WA HELP! New tenant already in arrears + discovered with history of illegal drugs

Hi property management experts!

I am a self-managing landlord in WA. New tenant moved in end of September and should be paying a week in advance. They have paid bond and 2 weeks rent advance but the regular weekly due dates for rent has been missed 3 times now where last one was due yesterday. Daily notices are being sent and breach notice has also been issued already.

I have also JUST discovered that the tenant was a former meth head which makes me worry about the house as every time I past the house, they will have plenty of cars and visitors all the time.

I can't do inspection just yet as it isn't 3 months yet.

Any advice please what will be the best thing I can do? I am in WA if that helps.
Also is there a way to check if the house is free from illegal drug substance? I just wanted to make sure it will be drug free. My neighbour who is also a self managing landlord just had tenant who turned the house as a drug lab and now he has to pay over $14,000 to have the house cleaned before he can sell or lease it.

Help!

Thank you in advance for your help x

 

If it was me, I'll hire a property manager asap before any further damage is done!..

And you can always involve cops if you think illegal activity is being conducted and let them take care of that!..

Cheers,

 

Get a property manager

 

Gee, that all went bad quickly.
You will be able to test the property for meth use after the current tenant leaves, but I suspect there is no way you can prove if residue is found that they are the culprit.

 

Or that there wasn't a residue before they moved in (unless you have a clearance certificate already)

 

Yep. That's what I meant. Meth checks prior to incoming tenants is something that is gaining traction.

 

While this seems logical, in Perth the OP will be rolling the dice that the PM won't screw up the situation even more.

Thisis a very similar situation to my mate who had his property managed by a "reputable" firm. The PM moved to evict the tenant for non payment of rent but screwed up the paperwork and the hearing was dismissed. Because of that the tenant did malicious damage to the property which is not covered by insurance. The PM fees for this "service" were very high and my mate is considerably out of pocket.

@ShaSha28 has 2 options:

1. Follow the procedure set out in the legislation

2. Pay a competant PM who can handle this type of situation. I don't know any who can but other Perth investors may.

It would be worth starting a thread asking for recommendations if the OP chooses this option.

 

There is a company that specialises in this in Perth.

 

Yes fair enough that some PMs aren’t that necessarily great, but I suspect they are still better than the OP floundering around if they don’t know what they’re doing.

@ShaSha28 have you started the termination process? It doesn’t sound like you have??

Also, why would you have to wait 3 months to do an inspection?? That’s not a rule...

 

I stopped reading after these 7 words.

 

@D.T. Do you manage properties in WA?

 

Which suburb is in the IP in?

 

Not yet :/

 

The obvious answer is to get a good PM. Like yesterday! And if you don't. Well good luck.

 

You can do an inspection at 6 weeks - this is standard in WA and I hope you didn't take it out of the lease.

You can also issue notice to inspect - I think - but I'm not a PM.

I hope you have landlord insurance

Make sure you do all the breaches and notices to the letter of the law as if you get them wrong you have to start all over again.

 

How did you find out about ‘the tenant being a former meth head’?

Might not be true...

 

Saw him on an episode of "letters & numbers"

 

Is that testing tenants or the house?

 

House trsting and remediation. And since this post I found out there are several companies in Perth that specialise in testing and remediation.

 

Would you get your home drug-tested? Interesting article on this