Issues on tenant vacating property

Tenant gave notice and left.
We assume that the PM did an exit inspection (we are not 100% sure of this). We have requested a copy of the inspection report.
That night we went to the property and noted a few items we thought should be fixed, and advised the agent accordingly.
It is now 3 weeks later and the agent is saying we should have given the outgoing tenant more time to fix the issues (rather than fix the things ourselves so we could re-let the property).

How much time after the vacate date would tenant have to fix these issues?

 

Dear Qak,
I have more questions than answers.
Has the agent released the bond?
When did the tenant go?
Have you a signed copy of the outgoing inspection report?
Have you a signed copy of the ingoing inspection report?
These are important because you need to be able to prove 'how it was' at the beginning of the tenancy.
Get the 'few items fixed ' as fast as you can because now the rental market has a lot of demand!
`pay up and look big'
Then claim any damage that you can.
Wear and tear can't be claimed however.
All the best,
I hope this helps!

 

There's no legal requirement to give a tenant any time after the vacate date to fix issues before you make a claim.

If its a valid claim, claim away. Note they may not be valid anyway.

 

How long after the tenant left the property did you fix the items?

 

A week ... we told the agent by email of the issues we saw the same night the tenant vacated.

We are thinking that the agent didn't *see* some things, so they may not be on the outgoing condition report (does that mean they aren't claimable from bond?) - whether that's because he wasn't there, sent someone else, or just didn't look properly, we don't know.

Nothing really major, but I think he should have noted two cracked windows; & that wardrobe fittings were missing given the screw holes/glue marks/torn gyprock left behind.

 

No legal requirement as stated above. Agent definitely should’ve noticed the two things you mentioned above if nothing else, I’d be putting it back on them and asking them if they noticed them or not.

Depending on the state the property is located in you may be a little late claiming the bond (in Vic it’s 10 business days) and therefore would need to apply for an extension to claim if you cannot come to an agreement with the tenant - assuming the agent hasn’t released the bond.

 

To answer your question specifically:
- There is no legal requirement on time given.
- One week would be considered more than sufficient for almost any issues.

 

OK thanks - a week it was so we are following up with the PM again.

 

So the agent said ... "no formal report was done as the tenant was present"

Agent has so far agreed to fix a couple of the issues noted at their cost.

 

Regardless of a tenant being present or not they should be noting down issues and taking photos. Good news that they’ve at least agreed to fix a couple of issues at their cost, I think this at least shows them taking responsibility for missing things and costing you money - which is more than can be said for a lot of companies.

 

I think you should change PM’s once they have reimbursed you for the repairs.

 

I am in NSW, DFT information sheet says that at the final inspection"the official condition report must be completed at this inspection".

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/b.../Ending_a_tenancy_information_for_tenants.pdf

 

So? I don't see how that makes any difference to your issue - which I presume is to hold your agent or the tenant responsible.

 

The agent is trying to get us to stop following up the issues because he thinks we won't have much of a case at Tribunal. We weren't planning on going to the trib because our time & the cost isn't worth it.

However, I think that if he'd done the condition report, and properly, we would have a much stronger case to recover these items from the tenant. As it is we look to be exposed to the tenant claiming they are unaware of any issues, or that damage occurred after they vacated - because it's not on any condition report.

 

I think you're probably too focused on the condition report. Its just one piece of evidence at the end of the day. Its not some magical be-all and end-all on the condition of the property.

Its possible you never had much of a chance at tribunal to make claims on those items anyway. Is that something you've considered?

Anyway if you're not going to tribunal, your only options left are to negotiate or make a claim against your PM. Are you going to do that? Or not?

Keep your eyes on the prize.

 

Yes we are attempting (via the agent) to get the tenant to say what they think the cost of the repairs should have been if they had done it themselves - since they think we overpaid to get the work done (or are overclaiming from the bond).

If we get no luck with that then we will certainly be leaning on the agent!

I think I am focusing on the condition report because I see it as something that should have been done by them with the tenant.

 

Sounds like you need a new PM

 

id pretend and go ahead with all teh tribunal stuff, it might teach the agent a lesson

ive given up on PMs, sure there are some good ones, but they will never admit mistake and will never fix it at the ir cost

 

The tenant is not legally entitled to any time to fix anything after handing back the keys.
You can fix things immediately and charge them

 

The issue with that is that it would involve tribunal, who would ask for inspection reports as evidence. The exit wasn't done per previous posts in this thread.