Rentvesting

Discussion in 'Property Management' started by Silly Goose, 17th Jan, 2022.

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  1. Silly Goose

    Silly Goose Active Member

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    Hey all,

    I’m rentvesting at the moment. I have a quick question for those who know more about rental payments than I.

    I am referring to the property I live in and pay rent for. My partner and I each pay our part of rent every payday, so every two weeks on the same day. We do this so that we don’t have to pay in one lump sum… we find it more manageable financially this way. It does mean that the property manager has to do a bit of extra work I suppose to generate receipts for us, but it ensures rent is always paid on time easily.

    Today, I received an email from the property manager:

    ‘As per your tenancy agreement, your rent is to be paid monthly on the 16th of every month. The owner has expressed his concerns regarding your irregular payments. Therefore, please pay your rent monthly in the amount of $1868 by the due date.

    May I suggest that you have a separate account that you transfer your rent money to and then pay it from this account once a month.’

    Basically, the agent would like the entire amount being sent once per month instead of instalments. I’ve looked through the tenancy agreement and I can’t see anything stipulating that we must pay once per month only and not in instalments so long as we are ahead, which we are. It’s not about being behind on rent, it is simply our instalment methods.

    As someone with investment properties myself, I cant imagine that I would ever ‘express concern’ that my tenants were paying in instalments as long as it is all paid on time. I understand it is probably annoying for the property manager but without meaning to sound dismissive as to the complexities of their job, that is one of the things we pay them for. My tenants pay instalments and I couldn’t care less.

    Is there anything that states renters must pay all at once? Just hoping to confirm facts before I give the manager a call to talk about it.
     
  2. D.T.

    D.T. Specialist Property Manager Business Member

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    Not sure if rules are any different in Victoria, but as long as you're keeping up and arent actually behind, i wouldnt really care what frequency you paid.
     
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  3. Shogun

    Shogun Well-Known Member

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    Offer to start paying late after they sent you a breech notice.
     
  4. Peter_Tersteeg

    Peter_Tersteeg Mortgage Broker Business Member

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    I've had two guys in one of my properties paying separately different amounts at different times. It's a Victorian property. The PM would pay me whenever they got paid, so I'd have multiple transactions of varrying amounts. Good service on their part, but quite confusing for me. I don't think there were ever behind and the property manager didn't seem to bothered about it, but for me to verify if they were up to date was near impossible.

    Personally I'd prefer to be paid monthly, but that's how my life runs. The PMs software should be able to verify at any time if payments are up to date. The only concern might be that the lease agreement stated you pay one month in advance, then you pay only a fortnight in advance.
     
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  5. Zepth

    Zepth Well-Known Member

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    They can ask but you are under no obligation to agree as long as your rent is kept up to date.

    that being said you have to work out for yourself which will be more inconvenient to you in the long run. Modifying your payments to suit the request, or maintaining the status quo and annoying the landlord or PM.
     
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  6. MB18

    MB18 Well-Known Member

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    Does the agreement say you have to pay ON the 16th or BY the 16th?

    I doubt its the former so in the absence of any other info I would merely consider what you are doing to be litte more than an administrative nuisance for this particular PM.
    I usually make my fortnighly payments a few days early as I have no way to determine when it will actually be received by the PM.

    In over 15 years of renting I've never once been asked to pay monthly, infact it strikes me as a pia as rental properties are advertised at a weekly rate.... and apart from February no month has an equal number of weeks.
     
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  7. D.T.

    D.T. Specialist Property Manager Business Member

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    In Victoria they're all monthly, and is calculated in such a way that number of weeks doesnt matter
     
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  8. Silly Goose

    Silly Goose Active Member

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    Thanks to everyone for their thoughts. For anyone who stumbles upon this thread, feel free to put your thoughts forward but I think I have the advice needed. I’ll give them a call now, I’m sure we can straighten it all out.
     
  9. D.T.

    D.T. Specialist Property Manager Business Member

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    Another bit worth adding is that sometimes people pay the wrong amount without realising it - eg say monthly rent is $4k they go and pay $2k per fortnight and wonder why they're getting further and further behind.
     
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  10. Silly Goose

    Silly Goose Active Member

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    thats not the case in this instance but absolutely something to be aware of.
     
  11. Shogun

    Shogun Well-Known Member

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    So 12 monthly payments vs 26 2 week payments? Aren't they actually getting ahead?
     
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  12. The Y-man

    The Y-man Moderator Staff Member

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    Can the agent direct debit from your account instead (fixed amount on a fixed date)? Save you processing the payment in the first place.

    The Y-man
     
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  13. Silly Goose

    Silly Goose Active Member

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    Good idea.
     
  14. John_BridgeToBricks

    John_BridgeToBricks Buyer's Agent Business Member

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    Just because you are paying the agent in instalments, doesn't mean the agent needs to pay the landlord in instalments. As long as you are paying into the property managers trust account by the 16th of the month, there is no reason why the agent can't pay the landlord in a single lump sum.

    If you are paying on time, I would leave the land lord out of this, and have a chat to your property manager.
     
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  15. Zepth

    Zepth Well-Known Member

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    People often get it wrong but not usually in this way.

    More often the problem is that the rent is advertised at say $500 per week so people assume the monthly rent will be $2k and pay that, when the real monthly rent is roughly $2172.62
     
  16. Silly Goose

    Silly Goose Active Member

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    My thoughts exactly.
     
  17. Tom Rivera

    Tom Rivera Property Manager Business Member

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    @Lil Skater I was under the impression that Victorian properties did enforce monthly payments? Not sure- it doesn't happen in other states.
     
  18. Michelle Evans

    Michelle Evans Well-Known Member

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    Standard leases in Vic are monthly in advance. If they're using a standard format it will state something along the lines of;

    "rent amount ($) (payable in advance) $___
    to be paid per week / fortnight / month"

    It's specified which one - tick boxes for the Vic forms live leases, REIV leases would be the same. Reality is though we can't enforce it despite the lease - tenants paying in bits and pieces should be fine for a trust accountant / property manager to understand but it can annoy the heck out of some investors (who then in turn pass that on to the property manager).

    The agent should be able to receipt funds and pay the owner monthly so they have the single monthly amount - but of course, 2 x fortnightly payments doesn't equal a month's rent which again can confuse owners because if you're set up on a monthly charge, but you pay fortnightly, you end up with statements that say tenant paid to x date with x on account. Trying to explain that and paid to dates to someone who does not understand is not an enjoyable part of property management.
     
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  19. Michael Mitchell

    Michael Mitchell Well-Known Member

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    Qld example,

    upload_2022-2-15_15-37-8.png

    upload_2022-2-15_15-37-50.png

    So if the Tenant doesn't follow the rules, you breach and reference the section of the Act, if breach not remedied you evict, and the Tribunal must enforce it, that is what the law says.

    So if they followed the respective state's legislation process, you could actually get evicted it for it, even though not in arrears etc.
     
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  20. Lil Skater

    Lil Skater Well-Known Member

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    Almost all leases will be calendar monthly rental payments, but it doesn’t mean that the renter must pay every calendar month - just that the full amount is due no later than the listed date.

    It does make the ledger look messy, but any agent should be able to tell that they’re paying regularly. It’s when people pay in dribs and drabs that there is a raised eyebrow (ie. $100 here and there, but again, nothing that can be done so long as it’s never in arrears).

    I would simply explain that for you fortnightly works best and if there’s concern for the payments to request that your payment cycle be changed to fortnightly.