Tenancy agrèements ACT

Good afternoon property people. Hope this a straightforward question. I'm thinking of buying unit or house in ACT with Mrs Anton. Our 18yo daughter will be living there at first, maybe with friends. Is it an absolute requirement to have a tenancy agreement in place? Even for a family member? And as it's going to be a joint property will our daughter as a tenant require the approval of Mrs Anton and myself?

 

Looks like no one answered you from a month ago sorry mate.

If there is a lease, both of the owners need to both sign it. Since its your daughter you don't necessarily need one but maybe it's good to have one so that everyone is on the same page.

The part that got my attention was "daughter will be living there first", do you mean to say that eventually you and mrs will move in? If so then you may want to consider CGT consequences. Or do you mean that she'd only need to rent it for a short while and then it'd convert to a regular rental?

An important point here that is a trap for young players. Just because she's family, doesn't mean you should discount the rent. You need to declare the income you receive from her, and also claim the all the relevant expenses. The ATO does post code matching and if they see that you're charging a substantial discount, they may disallow all your related tax deductions.

 

I have done this sort of thing with all 3 of my children and they all have leases in place.
One, the banks like them when you got o refinance for further purchases. Also, while its only your daughter, things should go fine, as long as she respects its your property and your the landlords, but once she gets friends into the mix, it could get hairy. I start all of mine off on a 3 month lease, and then renew with a 6 month/longer or allow them to go periodical.

My son has housemates, so we regularly update lease/bonds as people move in and out, but by doing it all myself, I save the costs of paying a pm to do this. It also helps that the properties we have are all long term holds with plans to knock down and subdivide/rebuild before retirement. The kids know they get fair market rent and the ability to save for their first home deposits. If they look after our investments now, it will save them supporting us later on.