Hi Everyone, I've been going thru a scenario with my tenant and wondered if members might offer their thoughts. I do have a level of confidence in my PM but other inputs are always welcome. Quick Summary for brevity Long Term single Female tenant - lease on month 2 month for a while now. Rent is $360 p week so not a expensive place in the scheme of things. Early March she calls the PM and says she's out of work & wont be paying rent. I haven't seen rent since mid March. Doesn't return PM's calls about evidence, slightly abusive when she does answer. Going off picture I saw in recent inspection report she has is now married and Husband lives in apartment, I'm not concerned but he is not on lease. PM asks about Husband & story changes - she hasn't worked in about 9 months for whatever reason, but her husband has lost his job due to COVID. After a few follow ups a dodgy word created document is provided as evidence of his job loss. I'm skeptical as his employer is a public listed multi national. Eventually the husbands bank statement is provided showing he has not received salary into his account in the previous sequence. Apparently this is now sufficient evidence of COVID Impact and eviction protection. An application was submitted for mediation weeks ago and latest feedback is that its still 2 weeks away from the application being reviewed. Have any NSW PM's found this wait time is common? I'm also surprised a bank statement which can be manipulated so simply can be used as evidence - easy task to redirect salary payments elsewhere. Will the tribunal look deeper than this ie if they have applied for Job Keeper etc? Will I be able to listen in to mediation hearing? Cheers Tom.
That wait time seems common at the moment. If they have both lost their jobs, are they both entitled to job keeper/seeker? $360 per week is affordable if they are both recieving centrelink payments - I would not negotiate on that. Unsure if you can dial in also, if you are near the agency that looks after your property perhaps ask to attend their office while the call is on speaker?
I would argue strongly that the evidence is not satisfactory. They should be receiving a total household income of about $1,060wk right now which means at the most you'd be obliged to offer them a reduction to $320wk (30% of income), though I personally think any sort of reduction is ridiculous.
If employer is a multinational, give the person who wrote the letter a quick call and confirm employment status, or a quick "does XXX still work there?"
A bit of an update - It went to mediation who said the bank statements were sufficient to provide protection which I'm disappointed with. The mediators suggestion to the PM was drop rent to $200 p week and waive unpaid rent.
What???? I'm so sorry that is very disappointing! Did you raise your point about the fact that if just a bank statement alone then a tenant could easily redirect their income? And down to $200? That's almost a 50% reduction on top of having to 'waiver' the unpaid rent? Can you appeal? And did you ever try to suss out their employer like TMNT suggested?
Well its gone past the 60 day moratorium now so it looks like a tribunal hearing will be requested for vacant possession. I did call his employer - and was instantly stopped in my tracks and the PM declined to assist due to 'Privacy' I'm a bit tired right now but I have a nagging feeling the PM may be a bit meek in their approach.
Like always, you find out the quality of the PM when issues arrive. They should have been issued breaches right at the start & fought a lot harder for you on this issue.
100% I think I'll have a chat to the director who I've dealt with in the past to see if I can obtain some peace of mind.