Renters that live like pigs

i just gave them a termination notice today. i decided that i need to have some control over my asset and they are not allowing that to happen.
if they want to stay ill consider the option. but only after a livable house has be presented for inspection again. They will have to make a convincing argument and agree to some clear guidelines to make it work moving forward.

 

Actually:

Hoarder kept body in his house for 10 years

 

I have a story about a property where there was a water leak somewhere, sometime back. I don't know the circumstances. I have been called in to clean up the mess once the tenants were finally evicted.

We have discovered that most of the water leaked out of the shower, under the living room wall and all through the carpet across six metres of carpet and underlay, to the opposite walls. In the kitchen, the taps in the sink sprayed water behind the poorly-designed sink, along the back of the bench top and down the back of the cabinet, rendering 50% of the kitchen fixtures sodden pulp and utterly useless.

How so many previous adults (successive PMs) missed this mess is beyond me, but in their defence, you wouldn't really know what lurked behind all the kids' toys, paper and dirty clothes that were sprinkled across all the floors and up against the walls. At inspections, the kitchen sink was cluttered with dishes hiding the trail of water and its resulting laminate that had raised itself six inches above the bench top. Compared to another property we have cleaned up, this one isn't too bad. A true hoarder will have far more soggy stuff allowing the building to rot behind it.

This property is 22 years old and could do with a bit of updating, but the owner is now >$20k out of pocket, almost none of which is claimable. (It would be much more costly to repair if they paid an unrelated builder rather than her family at Mates' rates) The rotten carpet and underlay, rotten wall plaster and of course painting and new floor coverings just get called "fair wear and tear" after 22 years. The entire new kitchen and bathroom fixtures are also 'fair wear and tear", after 22 years, aren't they.

It is one thing to say: "The carpet is fifteen years old. It doesn't matter if anyone spills their dinner on the carpet as I will replace it when they vacate". It is quite another to take an almost new home and allow the tenants to destroy it, and then cop the clean up and replacement yourself.

Concrete floors can survive far more mistreatment than timber floors. Are you up for the challenge?

 

33 days in NSW.

 

The house would be an absolute steal when it comes up to market! For knock down and rebuild!

 

I think you've followed the right process @PandDos. I assume the situation was explained in full to the tenants and they were very aware that they would need to rectify the issue, or it would escalate?

These living conditions are not sustainable, as you say- it worsens. You can't properly check the condition of the house, it's a fire hazard that YOU can be held responsible for and that smell will not come out. If the tenants haven't snapped out of their little world and cleaned up, you have no other option.
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On a side note, @R.C., be VERY careful letting tenants smoke inside. That nicotine smell and staining does not come out easily, and it's not covered under any insurance policy. In the better cases you can get away with new carpets, grout, curtains, a really good scrub from floor to ceiling and maybe a couple thousand dollars of Ozone-generator hire. In the worst cases, you'll need to re-sheet the house. There's $15,000-$100,000 of damage there, with no insurance coverage....

 

Fair enough, it`s your property and your decision, the best for you in these circumstances. Fully agree with having control over your own asset, no one likes to be manipulated or adversely influenced by tenants.

Now that you have reached the point of termination, I think it is best by far to make a clean break. Just because you inherited these pigs with the property purchase doesn`t mean you have any obligation to house them. An investor isn`t a social worker or behavioural therapist. Get them out permanantly, clean up, replace carpets & paint & whatever, and lease to new and appropriate renters. Otherwise there`s a good chance of this thread being updated in the future with a repeated cycle and you suffering from more frustration and probable financial loss.

 

Hi Tom.

I do agree and appreciate your concern. Allow me to elucidate and provide some background.

The tenants are not permitted to smoke and it is stipulated in the lease. I do the maintenance on my local properties which not only saves $$$ but also allows me to do a defacto inspection. While fitting flyscreens on one occasion, noticed an ashtray full of butts on the bedside table. I calmly reminded the male smoker tenant of his obligated agreement. Being realistic however, I`m sure he is still not getting out of bed and going out the back for a ciggy.

This particular house was bought at a good price in the northern Adelaide suburbs. It was a deceased estate that came with 40 year old carpets & curtains, that were not changed before this tenancy. I performed external repairs: gutters, rotten fascias, timber windows, etc; and a basic toilet and laundry reno & tiled with adjacent kitchen. Original old fashioned wallpaper remains along with faded yellowed ceilings. At the end of this tenancy, whenever that is, I intend to do a full repaint, continue tiling the dining & lounge floors and replace original kitchen. While not the in the "worst" suburb, the whole area is low socioeconomic. It has a large percentage of smokers, .... of various legal & illegal substances. The average rent in area for similar 3BR is $260pw. I`m quite happy to keep receiving a regular $300pw for a $175K investment, and meanwhile turn a blind eye to a bit of clutter and smoking.

Cheers

Edit:
TBH, the "they can smoke in bed" statement was a sarcastic implication that I would not suffer financially if the house burnt down. Clearly though, I would be extremely upset if this did ever occur and forever devastated if any person was injured.

 

Well said

 

OP, Maybe consider statistics? what are your chances of finding a better tenant that's better than the current tenants? 100%?

Evict them and find someone new.

 

It's absolutely the right thing to do. The longer you leave it, the larger your repair/cleaning bill will be in the end. We just took over management of a property that is in pretty similar state to yours. They are not hoarders but messy and not very clean. Plus they are letting their kids run riot... It doesn't matter what you tell them... you either have it to be tidy and clean, or you don't!

