Property Investors are the worst for maintenance

OK, so don't shoot me for the title
(hoping for fun responses, like @Scott No Mates )

I work in garden maintenance, I often have OO wanting things done, but the body corporate wont spend the money due to the majority being investors maximising their margin
(More rent, less outgoings= profit)

Some blocks have rusted leaking guttering, cracked concrete, rotting structural veranda posts, overgrown gardens and various issues, and the owners hide behind the body corporate

I have just spent 11 months fighting the body corporate at one of my CIP 1 of 2 under 17 apartments).
The gardens were so overgrown the business/tenants signage couldn't be seen, so it took 4 "months" to get a tidy up, it was gutted, only one plant left
Then I fought to have it repaired, after a further 7 months they granted me permission to REPAIR & MAINTAIN the garden area outside my CIP at my cost, I consider it a WIN
As my tenant is VERY HAPPY, and hopefully stays for a long time


So, not a rant exactly, but with apartments and complexes having between 5 & 500 units/owners these days, each ends up selling at different times, or leasing, so why do so many seem to not want to spend as little as $6 claimable each per week ????

Thoughts

 

I sat in as an observer on a strata meeting in a complex with 400 units over 6 buildings, just for the education. The vibe I got is that doing preemptive or early maintenance to avoid worse issues down the track is discussed and considered. A bit like regrouting and waterproofing a shower before water leakage damages the unit a floor down etc.

Shame @Stoffo your experience sounds tedious at best.

 

Commercial LL's are often a real PIA when it comes to strata premises. Unless they can get the tenant to pay for it or get a rent increase out of it as it impacts on their bottom line regardless of the fact that it offsets other maintenance or delays replacement.

Where you have a mixed strata scheme (commercial and residential) each is loathe to pay for works in the other's area. Much better to have commercial and residential sitting in separate stratum with their own strata schemes.

I have seen plenty of strata plans where owners pay decent $ towards landscaping and maintenance vs those that pay very little (or none), in most cases, it is a lot easier to raise interest in a vacant premises which is well maintained (including the externalities) as opposed to somewhere resembling a warzone.

 

Just feel stuck in the middle at times !
With a background in building, I see things that I would want to see fixed and raise them, often nothing is actioned for years.......

Being a property manager must be the pits at times ...
Stuck in the middle !
Not a job I'd want (respect to all the PM's here )

 

My wife and I are back in the rental market after living in our own home for 13 years (we're about to knock down and rebuild our house). I've always tried to be reasonable as a landlord with maintenance but was surprised to find a lot of houses in very average condition on the rental market.

I've started to appreciate where all the tenants complaining about terrible landlords in affordable housing are coming from.

 

From my experience as a tenant, landlords are very stingy and reluctant to pay for repairs and maintenance to the property.

In the long run, I think it costs them more money as they just kick the can down the road.. and/or the tenants leaves and the place is vacant for 10 weeks before a new tenant is found!

I've also found as a landlord when I want repairs done, PMs don't seem to take it seriously and I have to follow up several times before it gets done.

 

I buy unmaintained OO properties from people who refuse to maintain them. The I renovate them to rent out. Once rented I keep them maintained because I don't want the maintenance to pile up.

Worst I have seen is blood on the carpet in a lounge. The carpet was rank but I sold it on gumtree!

 

some landlords are awesome. Some are their own worst enemies

 

Basically this ^

Some are great and repair everything without any fuss, or buy well maintained properties to start with so less is needed.

Some buy crappy properties and / or give us a hard time any repairs are needed. They're at risk of tenants legitimately asking for rental compensation or vacating without penalty so usually tell them to go use a PM that'll put up with that, after 3 strikes.

 

Imagine if they did away with negative gearing (can I mention that again?) even less incentive for some landlords to spend on maintenance

 

we always address and act on maintenance and repairs. however frustration occurs with strata managers who are slow or difficult to deal with.
1 company we deal with are excellent but the other is absolutely vile. painful at the moment just to get someone to go and inspect some problems we have identified that are strata responsibility to fix. now stating a contractor cannot look at it/quote until after Christmas. how long after the quote any repairs are done is unknown. we need to do some internal work to prepare for occupancy but cannot until these issues are addressed. we may just get our own builder to inspect the issues and move from there.

 

My last rental we got compensation from due to lack of repairs.

My current rental I have an application in at tribunal for compensation and lease termination.

 

Like this ....
One of only 3 carport posts
The roof is tiled, pitched, with a gable end off the main building ( no weight up there ! )
It'll be right hey
Reported months ago, only getting worse

 

There's a scale of reluctance to do maintenance on a property. I wont take on any clients who would effectively instruct me to endanger the safety of their tenants by refusing to do critical maintenance, but I still have a number of property owners who need plenty of goading, education and a little bit of wrestling to get some things across the line.

I think sometimes the biggest problem is that property managers don't invest the time in properly explaining and substantiating the reason for the maintenance, so landlords just end up feeling like "they're always taking money from me" without understanding why. Trust has to be earned and property managers have a reputation for being flippant with their investors funds, so I completely understand why people can be a bit difficult at times. As frustrating as it can be, we really need to spend the time talking to clients about it, and many of us don't.

On a side note, in my experience property investors are usually not interested in preventative maintenance. I guess Aussies tend to take care of their houses the same way they take care of their cars.... fix it when it breaks. The cycle is that properties get run down, then when they are either sold or purchased they get a spruce up, but usually not during an ownership period.

It's painful watching that process with body corporate's because you can't really deal with common property in the same way, so those matters are entirely dictated by whether you have an effective body corporate and the amount of roadblock property owners in the committee.

 

@Stoffo The issues with strata are exactly why we said - no units!

With the carport, I think I'd be more worried there's nothing to stop something hitting the post and the roof collapsing ... the rust will take longer to eat through!

 

One recurring issue with units maintenance is that when tradies and builders know it is for a body corporate then they double the quote. It can often be a fight to try to get value for money in maintenance of blocks as I have seen many committees or strata managers just don't care.