It might be tempting to think that if a property is being managed by a real estate agent that you can sit back, relax, and assume all is well. It’s not a perfect world. Information may get mislaid, information known by one person may not be passed on when there are staff changes, and as a client your ideas on how the property is managed may also change. Of course, I’m assuming the agent does take notes and does keep a file of your instructions. That assumption could be wrong. At any rate, it might be useful to talk to the agent, and to make sure they take note of what you are saying, because they get things wrong. It might even be a good idea, if possible, to read through the agent’s notes on the property before they start talking to any potential new tenants.
My property is not dual occupancy. The electricity and water supplies each come from a single meter. The units are separate. Each unit has its own kitchen, lounge, and bedrooms. The rented one has its own bathroom. The laundry is shared, with the other unit (ours) having a combined bathroom and laundry. The combined bathroom laundry is inconvenient for all concerned, but within limitations, it works.
At about the time our first tenant was moving out and the new tenant was inspecting the property a new property manager took over. That was bad timing. As the new property manager was showing potential punters through the place she misunderstood the laundry arrangement. She was aware that the laundry was down stairs, but she didn’t have a key to show anyone through it. However, the property manager was telling people there was a laundry with a washing machine. Wrong! This statement was only partly correct.
There certainly was a laundry down stairs, but a washing machine was not provided. The agent should have said something along the lines, there is a laundry downstairs for your own washing machine. The result of this was that the new tenant thought a washing machine was included in the rental and had her own washing machine transported to Canberra. Of course, when the new tenant had taken out the lease and saw the laundry empty it meant she had to organise transporting her machine from Canberra back to the coast. This sets a very poor impression.
The property manager should have been aware of the situation, and a quick check of their notes would have identified the issue before it became a problem. This might seem like a small issue, but it would have inconvenienced the tenant. Perhaps there are just better property managers and poorer managers out there and you just have to be on your guard.
17 January 2011
13 December 2010
Nasty tenant
I had an interesting experience with my first tenant. This was towards the time when she wanted to move out. I believe she was having trouble in her personal life. She didn’t like her job and was possibly feeling homesick, as her parents lived some distance away. She just wanted to get away from the coast. I gather she quit her job, and had given a few weeks notice to her employer, but her visit to the real estate agent may have posed problems. Breaking a lease before the expiry date carries certain penalties, some of which are distinctively nasty.
We received a letter from the real estate agent who was managing the property rental. The letter was to remind us of the policy when a lease is broken. There were a number of things listed, but the penalty that caught my attention related to an existing tenant having to continue to pay rent until a replacement tenant was found.
Our tenant may have been about to get into a tricky situation. When her income dried up after quitting her job she’d be in a dire situation if she had to continue paying rent for a place she was no longer interested in having. Such a situation could last months. Well, at least until another tenant had been found. It wasn’t a well thought out plan. It could have meant she’d be paying rent for the place and not living there.
She should have notified the agent she wanted to quit the lease early and bided her time until someone was ready to move in, and then quit her job. Not the other way around. She should have worked the dates better.
As a compassionate gesture, we offered the use of our unit should it become necessary. We suggested to both our tenant and the real estate office that if someone suitable should be found who wished to move into the property, but if the move-out move-in dates for our old and new tenants didn’t match particularly well then our place could be utilized for a short duration. That of course, meant that we wouldn’t be able to stay there for however long was necessary.
She took up our offer. We asked for some rent for the period; less than half her usual amount. $80 per week seemed fair, and the offer was willingly accepted. A better deal than a motel could offer. Our real estate agent advised against this plan, but we thought it was the right thing to do.
As it happened our real estate agent found a suitable replacement tenant quite quickly. It seems that the rental market is such that nothing is left vacant for very long. However, the timing did not quite match perfectly and our old tenant was pleased we had made our half of the house available to her for a few days. On the last day of the weekend that we’d been staying there our tenant brought in her mattress and bedding. She said she loved her bed, and despite our offer to move into our place and use everything, including our bed, she preferred to use her own mattress. The bed frame was to be moved as part of her shift along with the rest of her stuff. Each to their own, I guess.
Anyway, the real estate agent in finalising the lease had made an appointment to inspect the property. This was the usual end of lease check prior to concluding the tenancy, to confirm the place was in good repair, and was nothing out of the ordinary. The agent considered the property to be in reasonable condition, however, she was concerned about the kitchen bench top. Though the inspection missed the badly repaired window fly screen, and missed the fact that one of the vertical blinds no longer operated on a lounge window. The agent noticed some cuts in the kitchen bench top and took photographs of the damage emailing them to us for comment. The agent didn’t know whether the damage was present before the tenant moved in noting that the marks didn’t seem like normal wear and tear.
