Live-in landlord and housemate garden maintenance dispute

You could have mowed a standard lawn twice in the time and energy you wasted arguing about it.
Forget all legalities for a moment. Think about it. What if he agrees (not happily) to mow the lawns, but doesn't do a good job/breaks the lawn mower/trips or hurts himself with 'your' lawn mower? Are you ready to bear that cost and issues?
Also, do you really want to stay with a pissedoff lodger?
Get on it mate. Do your thing

 

Here's a simple universal clause.

My house, my rules, don't like it? Get the f out.

 

I haven't read your first post in full (too long with too much irrelevant detail) or much of the responses but.

An american website should be disregarded.

Unless you agreement specifically requires him to mow the grass and rake up the leaves then he would not be contractually required.

Does he have exclusive possession of the property?

Why not just enter a new agreement with all these things worked out.

 

If this is the only problem you have as a Landlord, I would say you are extremely lucky. There are tenants hundred times worse than this.
I couldnt read the whole post, just speed read. IMHO, no matter what is legal or in the agreement, at the end of the day it's a business deal. One offers and one accepts. You both might think you have all the rights but as long as you are happy, you can remove or modify some clauses if you both agree.

 

It was an ACT Tenancy Agreement that I purchased and is issued by the ACT Law Society. They also sell it on their web site. He didn't signed the tenancy agreement, what he signed was the occupancy agreement which I had to write up (this is expected) but in it I indicated that we will be using as much of the terms of the standard tenancy agreement as applicable. I did this as a shortcut and because they are reasonable terms as already thought through by the law community. Maybe I should just refer to it as an occupancy agreement from now on to avoid confusion but it is difficult to not talk about it without referring to the 'tenancy agreement' due to the way the contract is set up.

 

Did you copy and paste or write out the terms of the tenancy agreement in your 'occupancy agreement'?

 

I gave him a copy of the tenancy agreement along with the occupancy agreement (OA) and in the OA I said that we will refer to it. I explicitly indicated in the OA the particular tenancy terms that do and don't apply to the OA.

 

Interesting

 

Initially I was erring on the lodgers side, until you finally confirmed this 27 posts into the thread.

So it appears, technically, your lodger must attend to his fair share of the lawn and gardening. BUT....TECHNICALLY.....if the lodger was to mow lawn on just one half of the front and one half of the back lawn, and pick up leaves on one half of the front yard and one half of the back yard - then he is entitled to do so - TECHNICALLY - leaving you to do the other half at similar time to him anyway!

pinkboy

 

Just because you have a couple of examples in mind doesn't mean that could be generalised to the rest of the population.

I don't think people would normally go around listing every single household chore in an advert that is expected of a potential housemate. They usually just make a generic statement that the place needs to be kept clean and these things are implied or further discussed at the interview/agreement signing stage. If you find this hard to believe, take a look at this PDF on the last page with the sample agreement for living in a shared housing from the Tenants Queensland Inc. As you can see, it clearly talks about the gardening and lawn mowing as a requirement. Keep in mind that I am talking about shared accommodations in general at this point to address your statement that you have never seen it in an advert.

And the only thing that you said so far is that it is my house and I should maintain it which doesn't give me much to think about. I could say that about a house in which I don't live in and yet there are standard tenancy agreements with terms that requires the tenant to maintain the garden. If you could explain why the latter is more appropriate then that would help.

 

To be fair I think what you wrote in your agreement is somewhat enforceable and your person should't have signed it at the time if they did not agree to it.

BUT

Although not unique your situation is not common. Rules and expectations that apply to sharehouses where 2-4 people share a house and are all tenants in common are all equally responsible for maintenance and upkeep. These do not apply to you UNLESS the agreement states he is renting half your house for example - or has rights over half your house.

If you had advertised it as a room for rent and asked him to sign such an agreement I think it is unfair.

 

Share house.
Take from that what you will.

In my experience from being a live in landlord back in the day, some "lodgers" contribute to household chores more than others. As long as the rent is up to date and they are tidy around the house, I'd have no problem with mowing MY OWN lawn. Remember some tenants get a little bitter towards landlords at times because of the whole "I'm paying off your house for you" thing. Being a live in landlord can magnify this. Be careful it doesn't blow up in your face. . . .

 

i had a read through just brieftly, i think seriously just let it slide. Worst case he moves out and you break a friendship

You are talking about enforcing it legally etc (seriously you are living with the person) and i am wondering how are you going to enforce it legally? go to VCAT or your respective tribunal, waste the tribunal fee (which is not recoverable in this scenario) and then fight it out. Also by some chance you win, how are you going to retrieve or enforce the order? get a debt collector or get it enforced in the magistrates court, so you can get the sheriff out and that is only if it is a substantial amount. You better off spending all that time mowing the lawn yourself or the money getting someone esle in. Or if you feel this is an area that really bugs you, just tell him to leave.

 

I really wonder what your going to do about it ?

If you have a legal agreement you think stacks up, then put the rent up if they refuse, or offer to go halves for someone else to do it.

Problem is, what they think is ok maintenance and what you think are likely 2 different things, frankly, I would say....

Hey, it is in the agreement, it is what I expected, but I will do it because I do not want th eplace to look like a dump, if you do get free time or feel like helping out, just jump in when you can"

Then see what happens from there.

Living with people is irritating most times, I think if this is the main issue, your not doing too bad

 

I used to let one of the bedrooms to a tenant.
I did all the house keeping, including indoors & outdoors. It wasn't the agreement between us. I just thought it was my property and I would look after it.

I agree with others -- if mowing is the only thing you need to worry, you are really lucky. I would keep him if I were you.

I'll list a few of that tenant's SKILLS.
* swapping eggs (12/500g) with my 12/700g. I hate small eggs.

* using the OVEN to make toast & warm up his LUNCH at 7 am. stating he only turned the OVEN on for half a minute.

*swapping his rotton milk (opened a week ago) with mine (freshly opened yesterday)

* going through my personal stuff. Yuck!

* always late payment. (Moved in on Wed and believed Thu was the correct pay day)

* paying every Wed was too hard to remember. Wanting to pay once month (with 4 weeks of rent only )

Too many dirty tricks to list.

I am just happy that he's gone he didn't poison my food during his staying.

 

Get a hobby, make some friends, try meditation or yoga. You have a lot of energy that needs to channelled into something more productive.

Did you inherit the property or worked for it?

 

I rented a small flat attached to a house, used to mow the lawn randomly for free for the old landlady, good exercise (very steep lawn), I don´t see it as a bad chore to do, would rather do that than internal house chores.

Maybe you can bargain with your housemate. Had no obligation to do it but she would give me a bottle of wine or beers after since I saved her at least $300 per lawn mow (Switzerland... expensive). A local garden centre was 500 CHF ($650) minimum for one lawn mow.

 

Geez... I might become a lawnmower in Switzerland in my next life.... are they huge lawns?

 

Most people in Zurich don´t have personal lawns or there would be a community lawn. The 500chf minimum was for flat lawns up to 700m2 I think (big but an apartment block might have that), larger than that extra. Most houses with private lawns in my area would be worth worth at least 5 Million CHF, maybe over 10 Million, so not a huge amount for most owners really, but it was a lot for my landlady who had lived there 50 years.