Tenants didn't mow or weed

So if the tenants keep forgetting routine garden maintenance such as watering, mowing and weeding despite multiple reminders , the garden is a mess, though they pay rent on time and interior condition of the house is fine, what will you do ?

 

Depending on the market, I would not renew their lease at renewal time and just get better tenants.

 

Pull up your Property manager and ask what are they doing to ensure the grass is maintained and chopped.

recommend an additional charge to include mowing service and contract someone to do it every 3 months or so & tenant pays for it. Maintaining gardens is an obligation that tenants agrees unless agreed otherwise.

If this fails then consider get a new PM who is able to send out a clear message to your tenant.

 

Get a gardner in if it bothers you. Most tenants dont care/dont know enough to keep the yard as nice as you probably would like.

About half the rentals I've tenanted in the past have had lawns/garden's included in the rent presumably for that reason.

 

But the current contract is not expired yet, do landlords have the right to include an additional charge on renter with an unexpired contract, if the tenants dont maintain the garden at all?

 

Yes, but the lease is not expired yet, how could landlords get a gardener at tenants expense?

 

Drop around and give it a mow.

Watering is tricky, but with el Nana, the lord doth provide.

Try not to stress. It's only grass and quite resilient

 

No, garden maintenance is a standard lease clause.

You can't unless it's by agreement (eg I want a/c, well that'll cost you $10/wk extra).

Don't sweat the small stuff, sounds like you're emotionally involved eg ex PPOR.

 

Garden maintenance is a standard clause - only long term tenants do it because they know they will stick around to see the damage caused by unmaintained gardens.

Tenants in transition (looking to rent your property for less than 2 years) have very little interest in maintenance of outdoor space. They will just mow the lawn before inspections.

Poorly maintained gardens can be quite damaging for the property. Plants overgrowth encourages excessive root development which causes all sorts of damage. Poorly maintained gardens attract ants, spiders and termites. You can then have drainage, moisture retention, mould issues .. poorly maintained vegetation eventually results in retaining walls failures. Over the long term, you will end up spending lot more in remedial structural costs.

As a landlord I always have two things in place 1) remove as much vegetation as possible before I get a tenant in 2) hire a gardener to go in every 2 months and do all the pruning and hedging. It’s only around $100 and I try to go 50/50 with the tenants. I get the gardener to send before and after photos and the picture of their trailer with vegetation being removed. This is even more critical in QLD where everything grows too quick.

 

There is no standard clause in QLD RTA Form 18A (GTA) about garden maintenance. In fact, the word maintenance in this context is only referenced with regards to the Lessors obligations, during the tenancy the Tenant has obligation to keep the premise "clean" with regard to its condition at entry. Do you "clean" the garden/lawn or "maintain" it? ..... that's an interesting one. The only reference that somewhat captures the responsibility is how the premise must be left at the end of the tenancy, which states the Tenant must leave the premise "as far as possible" in the same condition they were in at the start of the tenancy, but then says except for fair wear and tear excepted, and gives an example of what may be fair wear and tear which is "changes that happen with aging" - the gardens and grounds age, plants grow, grass grows etc, I wonder how a well articulated argument from a savy Tenant would go in QCAT. @thatbum has always held the position garden maintenance is not the Tenants responsibility. I've actually called and discussed all this with the RTA as it interests me, the RTA says you can put a special term/condition in, I then said wheres the line between that being ok and contracting outside the Act give you "maintain" gardens and grounds, and s185 clearly says the Lessor is responsible for maintenance, they couldn't provide an answer to that question... The closest special term I've found that's been across a lawyers desk says the Tenant will "Leave the premise (including the grounds) in a neat and tidy condition", which simply reiterates s188(4) of the Act, nowhere in the 3 pages of special terms and conditions is it mentioned about the Tenant tending to garden and grounds maintenance, I'm not a lawyer but I believe this is because you can't write that as it's contracting outside the Act...

 

Thought exercise, let's say you want to breach the Tenant, what section of the Act are you going to breach them under? And if the answer is, there is no section of the Act you can use to breach them, then they're not doing anything wrong under their tenancy agreement.

 

I'd do this.

Unless the tenants are underpaying compared to the market, or paying late/not paying their rent, partying and upsetting neighbours etc, I prob won't move them on.

You'll be copping it financially in the changeover.

 

On the contrary the changeover is where you do have half a right to compel them to return it how they received it. Despite my devils advocate post above (which is more so for 'during' the tenancy), almost never have a problem getting the Tenant to return it in the same/similar condition based off entry report etc.