NSW Tenant refuse to pay rent!

Hi guys, I am in a terrible situation where my tenants did not pay rent for 1 month!
This is my first time being a landlord and I do not have much experience. I trust her at the beginning and I don't know what to do. I am a nice guy and hope people can treat me as how I treat them, I am so wrong.

Tenant clearly has enough income and saving but uses covid-19 as an excuse for not paying the rent! (She drives a brand new BMW!). I am using the same mail collector and one time I miss opened her bank account mail letter says she has 200k in savings. And she kept using the same excuse to skip the rent. I kept asking her to provide the evidence of her bank account, she clearly did not follow.

Pro:
I have her passport information ( her name, her nationality and so on) and her phone number, her company name.

Con: because I trust her at the beginning so
We did not sign a proper NSW leasing agreement. Just a piece of paper ( includes leasing date, what's included and signature)
I did not provide a condition report to the tenant.
I did not lodge the bond (3 weeks bond $1800) to the NSW fair trading department.

This tenant clearly refuses to pay and communicate. Now she told me if I bring this to court then she will sue me and I will get fined a lot based all the cons.

What should I do now? Can I just go and change the lock? Can I get my money back? or at least I make her leave!

 

Seek professional advice or engage a real estate agent that will take on your case.

Remember - you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

 

Thank you.

 

This is why you have a property manager.

I can never understand why people what to do it themselves especially when they have no idea how to do it.

Poor man pays twice

 

It looks like there will be some life long lessons for you here - biggest of which is to not cut every corner possible when you do business. It always comes back to bite you in the end. Your best option is to accept that you will lose lots of money, then go see her and negotiate - pay her out if you need to. Best of luck with it.

 

For one, you can't open someone else's mail, so you could be fined or charged for invasion of privacy.

You are letting someone live in your house with no agreement in place, so they are effectively squatting and it would be very hard to get them to leave.

@thatbum might know where next you should turn, but I imagine some form of property lawyer is what you will need to get her to leave, it may well be a lengthy and expensive process.

Goodluck, the life lessons will be strong in this predicament.

 

A nice guy who decided not to follow the tenancy laws, lodge a bond, or provide condition report?

waiting for the post that says my landlord invaded my privacy, opened my mail, never lodged a bond and never fixed anything so am withholding rent as the only way to get my money back since i’m vacating soon.

 

Not condoning what the OP has done but just for the record, I've lost count how many times tenants have asked me to bypass the PM and pay cash, I bet there's either a lot more to this story or someone is trolling.

 

The tenant is protected by the tenancies act, as you have entered into a residential tenancy agreement.

You cannot rely on the inspection report for the condition of the property or for any damage caused by the tenant.

Lodge the bond asap, even If it is delayed Lodgement. You can be fined for not lodging.

If you don't know enough to keep yourself out of trouble, engage an agent. If you know enough to get you into trouble, engage an agent. If all else fails, engage an agent for SANF.

Why are you still using the mailbox at the property? You so not simply make that mistake.

Are you trying to avoid detection for FHBG, land tax, loss of stamp duty concession, receiving cash for rent etc?

 

As others have said, you could be in trouble in more ways than one. It does sound like you've been a little naughty when it comes to the law, so there is probably going to be financial pain no matter what happens.

Good luck.

Oh and that user name ain't fooling nobody! haha. Feel like I'm on a Indian call centre scam phone call!

 

Hi Foxdan, thank you for your reply. This is my first property, I bought this apartment two years ago and relocate due to work. I thought leasing is just a simple move by signing an agreement. But yeh, how wrong i am

 

Why are you still using the mailbox If you have moves away for work?

 

Oh Dear! That's a lot more complicated. Get a property lawyer or someone specialised in this area. Re-do whatever you can do now from a compliance perspective and pay whatever you have to pay. The important thing now is to have someone who is knowledgeable on the remedial actions and put you back on the right foot before going forward.

Good luck... I am sure things will be fine after loosing a few dollars and a few nights' sleep.

 

It doesn't matter if you haven't signed a lease, there is an implied lease.

Lodge the bond asap, provide the tenant reciepts/ledger and either engage an agent or call fair trading for advice if you want to continue going it alone.

I would not be admitting to opening her mail, that is illegal.

 

Hi for some of my mail still goes to the old mailbox, I am lazy to change it and i thought this is not a problem at all.

 

Hi thank you for the reply, I think right now the best way to do is talk to the tenant and have an agreement if she can leave within two weeks it would be the best situation.

 

Have they expressed a desire to leave?

 

And are you going to keep self managing after this?

 

Agreed, easy way out if you have to give out a few dollars... Sounds like you are dealing with a professional

 

Scamming people is probably why she has 200k and a BMW. It sucks this happened but always go for a PM. The sleepless nights you are probably having are worth more than the 5% on income received I would imagine.