an analysis and found out:

1. The last bill did not triple! Ah ha!

2. There was excessive energy consumption especially during peak hours in the 2nd and 3rd bill during winter time.

3. The solar buy back rate in my 3rd quarter bill at the time I was living there was $150 compared to this year’s rate of $155 in their bill. Minor discrepancy may be due to weather conditions.

4. The outstanding amount in each bill consists of actual charges and balance carried forward from the previous quarter. They never make any full payment of any bill. In fact, they only paid 40% out of their pocket in all the bills as I see.

5. The balance carried forward from last year bill to the 1st bill was $150. In the 2nd and 3rd bill, the balance carried forward doubled in value to $300+ each meaning their actual charges for 2nd and 3rd bills are only $650 and $540 roughly compared to the actual charges of $450 in the 1st bill. Once again, never triple!

Snow ball effect! When one does not pay off 100% of what he owes then don’t expect the debt obligation will be gone by itself.

At first, the PM told me a tradesperson would need to come in and have it repaired ASAP and under no circumstances should I wait for the next bill to come out in order to make better judgment. Now that I pointed to them, they are literally silent. They never suggested doing any due diligence including having the tenants send out the bills. They also lost the keys to the property recently.

Anyway, thank you so much with your helpful replies everyone. I appreciate it!

Cheers,

DP

 

WOOHOO! Great work!

It amazes me how much babysitting we do outside of our role as Agents/Landlords....!? Some people just can't properly function in society....

 

I hated maths and is not my forte, but is as I thought,

Re PMs telling you you must do something in a rush, well often the LL needs to do some or much thinking, and the more experience you have the more you end up drawing on it.

Often these inexperienced PMs will literally cost you many thousands extra per year, and mostly they are scared of tenants causing them more work, your costs are often very low on the thought process or level of importance.

Really, you should not have had to even get involved.

Good that it is sorted, has the tenant accepted this BTW ?

 

The tenant we had before moving in to our PPOR seemed to not really understand how to adult. I mean, maybe they were gaming the system, but towards the end of their tenancy they had started to not pay rent and we were already trying to get the (useless) property manager to deal with it properly. We tried to get them to move out with no penalty for breaking the lease but they refused, and just kept trickling part payments through. Their bond did cover the shortfall in rent, but then there was also some damage that needed to be dealt with.

They never set up any mail re-directs and we are still getting their mail 2 years on. I inadvertently opened one the other day and it was a credit collection agency offering to settle some other debt for 40% of what they owed. I don't get it. If you cant afford a thing, why try to keep paying for it? sell, move, reduce costs, whatever!

Cheers,
Inertia.

 

Isn't the answer right there!
Buy back solar on each of their bills. Solar working fine.
Increase in cost of electricity not my problem go and talk to your supply company.

 

Thank you for sharing the story with us. It sounds too much of a hassle.

I don't mean to be personal but am wondering as to whether you had to fork out your own money or make a claim with your insurance company if you had one? How did you deal with the incompetent PM after that?

Cheers,

DP

 

The amount in excess of bond was not significant enough to warrant claiming on insurance - for example, they took the door knobs off all the bedroom doors, and one looked like it had been kicked in (splintering around the tongue hole). he tenants prior to this lot were a bunch of 20-somethings (who always paid rent!) and the had key-locking knobs on the bedroom doors. We suspect a kid locked themselves in a bedroom and the parent kicked it in, then removed all the door handles. They could have at least left them behind, or if they asked us to swap them to non-keylock handles we actually would have.

As for the real estate agent, we were moving in to the house, so effectively sacking the agent. They were a "budget" real estate agent, and we definitely got what we paid for. Fortunately it was not a TOO expensive lesson to learn.

Cheers,
Inertia

 

so just a winging tenant .

 

Sounds like they were trying to game you by turning the solar off and trying to get you to pay for part of their accrued energy debt, well done on the investigation work.