spoilt brat

Property management is one of those professions that, just when you think you've seen it all (this is our 10th year), something completely unexpected happens that leaves you absolutely gobsmacked.

I've spent a good part of today sorting out this mess:

I was contacted by a lady saying that her dad is going into a nursing home and wants to put his property on the market for rent.

I get it all going and a tenant sourced within a week - a lovely professional lady.

Tenant was meant to move in this afternoon, up to last night the house was not cleaned and the daughter assured me it would be ready for an ingoing inspection by 9am today - perfect for me (she insisted on doing the cleaning herself instead of allowing us to organise cleaners - all OK).
I checked in around 5:30 pm yesterday - all on track
utilities all connected for tenant, all done except cleaning.

7 pm I get a call from the granddaughter of the landlord, she asked the grandfather for money to help with some financial issues and the grandfather said that she can sell the house and take her share now.

Granddaughters instructions to me by phone- please put on market for sale.
Me - that's no problem, I will come and see your grandfather and arrange for all that to be done, appraisals etc...
then she said - "oh and please cancel the lease".
Me - there is nothing in legislation that allows a lease to be cancelled, the tenant is moving in tomorrow morning.
her: No just speak to the tenant and explain that our financial situation is that we need to sell and she can go somewhere else.

what planet did this lady fall off - granddaughter is in her 40s.

I insisted that the lease is going ahead and tried to explain as best I could (given this lady was not getting it) that a house can still be sold with a lease agreement in place.

she then got off the phone with me, went to the house, her mother was inside cleaning and getting house ready for tenant the next day, she kicked her mum out and got a locksmith to change all the locks so that the tenant can't gain access... aaaaggghhhh!

the grandfather - owner, agreed to this believing it was in the best interest of his granddaughter.

%&^&^%(*& manipulative little brat.

This morning I had to arrange for a locksmith to change all locks again, I had to get tough with the landlord and not allow him to have a copy of the keys - discretion has to be used here, if the granddaughter gets them, she will use keys to sabotage lease with tenant.

SACAT can issue $10,000 fines to landlords breaching lease agreements. Landlords can only change locks via court order.

Once in, back yard and entire house was full of rubbish, I filled up every bin I could find. I needed to arrange emergency cleaners - our in house cleaners where there within an hour but had to drop another less urgent job, as the mother had no time to prepare house.

This crazy little ^*&^*^%*^ cost her grandfather cleaning invoices, locksmith expenses and put him in danger of breaching a lease - imagine if removalist was arranged and tenant could not get in because none of us noticed that locks were changed?

She is now angry with me for forcing the lease and pushing forward with it, to protect both the tenant and the owner.

go and get a job spoilt little brat and stop relying on grand dads generosity.

I have not been so angry for a long time - had to share this one just to vent!

 

Wow, Nice job ! Very Impressed ! " granddaughter is in her 40s. "----unbelievable !

 

Wouldn't it have just been easier to explain it to the tenant? I would be ****** if i moved in and then found out the house is being sold and i would have to move again anyway.

 

Nice. I had a tenant who leased 3 houses at once thinking she could just not move into the ones she didnt want, and then took me to SACAT to be released from her lease due to financial hardship.

Before moving in she had, with my permission, removed the carpet to expose the polished floorboards. She then put in a claim to SACAT for $3000 for floor renovations based on her time.

 

Except they would have terminated an existing lease, not jave a place to live and likely to have removalists etc all organised and ready to go.

Where would they store their stuff? Sleep? Who would pay the additional costs etc?

 

Dunno, would be worth asking the question though. Im guessing the house they are moving to isnt too flash so would probably be able to find another pretty quick.

 

But why should the tenant suffer through pure selfishness? The legislation exists to stop things like this from happening.

They should be told. And given the opportunity to move at no cost if they want. But in no way should they be inconvenienced.

 

They'll suffer more when they have to deal with opens and moving again if an OO buys the house in a couple of months. Sheet happens.

 

So basically ignore legislation and wash your hands of the matter and that's it?

It's incredibly selfish actions and I feel for the tenant, the pm and the owner having to deal with such a spoilt brat.

They should be given the opportunity to move. But they should not be out of pocket. In no way their fault.

And where is their stuff stored and where do they live in the interim? And who pays for it?

 

It sucks but what is there to gain from here? You're going to have a ****** owner an angry tenant and a PM who has to deal with it all.

 

So you're saying the tenant should just accept all the inconvenience?

I'm confused as to what you think the solution to an individual wanting to flout the law because they want to.

 

Some dead beats shouldn't be landlords.

 

Wow, what a crappy situation. And what a stupid woman.

 

Maybe give them a fruit basket or something, I dunno.

As i said, they will be more ****** when they find all this out later so better to just try and nip it in the bud. A lot of things in life are against the law, legislation, whatever but its not always worth getting in a scrap over, need to choose your battles.

Im sure the pm has a bunch of other vacancies on her books, maybe push them towards one of those instead.

 

Thanks for sharing this story, Xenia. Sometimes I think it helps putting stories like this on-line for a good whinge and it was also an interesting read - in property management I think sometimes you get to see more of people's personal lives than you want to.

Rest assured the grand-daughter will get her dues - I know the type. She'll probably blow though the grandfather's money in no time anyway and be back to exactly where she was before.

 

In this situation four litres of unleaded and a lighter can work wonders.

 

Quite apt.

 

@datto Taking it out on the owner?

 

@Gockie - sounds like Bar Italia, we don't do skim or soy.

 

Just on this bit, Section 66 of the Act says maximum penalty is $5,000. Still wouldn't want to cop that either

I feel more discussion could have been done with tenant to ascertain options.

Great that you proved the grand daughter wrong though, we need less people like that in the world