Do you authorise the property manager to make payments on your behalf for council fee, water...

interesting topic.

1. What happens when the pm pays the bill late and late charges incurred. - Who is liable?
2. A "surcharge" of 1 or 2% is usually payable when paying council/strata bills by credit card, isn't this "paying more"?

 

1. you, but you can seek reimbursement from your agent
2. yes

 

Absolutely! A good Property Manager will be more than happy to do it themselves too! They can forward the rates notices (info blanked) with your permission to tenants to get free plants (from some councils), it gives the agency a healthy supply of dump vouchers from some councils), it massively streamlines water billing, archives your entire history of rates etc. in one electronic file AND makes your tax easier- because it's all on one set of documents!

The Agent may occasionally ask you to make a payment due to insufficient funds, but one month is almost always enough- as long as the Agent places a hold on funds to ensure they are not disbursed to you halfway through.

The only reason I wouldn't let the PM take care of it is if you were concerned it wouldn't all be paid on time, in which case you probably need a Agency anyway.


On a side note, I have found the agent always pays the late fee if they have allowed the due date to lapse.

 

You have to get your mail at least once a month anyway, When you have the Biller on your billers list the customer number comes up automatically and previous paid amounts come up in the amount box, you just need to click. I have to log in to check the rents have been paid and to check and pay the credit card, the bills are direct debited to. I have to pay for goods and services that aren't direct debited . If you pay your rates with one payment you get to keep half your money for 3 or 6 months longer. If you pay the bill yourself it all goes to the accountant automatically, is coded, sorted out automatically and is no work for the accountant, no papper work required, and less work than having to search through agent statements Depending on the loctation of the properties 5 properties may only have have I council bill and If your water and council rates are consolidated only 4 water bills a year which may be able to be direct debited, but you do need to keep an eye out for any unusual water use leaking pipes can cause big problems and ruin foundations. I relax paying the Bills it gives me something to do, I still have another 29 days and 23 hours a month to spend with my kids.

 

I'm at option 3. My PM pays all my property related bills out of my rents then puts the balance in my account each month.

I haven't got the time or inclination to get involved in all the bill paying processes directly. I just point them all at my PM and he does it all and sends me a nice neat monthly reconciliation with all the individual invoices attached. Makes it very easy at tax time too when he produces the full year summary.

Cheers,
Michael

 

I am relatively new to the property game. I pay my Property Manager a 9% fee +GST for management and up until now I have paid the Water account and forwarded the account to PM for recovery of usage from the tenant.
Now suddenly the PM is charging me 9% +GST on the water usage recovered from tenant as well.
I am, and have been of the opinion that collecting water usage from the tenant is a function of the property management and I should not be at all out of pocket for the tenants water usage.
Is this the PM gouging me or does this happen elsewhere?

 

It's part of the money collected by the agent so they're usually entitled to charge their commission on the amounts collected. Check your management agreement.

 

Damn it. Why aren't I doing that!?

I don't think most agents charge commission on water consumption, but it does make sense why they would charge on funds collected.