This was an old property. There is wear everywhere, and the laminex bench top was slightly scuffed when we bought it. This is normal wear and its condition was noticed prior to purchasing the property, but it was reasonably okay.
After we’d been renting the place for a few months we noticed some changes in the bench top surface. With the occasional visit to address problems you can’t help but look around. We had noticed the bench was looking the worse for wear. The bench top was becoming pitted. Knife marks were showing which indicated the surface was being used as a cutting surface. We had a spare nylon cutting board in our place. When our work was finished we left the cutting board on the bench. This should have been a sufficient hint, but it seems to have gone unheeded.
Some months had passed since the cutting board had been left. And now the real estate agent was inspecting the property and had sent photographs of the damage. The photograph provided by the agent showed that the knife marks had continued to worsen. The cutting board wasn’t being used.
The agent notified the tenant of the situation and that quotations for repair would be sought. We left it to the agent to determine what a reasonable cost split between us and the tenant might be.
A new bench top surface was quoted by a provider at $1400. That seemed a ridiculous amount. The existing kitchen bench and cupboards looked like they were knocked up in a couple of weekends by someone using offcuts. The bench cupboards and drawers were neat and functional but pretty crappy. Spending $1400 would be a waste.
Bunnings sell kitchens for a little over $2000. And you can get some nice used kitchens from ebay for much less than that from people who have upgraded.
One of the repair companies the agent called in to inspect the damage noted that the surface was made of a softer material than should have been fitted to a kitchen bench top. I wasn’t aware laminex came in different hardness ratings. This advice fits with the general condition of the property which is all a little less than perfect. I expect the previous owner would have opted for a cheaper option. It explains why the knife marks were deep. The tenant was still wrong in using the bench top as a cutting board.
A lot of people use bench tops as cutting boards. I’ve seen them doing it. Though, I don’t understand why. Knives can be almost razor sharp. I admit it must be convenient to abuse your bench top like this, but it will surely shorten its life. These people may also be the same ones who use metal implements on Teflon saucepans. You shouldn’t do that either. To me this is like using the bonnet of your car as a surface to mix concrete; the paintwork will be damaged. It’s just something that shouldn’t be done. Even cutting boards get damaged. So why would anyone not use one? Perhaps someone can explain it to me.
From this point relations between us deteriorated rapidly. It’s not that she was a tenant any more. A new tenant had already taken up residence. Our claim that she damaged the bench top was denied, saying the surface was already scratched when she moved in. She plainly believed it wasn’t her fault. She became angry, upset, and then abusive. Her only defence was that the damage already existed, that it wasn’t her. This was in spite of the fact that we’d witnessed the damage worsen under her care.
This dispute and argument took place while she was living in our half of the house that we had made available to her as a favour, as a kindness, and at our inconvenience. She did not seem to appreciate that situation. At one point she telephoned leaving an abusive tirade on our answering machine some of which was unintelligible due the sound distorting due to the intensity of her screaming on the phone line. On hearing the message she was told to pack her things and vacate. We drove to the coast immediately. The two hour drive to ensure she vacated was worth it for our peace of mind.
When we arrived that evening we told her to leave. The dispute continued. She became angry, and threw a punch that fortunately missed its target. From that point her belongings were moved out with less care. She phoned her parents. She screamed abuse. She phoned a friend to help shift her things. She was upset. We were pissed off. The police arrived.
The new tenant said when we spoke to her later, that she was unaware of the commotion. Perhaps she was being tactful. There seemed to be a lot of noise. The police knocked on the door of the unit belonging to the new tenant. This must have been confusing for both of them. She couldn’t help the police and directed them downstairs.
I don’t know who called the police. So, I don’t know the pretext on which they were attending: to check out a disturbance, or to protect a tenant’s rights. She didn’t have any tenancy rights as the lease had expired and a new tenant was already in the unit. To put it mildly, we just wanted an unappreciative ex-tenant out of our property. When the police understood the situation they went on their way leaving their phone number should there be any problems. Eventually, someone called by with a ute, helped her packed her things, and they drove off. We locked up the place and went home. I wondered what the new tenant thought of all this.
