Tenant left, unpaid rent, stolen items

Hi all,

My brother's tenant has left now that his lease has ended.

- He has not paid the last 2 weeks rent
- He has not cleaned the house (it's disgusting..)
- He has stolen various items, even down to plants, pots, smoke alarms, batteries in remotes etc.
- The garden was immaculate when he moved in.. it looks like a houso house now.
- The spa leaks, and hard cover has been forcefully broken off.

The agent is absolutely useless. Has been since day one. They almost released bond, even after all this (thankfully we stood in and told them not to, so it hasn't been).

The cost of lost rent (2 weeks at $725/wk), further lost rent as it's been un-rentable due to the state it was left in, stolen items, cleaning etc to get it back into rentable state will leave him about $1,700 out of pocket (after bond get taken).

Neighbours have even seen the old tenant going through the mailbox, taking items he wants and leaves the rest on the floor! (He now lives walking distance in a house he built).

What are his options now?

He wants to take the tenant to tribunal to try claw back some of the lost money.

He hasn't filed a police report (I've told him to do so asap), the agent in no certain terms basically told him to suck it up, and tried to tell him the stolen items weren't in the house to begin with (we then showed them pictures of their inspections, and they shut up pretty quickly).

Is this worth LL insurance claim, tirbunal etc? Does tribunal have to be done with current agent?

He's not a person that likes 'change' so takes a LOT of persuasion to do something new. He even uses a family member to manage his taxes, and doesn't know what a depreciation report is!

Help? Hopefully I can show him this page, and that he needs to act.

 

Put in an immediate claim for the bond listing the expenses, cleaning, broken items, back rent etc.
marg

 

Put a claim in for the Bond, as Marg said. Get quotes for the cleaning, as this can't be claimed on insurance, and you may be able to claim on the LL Insurance. Whether it's worth it, will depend on how much it is to rectify everything as well as the missing rent, after claiming the Bond.

 

Which state?

Bond claim, get the property into shape asap and relist.

See what's covered by insurance, including 2 weeks and hopefully the period of it being unrentable due to damages. Spa leak/ damage is it an obvious tenant damage? Excess might apply for the insurance claim.

Find new PM.

 

Why has he stayed with this agent?

Lost rent goes to the LL Insurance claim, get the other issues rectified asap out of bond then balance on LL insurance.

 

Thanks all, I'll let him know.

@EN710 it's NSW.
@Scott No Mates he's one of those people that doesn't like 'change', unfortunately. He plans on moving into it as PPOR in a couple of years.

 

Set the clock at 4am.

Roundup.

Ex-tenants lawn.

Just down the street.

If you have thoughts about this kind of thing, don't do it. It's stupid, and you might get caught, and then you will feel silly. And the guy that trashed your house will have negative thoughts towards your well being.

And Roundup is expensive.

 

Those two combinations aren't great - This ahole of a tenant is going to become his neighbour.

He needs to sack the PM and get it sorted and move on.
If he can't sack the PM, then perhaps he just needs to cop this one (and may get walked over in the future by the tenant).

 

Claim bond, malicious damage report with police and insurance claim for lost of rent etc will be his best option to try to recover the loss from this tenant

 

If he's built his own house then he probably has enough money to make him worth chasing in small claims court, and would be unlikely to skip town for a small debt such as this. I would be talking to the insurance company about a joint court case for you to recoup your excess and any uninsured expenses, and for them to recoup their expenses. And in the meantime, claim bond and file a Police report and insurance claim as per Oscar's post.

 

They need to claim the full bond immediately.
The next step is to check Landlords Insurance coverage, fingers crossed he's with a specialist insurer who will cover almost all of those things in excess of the bond. It's unlikely a non-specialist Landlords Insurance policy will end up paying out on anything worthwhile, but make the claim regardless- it doesn't hurt to try. A police report will be a prerequisite of any malicious damage claim.
Tribunal is tied with the bond and tends to be heavily biased towards the tenant. Forge forwards with tribunal but be aware that an inept agent will almost certainly fail to recover the costs.