My perfect tenants abandoned the property :(

Bury them ? put them in barrels ?

 

Composted into garden bed?


See ya's.

 

The owner had a really good laugh over this, I think it may have been the vision of me standing there with a huge bunch of flowers trying to interrogate a tenant who was not meant to be there. She was laughing for about 5 minutes then said - OK so what do we do? Lol

 

It's possible the original tenant is still paying the rent to you and the new people are paying rent to them.

I wouldn't be calling the 4 new people tenants - they have no proof of tenancy therefore they are either squatters or ......

This would really freak me out. I'm sure you can't just do this in WA and you'd be able to get rid of the new people as they don't have permission to live there. God knows who changed the locks.

I'd go back over the weekend when the neighbours are home and see if they know anything

In the conspiracy theory department. The 4 men killed off (or locked in the basement) the original tenants but are using identity fraud to use their bank accounts and money. There is now a meth lab in the house.

If you can't locate the original tenants via normal communication or their emergency contact I'd report to police for a welfare check.

 

Don't all hubbys think their wifeys are crazy

Thanks for posting this thread and keep us updated.

 

It doesn't even need to be identity fraud. E.g. I for one, always do automatic transfer with cut off date on tenancy end date. They could have done something to the old tenant and never pay rent (but incidentally all automated from the old tenant side, so no changes on finance).

@Xenia any update on this?

 

rent is still being paid for this property but we are still waiting on tribunal hearing - it will be interesting to see the tribunals position on this.

 

Its your application to the tribunal - what orders did you ask for, and what were your grounds?

 

We applied for vacant possession on the grounds of original tenants abandoning property.
There is no other grounds to apply for a hearing for this case.

If they do not attend to defend the case my feeling is that it will be granted.

Will let you know.

 

Yeah I'm not so confident. One of the main legal tests for whether a tenancy has been abandoned is whether or not the rent is still being paid. And it still is.

I think you would do better to do some more investigating into whether its a subletting arrangement - which is what I suspect is happening.

 

Yeah thanks - we'll see how it goes.

 

I'm interested to see what happens with this one @Xenia. It's interesting how things can go wrong with tenants who have never been a problem before. I just had one I had to notify for non-payment of rent. Over nearly 10 years, 3 properties and many tenants, this is the first time I have had to notify a tenant their rent wasn't paid. Long story short is that the rent was paid into the previous landlords account. They are going to have some fun getting the funds back. Anyway, all up to date now, so all good. It has taken some time to correct though. By tomorrow they would have been in breach of their lease agreement.

How far away is the tribunal hearing for yours?

 

This happened to my parents about 15 years ago. The surprise new tenants got done in a drug bust before it went to tribunnal. They had taken over the lease from the previous tenant (it was never clear if the previous tenant was complicit or just trying to sublet). Apparently this happens reasonably regularly, moving into rented houses, changing the locks, growing canabis and then moving onto the next place before the landlords even know they are there.

 

Wow. Scary. This is when you see the value of a good property manager. Imagine smugly self managing this for 8 years and then falling off this particular precipice. Not in my risk profile. Just the thought of confronting these people who could be violent or unpredictable. Good lesson.

 

I don't see why a PM is needed for this aspect - anyone self managing can do some regular inspections. It'd be pretty hard to hide a drug lab from an owner or PM in that case.

 

I don't want to (ever) meet these types of people. Actually I don't want my property managers to have to meet them either now I think of it. My managers are mostly young ladies.

 

Or good lesson for those smugly paying a property manager to manage their properties... PM refusing to handover to new agent...can I 'co-manage' in the meantime??

As a "smug" self manager, I had this issue many years ago with potentially violent/unpredictable people who threatened violence and damaged the property. It's really not as dramatic as it sounds. You could just as easily be bashed in your own home *. Experiencing this myself hasn't deterred me for one second from 'smugly' self managing three rental properties since. It has saved a lot of hassles and I certinaly haven't experienced anything like what happened to the home owner in the thread I linked to.

On an side note, I reported the offenders to the police, they were prosecuted and forced to pay restitution.

* – Herald Sun

 

Property managers are confronted with some scary situations that is for sure. The reason I did not push in through the front entrance of this house is that there were four of them and one of me.
I did however keep a firm tone and spoke to them, I could tell by their body language that they were more embarrassed and fearful than threatening.
I also had a clear access to the front door and all of them were inside, no one behind me so I could run if I wanted to.

This case was more of a surprise - to everyone, they did not expect a routine inspection and I did not expect to find them there.

More threatening in bailiff evictions, we've had ****** off tenants smash property manager's cars with baseball bats, lot's of verbal abuse, personal threats. We only do one every 12 to 18 months on a rent roll of around 170 properties now, but I do not look forward to them, they are nasty.

The baliff told me at last eviction that they do around 5-10 evictions a week for all of Adelaide metro.
I'm not sure on the stats of total rentals in adelaide but 5-10 per week is not too bad given how many agencies there are in SA.

 

I watched one of these go down in Murray Bridge.The agency took 3 big dudes built like brick s^&* houses with them,they even scared me,and i can look after myself, anyway,after all the hassles and dramas, they got their Karma.

 

You were the tenant Jim?