When we returned on the following weekend several things had been left behind. An old car battery, a gas bottle, and a large lounge chair were left on the footpath at the front of the house. I didn’t want to pay for disposal of something that was obviously rubbish. The bond wasn’t going to be returned until the rubbish had been cleared. The items eventually disappeared.
We received a letter from the real estate agent who was managing the property rental. The letter was to remind us of the policy when a lease is broken. There were a number of things listed, but the penalty that caught my attention related to an existing tenant having to continue to pay rent until a replacement tenant was found.
Our tenant may have been about to get into a tricky situation. When her income dried up after quitting her job she’d be in a dire situation if she had to continue paying rent for a place she was no longer interested in having. Such a situation could last months. Well, at least until another tenant had been found. It wasn’t a well thought out plan. It could have meant she’d be paying rent for the place and not living there.
She should have notified the agent she wanted to quit the lease early and bided her time until someone was ready to move in, and then quit her job. Not the other way around. She should have worked the dates better.
As a compassionate gesture, we offered the use of our unit should it become necessary. We suggested to both our tenant and the real estate office that if someone suitable should be found who wished to move into the property, but if the move-out move-in dates for our old and new tenants didn’t match particularly well then our place could be utilized for a short duration. That of course, meant that we wouldn’t be able to stay there for however long was necessary.
She took up our offer. We asked for some rent for the period; less than half her usual amount. $80 per week seemed fair, and the offer was willingly accepted. A better deal than a motel could offer. Our real estate agent advised against this plan, but we thought it was the right thing to do.
As it happened our real estate agent found a suitable replacement tenant quite quickly. It seems that the rental market is such that nothing is left vacant for very long. However, the timing did not quite match perfectly and our old tenant was pleased we had made our half of the house available to her for a few days. On the last day of the weekend that we’d been staying there our tenant brought in her mattress and bedding. She said she loved her bed, and despite our offer to move into our place and use everything, including our bed, she preferred to use her own mattress. The bed frame was to be moved as part of her shift along with the rest of her stuff. Each to their own, I guess.
Anyway, the real estate agent in finalising the lease had made an appointment to inspect the property. This was the usual end of lease check prior to concluding the tenancy, to confirm the place was in good repair, and was nothing out of the ordinary. The agent considered the property to be in reasonable condition, however, she was concerned about the kitchen bench top. Though the inspection missed the badly repaired window fly screen, and missed the fact that one of the vertical blinds no longer operated on a lounge window. The agent noticed some cuts in the kitchen bench top and took photographs of the damage emailing them to us for comment. The agent didn’t know whether the damage was present before the tenant moved in noting that the marks didn’t seem like normal wear and tear.
This was an old property. There is wear everywhere, and the laminex bench top was slightly scuffed when we bought it. This is normal wear and its condition was noticed prior to purchasing the property, but it was reasonably okay.
After we’d been renting the place for a few months we noticed some changes in the bench top surface. With the occasional visit to address problems you can’t help but look around. We had noticed the bench was looking the worse for wear. The bench top was becoming pitted. Knife marks were showing which indicated the surface was being used as a cutting surface. We had a spare nylon cutting board in our place. When our work was finished we left the cutting board on the bench. This should have been a sufficient hint, but it seems to have gone unheeded.
Some months had passed since the cutting board had been left. And now the real estate agent was inspecting the property and had sent photographs of the damage. The photograph provided by the agent showed that the knife marks had continued to worsen. The cutting board wasn’t being used.
 |
| The bench top before the property was purchased |
I had hundreds of photographs of the house that I took when the property was on the market. It’s amazing what you forget following an inspection, and a few photos provide a great memory jog. It also allows you to study aspects of the property in detail, which isn’t normally possible in a normal open house. Fortunately, I had taken several photographs of the kitchen which by good luck quite a few happened to include the bench top. You could plainly see some general scuff marks on the surface, but there were no deep knife marks.
 |
| The same section of bench top showing the knife damage |
A new bench top surface was quoted by a provider at $1400. That seemed a ridiculous amount. The existing kitchen bench and cupboards looked like they were knocked up in a couple of weekends by someone using offcuts. The bench cupboards and drawers were neat and functional but pretty crappy. Spending $1400 would be a waste.
Bunnings sell kitchens for a little over $2000. And you can get some nice used kitchens from ebay for much less than that from people who have upgraded.
