WA rent arrears - how long do you wait before serving a breach notice

Hi,

We just signed up a new tenant and she's already defaulting on her first rental payment after she moved in. She tried to pull strings on us...suggesting she should get a week free rent in exchange for pruning a couple of big trees on the yard. Is this a common trick of tenants that I'm not aware about ? Expecting free rent in exchange to improvement works done on the house.. Talk about bad choice of tenants.

How soon do you normally send a breach notice after arrears ?

 

No time. There's also two different notice procedures available to you for rent arrears - a breach notice or a notice of termination. There's some pros and cons to each.

How well do you know your termination procedures?

 

Hm does that mean every time rent is late by a day, you'd send a breach notice ?
Some tenants can be 1-2 days late and sometimes it's due to transfer time and normally for me it's not a big issue.

From my understanding, landlords can send a breach notice at any day after rent default (ie. from day 2 onwards). So that means I can choose to wait say a week before giving a breach notice. If they don't rectify the arrears within 14 days, then on day 15 I should hand out a termination notice. Termination notice is used if we choose to terminate the tenant right away. I think given that she just moved in (literally 2-3 weeks ago) we'll most likely serve a breach notice first. Please let me know if I don't understand the procedure correctly.

 

I think what you're describing is correct.. There's two notices of termination, with the difference being whether you issued a breach notice beforehand.

And yes, you can sent a breach notice (or termination notice) as soon as the rent is behind one day.

 

Thanks @thatbum.

Just wondering what's a reasonable time landlords are willing to wait before seriously chasing up payments. I've already sent an sms reminder when she was 2-3 days late. My previous PMs seem to be happy to let it slip upto 2 weeks before chasing up. I was going to wait up until she's 2 weeks late, but I'm already nervous about her being 1 week late, so will probably looking to send a breach notice soon.

 

If i was nervous and thought it might go bad, then I would issue the breach notice asap.

Nothing stopping me from talking to the tenant separately about how I am just covering myself and willing to not proceed if its just a brief slip up.

 

Is this via SM or PM?

Do the trees need pruning?
Yes it is common for tenants to offer to do tasks, perhaps in exchange for rent payments, some times they do it for free because they know if they don't do it, it likely won't happen at all.

After a only a week of relocating?
I've experienced that, right when you feel you have everything covered something unexpected happens which blows the budget, stressed trying to find ways to meet obligations, on top of general living costs, like food.

Perhaps she's feeling the pinch atm, embarrassing, not always easy to admit/discuss you got finance problems, especially to someone you have a financial obligation to.
Might be issues with or waiting for bond refund from previous place. Many scenarios....

There's obviously communication happening, she's offered a possible solution.
Personally, rather than perhaps putting her under more duress I'd be having a face to face, sus out a full picture, if it's harmonious come to an arrangement.

Failing that you have every legal right to breach.

 

2 days. If the money wasn't paid within a week I would issue a breach notice.

2 weeks is too long to wait IMO.

Can you talk to the tenant? Just gently remind them that the lease agreement they signed requires them to pay their rent on time. No point getting them off side at this point but it seems new tenants like to see how far they can push their landlords. Just let them know (through your actions) that you are not a pushover, you know the rules and you are prepared to enforce them.

 

WestOz, we self manage. We went through a few PMs for a few years but it didn't work out very well, so are now self managing. The trees can benefit from some pruning but not essential. I think she had this planned before moving in, although I didn't realise it back then. She made comments about how the house can use some improvements (new rangehood, new fan, small handiwork around the house) and how she can get it done. What I didn't know was she expected to not pay rent by offering these improvements. She might be overwhelmed with the whole relocation thing, but I think she is also trying to see how far she can push it. The fact is though we don't need the renovation works she offered to do, what we really need is the rent money as we need to pay the bank. Especially because we're already feeling the pinch from the current low rental return.

Thanks perthguy, what I needed to know. I think we'll proceed with the breach notice right away to protect ourselves. Can always withdraw it later if she pays up. I did talk to her, that's when she wanted rent to be waived in exchange for pruning trees. She claimed we'll be saving thousands .