The worst types of tenants

Having run a real estate agency for over 10 years, I've seen and dealt with a lot. People often talk about absconding tenants, the ones that "did a runner", left the place in a mess, marked the walls and broke a few blinds. This case is extremely easy to deal with.

Then there are tenants that do not pay rent and need to be evicted even through bailiff intervention. This is also easy to deal with.

The reason the above two are easy cases to deal with is because, the bond can be claimed against any rent or damages and an insurance claim will cover any loss to the landlord exceeding the bond amount. In most cases these are straight forward and the financial loss to the landlord is minimal. Also from a property management business perspective, the above 2 cases are also predictable and easily systemised.

The worst types of tenants are not the ones who are defaulting in rent payments or abandoning houses, they are the ones who covertly cause damage to properties and financial loss to tenants while appearing to the the victims in the scenario. These are emotional vampires that will suck up time and energy and resources trying to solve problems for them. They make properties appear like slums through their own drama, cause financial loss which is not claimable against anything and leave a trail of destruction wherever they go. These tenants cannot be black listed, they don't owe money, and are very difficult to screen.

Here are a few cases:

Charmain was a tenant we unfortunately inherited from another agency in a hallet cove property. She claimed and gathered evidence that the house she was renting was unsafe, the pavers were uneven and got a tribunal order for the landlord to relay all the pavers. Every other tenant walked over the uneven bits, it was not that bad, I've seen pavers worse in public places. She had proof of hospital visits where her kids fell over and lots of stress factors.

We also had carpet in the walk in robe replaced due to mould where she stated that a shower was leaking into the wall, we had that fixed and she still claimed it was leaking.

At the last tribunal hearing she wanted the kitchen cupboards and benchtops replaced claiming that the cupboard doors were too sharp and cutting her children's feet (they were normal cupboards - cut at a 90 degree angle like they should), and that the bench top was mouldy due to the window and verandah not being sealed properly and water pouring in through the window and soaking the cupboards. Our trades people were not able to find anything but she has reports that she paid for from engineers proving the poor construction of the pergola and kitchen.

These tenants are addicted to sympathy and they WILL NOT STOP until you stop them. You cannot argue against them, they do not respond to logic or reasoning and you can never be right because they have proof of how unfortunate their circumstances are.

They commonly complain about maintenance and then delay or refuse access to get it done. If everything was fixed they would cause something else to gain sympathy.

This above tenant had 6 months to go on her lease when there was yet another tribunal order for the landlord to spend more money on the property. She was shocked when I told her "yes you are right, the house is unsafe and we need to take it back for major renovations" she burst out crying when the judge handed her a calendar to choose a date to leave and her lease was truncated by tribunal order. That was the only way out for the landlord as I did not want o wait for another 6 months to terminate her lease.

New tenant - same property, no renovations done at all. Absolutely no complaints, no leaking showers or windows and the benches are no longer constantly wet.
The tenant was causing the damage through bad house keeping practices.

How would you deal with above situation?
anything to share?
will post a few more cases soon.

 

Charmain - the above tenant paid rent like clock work, even to the last day and kept the house clean and tidy....

Yet caused a lot of unclaimable damage to both the agency and the landlord.
what do you call these types of tenants?

 

I'd deal with it by kicking them out and sacking the PM (just for the heck of it).

Next.

 

Sounds like the tenant did this:

 

Parasites?

Doesn't sound that bad, she didn't actually sue anyone for personal injury.
Yet.

 

Psychotic.

 

I wonder a case of psychological instability? :-/

 

Did she deliberately damage anything after the property was deemed unlivable? You know, just for the fun of it?

 

No Angel - these psychopaths do not do things deliberately or overtly. They need to be seen as being the victims in this scenario and it's everyone else's fault.

I've seen a few cases of these and the only way to deal with them is to disconnect completely - get rid of them.

 

I had a tenant,it was my former PPOR in Flagstaff Hill, 2 storey, pool,spa,tennis court, a real nice place to live.Not by choice i rented it, but i had one couple who paid rent like clock work, and at the same time,every week had something that needed replacing, fixing, painting,preventative maintenance etc etc. It really wore thin after 51 weeks,some yes were warranted but i put it down to we pay rent, and its your responsibility to continuously upgrade and maintain the property to our beck n call, another reason is some people have too much time on their hands as well.

 

I had a granny flat attached to a house I bought, separately rented. Within 6 months of purchase I got a letter from legal aid saying it was damp, his possessions were being wrecked, and his health was in danger. Hadn't heard anything before this, was surprised he went straight to lawyers without complaining first.

The health thing set of alarms so I wrote back and said better abandon it, there was a lot of letters back and forth between me and legal aid, and legal aid and him. I paid for his stuff, a TV and some furniture, and moving costs but didn't agree to finding him another flat at the same price. Never rented it out separately again, just included it with the main house after that.

 

We had a tenant produce vet bills that her dog had breathing problems because the back of the yard was too "damp" not the house, the yard.

 

Was it a breed susceptible to breathing problems like a pug? or was there asthma weed in the yard.

 

I had a tribunal hearing recently where tenants deliberately spot cleaned a property and did not clean areas that they marked as dirty on the ingoing inspection. We had the property cleaned professionally before they moved in and when they marked certain areas as dirty we sent a cleaner back again. They still claimed that the Windows, Venetian blinds and oven vent was dirty. They also produced a photo of a piece of spaghetti stuck to a yellow feature wall above the oven.

We told them that the house was cleaned - it was, but we were not going to get a cleaner in again for a dried piece of spaghetti that was missed. Just flick it off, no big deal.

At the end of their lease, they refused a professional clean but cleaned the house themselves and deliberately left the oven, blinds and Windows. They even carefully stuck another piece of spaghetti on the feature wall lol.

Ok so what do you do about this? Obviously not acceptable?

We produced before and after photos of OTHER parts of the house where cleaning was not adequate. Some of the draws, a few marks on the walls ....
We asked for 3 hours of cleaning. They argued that those areas that were missed could be cleaned in 30 minutes, I argued that it's unethical to hire a cleaner for less than 3 hours - the member agreed with me.

The argued that the blinds were dusty and spaghetti was left on the wall at the beginning of the tenancy, I stated "we are not claiming those items"

We won - 3 hours of cleaning awarded (there were other parts to this claim too this is only a section of it).

All areas that were missed including Windows etc were done within the 3 hour timeframe.

That's how you do it

 

No idea - they claimed it was too damp. This one got nowhere.

 

@Xenia - they didn't know what to argue - the yard probably didn't conform to Australian Standards for dirt, landscaping or equivalent sunshine units.

 

My tenants claimed:
i.Week 3 of their tenancy.
Roof leak above bed. Uninhabitable. Tenants declined to allow a roofer into the property for 3 months.
ii.4 months into their tenancy they presented me with a quote for a new TV antenna. The old one had been cut!
In accordance with theNSW lease conditions, . When I enquired further it had already been installed next to the 'cut version',
Their lease expires end of September.

 

I know right and the landlords need to be able to control the weather for them.

 

Is this what a rain dance is for?

 

Tenant saboutage?