One of the repair companies the agent called in to inspect the damage noted that the surface was made of a softer material than should have been fitted to a kitchen bench top. I wasn’t aware laminex came in different hardness ratings. This advice fits with the general condition of the property which is all a little less than perfect. I expect the previous owner would have opted for a cheaper option. It explains why the knife marks were deep. The tenant was still wrong in using the bench top as a cutting board.
A lot of people use bench tops as cutting boards. I’ve seen them doing it. Though, I don’t understand why. Knives can be almost razor sharp. I admit it must be convenient to abuse your bench top like this, but it will surely shorten its life. These people may also be the same ones who use metal implements on Teflon saucepans. You shouldn’t do that either. To me this is like using the bonnet of your car as a surface to mix concrete; the paintwork will be damaged. It’s just something that shouldn’t be done. Even cutting boards get damaged. So why would anyone not use one? Perhaps someone can explain it to me.
From this point relations between us deteriorated rapidly. It’s not that she was a tenant any more. A new tenant had already taken up residence. Our claim that she damaged the bench top was denied, saying the surface was already scratched when she moved in. She plainly believed it wasn’t her fault. She became angry, upset, and then abusive. Her only defence was that the damage already existed, that it wasn’t her. This was in spite of the fact that we’d witnessed the damage worsen under her care.
This dispute and argument took place while she was living in our half of the house that we had made available to her as a favour, as a kindness, and at our inconvenience. She did not seem to appreciate that situation. At one point she telephoned leaving an abusive tirade on our answering machine some of which was unintelligible due the sound distorting due to the intensity of her screaming on the phone line. On hearing the message she was told to pack her things and vacate. We drove to the coast immediately. The two hour drive to ensure she vacated was worth it for our peace of mind.
When we arrived that evening we told her to leave. The dispute continued. She became angry, and threw a punch that fortunately missed its target. From that point her belongings were moved out with less care. She phoned her parents. She screamed abuse. She phoned a friend to help shift her things. She was upset. We were pissed off. The police arrived.
The new tenant said when we spoke to her later, that she was unaware of the commotion. Perhaps she was being tactful. There seemed to be a lot of noise. The police knocked on the door of the unit belonging to the new tenant. This must have been confusing for both of them. She couldn’t help the police and directed them downstairs.
I don’t know who called the police. So, I don’t know the pretext on which they were attending: to check out a disturbance, or to protect a tenant’s rights. She didn’t have any tenancy rights as the lease had expired and a new tenant was already in the unit. To put it mildly, we just wanted an unappreciative ex-tenant out of our property. When the police understood the situation they went on their way leaving their phone number should there be any problems. Eventually, someone called by with a ute, helped her packed her things, and they drove off. We locked up the place and went home. I wondered what the new tenant thought of all this.
When we returned on the following weekend several things had been left behind. An old car battery, a gas bottle, and a large lounge chair were left on the footpath at the front of the house. I didn’t want to pay for disposal of something that was obviously rubbish. The bond wasn’t going to be returned until the rubbish had been cleared. The items eventually disappeared.
02 December 2010
The tenant encounters the vertical blinds
The tenant mentioned a problem with the vertical blinds in the lounge. She said one set of vertical blinds wasn’t working. I dropped by to see what was up. This was the second time I had repaired the blinds for the tenant.
Some months ago I spent time straightening one of the mounting brackets. The bracket had been bent down so far that it caused the slats to drag along the floor, and many of the links at the base of the slats had become dislodged. With the slats dragging the ground the pull cord was difficult to operate. We fixed it. Straightening the mounting bracket raised the blinds. With the slats off the floor opening and closing became much easier. It wasn’t perfect, but quite reasonable. We explained that this was an aging property. The aging blinds also required a gentle touch in their operation. She couldn’t have listened.
On this second occasion the mounting bracket was bent so far down that the rail itself seemed to be twisted. I wondered how much pressure could have been applied to bend the steel bracket so much. How could this happen? I removed the bracket and took it to the workshop. With the bracket straightened and refitted I was expecting the problem to be resolved. However, when I attempted to draw the blinds they wouldn’t budge. The pull cord was seized. The cord which swivels the slats was also seized. Nothing worked. I didn’t understand what was going on so I disconnected all the slats and removed the rail entirely and took it away to check it out. I was surprised with what I found. No, I was amazed.
It was interesting to inspect the mechanism of the vertical blinds. To see how the innards of the blinds actually worked. The draw string on the blinds forms a loop arrangement. There are two tiny pullies at one end of the rail, and one pulley at the other end. The cord runs in these pullies and the weight keeps the cord taught.
