Have you been asked for a rent reduction?

Going ahead with the usual notices. If the tenant is not collaborative it is not easy to find a solution, at least there is a chance I will get my money back through the insurance. I can only guess the lack of evidence is probably a sign of the hardship claim not being legit. Lease expires in 3 months. I guess then it will be easier to evict him!?!?

 

Beat me too it. Did you agree to this? What was the rent originally? Will you be giving the usual breaches?

 

Are you using a Property Manager? What State is this?

 

Victoria. Yep using PM.

 

Hi Mel,

I cannot access the link you posted.
Do you need some kind of registration to view it?

 

I've had 1 tenant coming to end of lease decide they wouldn't be renewing - no idea why, they didn't offer and I didn't ask. The PM for that one has has advised for that one to be at market rate, the rent can "only" go up $5 per week.

I've got another tenant who is not always awesome at paying rent on time, but generally gets there each month, who has once again fallen behind, but they are also uncontactable at the moment. The PM is chasing them and will seek eviction if they continue to be uncontactable and/or dont pay rent. This one is on gov benefits, so I would assume may not be able to justify a covid related loss of income.

cheers,
Inertia.

 

If a property manager is involved the tenants may well have had thier reasons, but whether it was in the managers interests to pass those reasons along to you is another matter.

Any increase in rent at all seems rather ambitious at the moment, certainly if the property is in a major metropolitan area.

Agreed the other tennants shouldnt be behind.
If the government benefits you refer to are centrelink jobseeker (possibly the others too) they will be receiving an extra covid supplement at the moment of upto $550 per fortnight, plus the $750 covid stimulus just got paid a week or so ago.

 

Absolutely - I don't need to know, not really relevant. They moved out within the parameters of the lease.

As always, rent is based on supply and demand. If demand dictates, rent price can go up.

From what the PM has advised me, they are just not great at paying rent. Happy to be a little more lenient with the current stuff going on, but they do actually need to be contactable!

Cheers,
Inertia.

 

For sure, although having just gone through the re-letting process in the last few weeks, its hard to imagine any areas justifying an increase at the moment.

Hopefully your area is different. Goodluck.

 

Thats odd..can you reach: COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and then click Renting and Property, and then the first link?

 

I have been asked for 30% rent reduction for 3 months (NSW). Does this seem like a reasonable reduction request at the moment ? Both tenants on the lease lost their jobs and have provided evidence of this and centrelink payments.

I am considering accepting it as they have been reasonably good tenants for a few years, & no real choice anyway can´t evict at the moment and I would certainly lose more than a months rent trying to re-let.

 

I'd be a little cautious giving a reduction during an existing lease as it may void your insurance. If you are wanting to go down this path, then maybe you could get them to sign a new lease for 3 months? Also depending on where the property is, and how much the rent is, could make a difference.

 

Thanks, how could it void insurance? Lease is all pretty standard with only 4 months to go, so perhaps not too much risk with 3 months reduction.

 

Not void but they`ll not cover the difference if you agree on rent reduction (let`s say your tenant stops paying). Keep also in mind you cannot evict for 6 months.

 

Sorry, as @Luca said, not cover the difference. Maybe tell them that you will need to still issue all relevant notices as per the tenancy laws, but, so long as they resume paying the full rent in 3 months, you'll wipe the debt.

 

Yes, similar to what I plan to do.

bit of the experience to share. One of my long term tenants reached out directly as they didn't get (or what they thought) a helpful response from my agent. When I spoke to agent, they were pretty angry that the tennant reached out to and pretty indignant as they had responded. What happened was a passive aggressive email from the agent to the tennant, and the tenant reply angrily and cc'd me in on it.
I can understand and appreciate both sides. The agent was being professional, protect my interests by getting all the proof and paperwork needed, she had also faced some opportunistic tenants. But the first email she sent to tenant was pretty generic and impersonal with forms and checklists. Her manner was quite blunt as well. Meanwhile the tenant has been a good one, sole bread winner with a wife recovering from cancer. And from some googling, seems likely he has lost his job.
I've left them to sort it out - just confirming I was okay with the proposal. Hope the agent explained things property (eg. won't officially reduce rent, but have the balance accrue and have it written off later on)

 

In my original post I reported that our tenant in nsw (via PM agent) has asked for a 20% rent reduction for 6 months as his hours have been cut from 38 hours to 30 hours. After consideration, we agreed to it, then the next day PM agent emailed to say tenant gave 2 weeks notice to move out as he could not afford the rent Now waiting to ask PM agent what they would propose to do whether to advertise for rent at the amount agreed with vacating tenant, or lower, or higher?
We may also to keep the property vacant for a few months (but I guess this may have tax implications?) to see how this "excessive" rental situation will manifest.

 

I was to slow to respond to the agent on the first tenant application, and they signed elsewhere, but went with a subsequent applicant, they will move in Wednesday, with the $5/week increase on a 12 month lease.

Cheers,
inertia.

 

I offered one of our tenants 30% reduction because the husband lost his job. He has now been put on JobKeeper and so they agreed that the rent will go back up again to the usual price. So six weeks of reduced rent (~$1000) is better than nothing and we are now back to normal.
I really don't understand why you guys are so inflexible when a lost of rent comes straight off your tax anyway. Who cares!