When to ask tenant if they are renewing the lease ?

Also worth confirming with the PMs on other key dates, when they plan to do their annual inspections, when ownership statements are sent. Then set reminders to chase them if they miss deadlines. A client who doesnt escalate is one you can neglect and get away with - one who holds you to your word needs some extra TLC. Eventually even the most junior PMs know to give you a quick email or call update if theres a delay, versus no comms at all.

 

Excellent point - thanks for explaining it.

 

Sorry for such a long reply, but you did ask for an explanation.

First problem was when they let it slip to month-by-month without saying a word to me - and the tenant vacated with not enough time to avoid vacancy. Cost 2 weeks vacancy so about $840 lost there.

Next they said housing commission was offering to rent it and being a first time owner I asked for their advice which was "we have another couple with them and never had any problems with them"

Technically I can not say this was a fault of them, but honestly, seeing as it is their entire job to manage properties, they should have at least had a little better advice of the risks, specifically "we can not screen any potential tenants to avoid criminals and likelihood damaging of property". A simple heads up should have been in order in my opinion.

Of course the tenant turned out to be a drug addict prostitute.

After a few months the strata managers sent an email to me saying:
- there was a drug overdose. police and ambulance called
- drug paraphernalia left in the car park
- suspicious drug activity and police reports
- people ringing the security bell of all units to get someone to open the security door
- choking the security door open
- multiple incidents of theft from the washing lines
- gangs coming by the building (probably to collect drug money)

My agent asked me what I would like to do, and offered their idea of letting them stay there 2 more months until their lease with housing commission was up and then housing commission would find someone else, citing that tribunals often will require a warning so we might not even be able to evict the tenant.
Awesome advice (again) lolwtf.
I finally decided to leave Ray White but needed to stay with them until the tenant was out, so I ignored their advice and said get them out of there ASAP, there are families and children there for gods sake, and also I don't want to lower the rent of the area by becoming the kind of place that it is becoming.
The tribunal agreed and we evicted the tenant.

The carpets needed to be replaced as well as the blinds and some other minor damage.
They spent a MONTH discussing with housing commission how much housing will pay for the carpet replacement because I did not know the date the carpet was put in. During this time they do not fix anything in the apartmetn. Finally after a month I called them and said REPLACE IT RIGHT NOW. CALL THEM NOW. RIGHT NOW. MAKE SURE THE BLINDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED BY THEN AND ANYTHING ELSE. I WILL CALL YOU SHORTLY TO CHECK THAT YOU HAVE ACTUALLY DONE THIS.
A week and a half was the earliest appointment and it was all done by then.

The result of the carpet ($1800 to replace) was that housing would only pay $400 since I could not verify how old it was. I asked Ray White if I could go to a tribunal about this and they said we would probably get even less since we can not verify when the carpet was put in.

6 weeks of lost rent plus probably another 2 weeks to find a new tenant ($3200) because of their unbelievable incompetence. On top of the $1400 I have to outlay for the carpet because of their wonderful advice of "oh its not really different - we never had any problems with housing commission".

Had they replaced it immediately and I paid for the entire carpet myself I would have saved about $2,500.
Had they mentioned the risks of contracting to housing, I would have saved a further $1,400.

So if you ask me how much I have lost due to going with Ray White - about $5,000.

Now that I realise how important checks are (criminal, employment, past landlord), I don't ever recall them mentioning a thing about those with the tenants prior to the housing commission one so I actually think they don't even perform those at all.


Expensive lessons that I have learned:

1. Monitor when a tenants contract ends. If your property manager has not mentioned anything before 30 days prior to end of contract, then firstly you know they are showing you their incompetence so take note of that. Secondly, initiate it yourself and instruct the agent what to do.

2. If your agent finds you new tenants and has not done any checks, also know that they are showing you that they are not competent to manage your property. Also instruct them what to do.

3. Do not give second chances to property managers. If they have shown incompetence by letting a contract slip into month-by-month, or if they did not do tenant checks, or anything else they they should know if they have a basic level of competence, don't give them a second chance to cost you money. Just leave. It is not worth staying once you have information they are not capable of doing their job.

4. Do not go with housing commission. I have an American friend who has property there and he said that over there, housing commission will put forward a tenant so you can still screen them for past landlords and criminal history and can reject them. Nothing against the poor, we all need a roof over our head, but for gods sake no criminals and drug addicts allowed. In that situation, yes sure I would go ahead and be willing to go with housing commission, but over here it is not the same. You have no control whatsoever who they place in there, which means you have a big risk and it is just not worth it.

5. Do not go with Ray White. Really. Stay the hell away from them.

 

Thankyou for sharing Anthony.

By going into such detail you've helped some avoid making the same ahhhh unfortunate decisions. End of the day we're all here to learn as much as possible.

 

I agree with this. I'd rather have a good tenant on month-to-month than an unknown one on a lease. Yes, you can do checks and the like but I wouldn't want to lose a tenant who has shown that they are reliable and look after the property.

 

Wouldn't your insurance cover the carpet replacement?

 

marketing and leverage.

 

You are making my point for me.

Also, you must be bored to be looking up threads from 6 weeks ago.
Was going to post a bunch of websites and movies for you in case of boredom, but then thought it would be a bit weird to go so far off topic.

 

There are things you do not know probably too......

Like you and the agent were allowing sublet, this voids nearly all insurers & insurance.

Hardly, have not been bored since I was about 8 years old.

6 weeks ago is not long & sometimes your looking for something & I thought it was recent enough to reply too, if you do not mind that is

 

Yes it was my first property and I knew jack ****.
I did not have LL insurance because I simply was not exposed to it yet (one of those "you don't know what you don't know" type of things), and my wonderful agent said nothing to me about it just as they said nothing about all the other aforementioned things. But yes basically the whole situation was a screw-up from start to finish, and I think when I hire someone whose entire job it is to manage a property that they should be held responsible for a fair amount of things they should have at least mentioned for me to make a more informed decision. Not saying I have no responsibility though.

Ah right, yea I guess if you came accross it while searching for something, that makes sense.
I don't mind at all - always appreciate your helpful replies.

 

Yeah, sometimes I see old threads that bump up, or I get notification someone likes something that is very old, they must have been read a thread on a topic or found it another way in another post, or found it on google or something.

Sometimes I also read a thread that I missed, I do get busy sometimes too and do not get to look at everything that interests me

PS have you patched things up with your fave PM yet

 

If you mean changing the new PM from 90 days notice termination period to 14 days, nah I have not emailed them yet, been busy sorting out finances for next property purchase. But they seem to be doing well so far, so I don't think there is a big rush.