The cord had been pulled with such force that the rail mounting bracket had bent, the force of which had twisted the rail into a position that caused the cord to dislodge from the pullies. The cord then jammed itself between the pullies and the slat swivel mechanism. One of the pullies had been damaged in the process, and had become chipped. The pulley at the opposite end of the rail which supports the cord had been ripped from its mount. This pulley was missing entirely. I can’t imagine how hard the cord would have had to have been pulled to cause the pulley shaft to rip from its mount. I only hope whoever did this got rope burns in the process, or when the pulley broke with the force of whoever it was that was forcing things gave them a good crack on the head as it twanged across the room.
This damage, in so far as I can tell, effectively destroyed the rail beyond repair. There was no way I could fix this. A quick solution was to remove the cord, which freed up the slat swivel mechanism. There was now no way to draw the blinds, except by hand, by pulling on the slats.
I asked the tenant about the cord weight, which was missing. This is the weight that dangles at the end of the cord to keep the cord firmly located in the pulley mechanism. Apparently it broke. The weight was a plastic assembly incorporating a single pulley for the cord and includes a lump of steel (ie. the weight that’s tucked away inside it). How can a weight break? It probably broke when it hit the floor when the pulley was ripped from its mounting. I asked where it was. Don’t know, was the response. I asked about the missing pulley in a vain hope that it might be able to be refitted. I also asked about it to draw attention to the fact that it was missing. Don’t know, again, was the response. I was pissed off at the lack of care.
We must try not to rent to a young person in the future. You learn by experience.
Some months ago I spent time straightening one of the mounting brackets. The bracket had been bent down so far that it caused the slats to drag along the floor, and many of the links at the base of the slats had become dislodged. With the slats dragging the ground the pull cord was difficult to operate. We fixed it. Straightening the mounting bracket raised the blinds. With the slats off the floor opening and closing became much easier. It wasn’t perfect, but quite reasonable. We explained that this was an aging property. The aging blinds also required a gentle touch in their operation. She couldn’t have listened.
On this second occasion the mounting bracket was bent so far down that the rail itself seemed to be twisted. I wondered how much pressure could have been applied to bend the steel bracket so much. How could this happen? I removed the bracket and took it to the workshop. With the bracket straightened and refitted I was expecting the problem to be resolved. However, when I attempted to draw the blinds they wouldn’t budge. The pull cord was seized. The cord which swivels the slats was also seized. Nothing worked. I didn’t understand what was going on so I disconnected all the slats and removed the rail entirely and took it away to check it out. I was surprised with what I found. No, I was amazed.
It was interesting to inspect the mechanism of the vertical blinds. To see how the innards of the blinds actually worked. The draw string on the blinds forms a loop arrangement. There are two tiny pullies at one end of the rail, and one pulley at the other end. The cord runs in these pullies and the weight keeps the cord taught.
The cord had been pulled with such force that the rail mounting bracket had bent, the force of which had twisted the rail into a position that caused the cord to dislodge from the pullies. The cord then jammed itself between the pullies and the slat swivel mechanism. One of the pullies had been damaged in the process, and had become chipped. The pulley at the opposite end of the rail which supports the cord had been ripped from its mount. This pulley was missing entirely. I can’t imagine how hard the cord would have had to have been pulled to cause the pulley shaft to rip from its mount. I only hope whoever did this got rope burns in the process, or when the pulley broke with the force of whoever it was that was forcing things gave them a good crack on the head as it twanged across the room.
This damage, in so far as I can tell, effectively destroyed the rail beyond repair. There was no way I could fix this. A quick solution was to remove the cord, which freed up the slat swivel mechanism. There was now no way to draw the blinds, except by hand, by pulling on the slats.
I asked the tenant about the cord weight, which was missing. This is the weight that dangles at the end of the cord to keep the cord firmly located in the pulley mechanism. Apparently it broke. The weight was a plastic assembly incorporating a single pulley for the cord and includes a lump of steel (ie. the weight that’s tucked away inside it). How can a weight break? It probably broke when it hit the floor when the pulley was ripped from its mounting. I asked where it was. Don’t know, was the response. I asked about the missing pulley in a vain hope that it might be able to be refitted. I also asked about it to draw attention to the fact that it was missing. Don’t know, again, was the response. I was pissed off at the lack of care.
We must try not to rent to a young person in the future. You learn by experience.
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