I estimate the repairs to be a few thousand dollars (new paint, new kitchen bench-tops, new carpet, etc). It's a shame because it is such a beautiful apartment otherwise...

The current tenants have been there for several years and the previous PM must have been turning a blind eye or never done any inspections!

The plan now is to wait for the end of the lease, terminate the tenants, whilst having all the tradespeople lined up to minimise vacancy, and find new tenants....

Bad for the owner and bad for us the longer the property stays vacant..

 

I think the only thing you need to worry about is the safety aspect. We have a property with a hoarder neighbour, and it got to the point where the Gas/Elec companies were forced (by the fire brigade or council I think) to disconnect the gas and electricity due to the safety issues associated with the rodents, clutter (this is a sea of junk about 1.5-2m tall throughout every room in the house). It will wreck your house, even the plaster will get covered in mould from not having any ventilation. I think try to get them out now before you can't. Our neighbour went to mediation with council and the health department after the neighbours complaining constantly about the rodents, fire hazard and the general health issues, but in the end nothing was done as every time they went to take it to court the hoarder would get an extension to clean up, would clean up the front yard a touch, then they would cancel court. The council member I spoke to said they were advised by their legal team to not pursue it due to it being a mental health condition. The entire block is a sea or junk and rubbish and its become so bad them old man is no longer able to live there, he just goes there daily to drop off more junk.

 

Dean 30 days before end of tenancy agreement IF served by email (as long as the tenant has given you permission to serve notices this way)...

30 if you personally put the notice in the letterbox (but you should have date/time stamped photos taken of you putting the envelope in their letterbox... and an entry in your diary that you did LOL)

34 days if served by snail mail to allow 4 days for postage! Certified mail not allowed!

Welcome to the 21st century!

 

The tenant will still claim they never received any notices.

 

This situation sounds really bad, and a serious fire hazard.

Perhaps you (and every adjacent neighbour, after some friendly prodding) can continue to complain to the council via their Facebook page, whilst making sure you share it with each of your respective insurance company's page, and also with each other, and consider pointing out that this could happen to any ratepayer in the area.

And keep at it every 3 days that nothing has been done.

There's a very high probability that the respective insurers will be taking a heightened interest in whether or not the council holds an insurance policy with their company or not, given the level of public complaint, and comment.

A few pics on a regular basis to each post might prompt some action as well, one would think...

 

So if the person is a hoarder, you are going to evict them and move them on.....to where?

How about we start a facebook campaign instead to get specialist housing provided, by government, of course, for all hoarders. Round them up and put them in the country somewhere so they can have their own community and not bother any city folk.

While we are at it, we can round up all the terrible tenants who destroy their homes without getting to Hoarder status. Put them together in a community somewhere far away from the rest of us,so the Privileged don't have to deal with them......

Yeah, that's been tried before.

(read sarcasm)

 

Just why is this so common in the the industry ? People that call them themselves "property managers" need to be made accountable for in-actions on their behalf that cost investors lots of money.

This is another thing I can't stomach, you can have a house that's 13 years and in immaculate condition but because the carpets or bench tops get destroyed by one tenant it becomes OK, they're over ten years. Go rent a car that's more than tens years old then give it back with ripped carpets and scratches, tell them it's OK because the car is old and see how that sinks.

The Rental industry needs a big shake up, it can be a scam for the new and unwary, ripping people off of their hard earned money

 

The OP, @PandDos said "The problem is that over the last 2 years they seem to have been accumulating more junk in the house every time I see it. Earlier this year it got to the point where most of the bedroom floors were covered in a foot of junk and theres a stacks of junk about 1m High along all the wall (through the full house). On top of that there is a pungent off/sweat smell through the house. And I found out the rabbit that we said could only stay out side had been living in doors, and you could smell it’s **** smell really strongly through some of the rooms. It’s was so bad that all the carpets would need to be replaced, and the walls painted to make it fit for habitation. There’s was about 4-5 dumpster loads of junk in the house."

It sounds a bit unpleasant from reading such a description, and I imagine it will might even end more unpleasantly from a financial perspective for the OP, whose avatar indicates that they are suffering from possibly a first-time experience.

The OP's post, and my response, doesn't speculate whether the tenants are city folk, or not; are terrible or not; and/or should be branded with a particular status.

Perhaps these tenants have other issues, which fall outside the scope of their arrangements with the OP, that need some professional assistance.

To answer your question, perhaps they can be moved on to Paradise, Brisbane, along with the destructive tenants you describe, under the watchful eye of the aforementioned Facebook campaigners, given their obvious expertise in the role.

No?

 

We have one of these hoarder tenants. We chose to keep him and increased the rent. The increased rent will pay for the reno that will come when he leaves. The previous PM and I worked together and she was able to get him some assistance from organisations in the local community. He received help for his hoarding, assistance to clean it up and now, while not perfect, the house is a 200% improvement. He is on a waitlist for social housing but the wait list is extremely long. He has also been there 15 years now - so the house will be due for a makeover when he leaves.

 

O gosh, @Ted Varrick, my bad, Somehow I misread your post and I interpreted it to say that you were suggesting sharing the pics around Facebook ("via their facebook page") and starting a campaign to get council to move them on. I'm really embarrassed now. Someone else was talking about hoarders.