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 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

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.

It's not too much to expect

If you book a room in a motel you don’t go sticking a knife through the window’s insect screen for any reason that might be convenient to you.  It doesn’t matter what the reason is; you just don’t do it.  If you have a problem you call the manager.  Was it because the tenant was some kind of spoilt brat who did whatever she wanted at home and expected the same treatment everywhere else? 

It comes down to respect for other people’s property.  The place was being rented.  That doesn’t entitle the person to treat it like their own or worse.  If you hire a car from a rental company and lose some money down a crevice in a seat you don’t have any right to start cutting up the upholstery in search of it.  It's the same with property rentals.  You don't go cutting things up without asking permission.

Some curious tenant behaviour

I have to admit being surprised to see the change that had taken place to one of the windows in the unit the tenant was renting. Doing some maintenance around the house I spotted one of the window fly screens had had a piece of screen cut out of it. A neat square had been opened in a lower corner. I didn’t remember seeing such a large hole before when I was checking out the property. Then I realised, with the sliding window opened slightly the cut out would be a spot for the tenant’s cats to walk in and out. It was a cat door.

I wouldn’t have dared doing anything like this to someone else’s property. I couldn’t believe someone would do it to mine. Presumably it would be repaired at the end of the lease. It was a disrespectful thing to do which annoyed me. I might have agreed to it, but I wasn’t asked. That was annoying.

I was surprised a few weeks later when I noticed the same fly screen lying against an outside wall. Why was the tenant removing the flyscreen? Possibly the hole wasn’t as large as it needed to be for the cats to get in and out. Possibly one of the cats had pushed through and dislodged the screen. I don’t know. The screen seemed precarious where it was resting, so I shifted it. While moving it I saw that it was damaged.

It is an aluminium screen, and one of the corners of the frame was bent. It was the sort of damage that might occur had the screen been caught by a wind, flown through the air, and hitting something hard. I felt irritated when I saw the damage. I have to say I don’t exactly recall seeing the condition of the screen when I bought the property, but I have no reason to believe it was anything other than perfect; well to be fair: serviceable. Now it was well on its way to being stuffed.

Expenses

I was impressed by a local car service workshop I had been going to.  I had some trouble with an old car while driving on the highway. The car barely made it home.  I found a repairer and the problem was quickly fixed.  It struck me that the guy seeing the interstate number plates could have fleeced me, but he didn't.  So, I developed a favourable impression of the workshop and staff, and that lasted until recently.  It lasted until noises, clunks, and a vibration started coming from the back of the car each time the brakes were applied.

I had taken the car to this workshop based on my previous experience with them. I was genuinely impressed with the place; the guy who ran it seemed genuine too. Well that was until the brakes gave trouble. There were no horrible accidents caused by brake failure, just a horrible bill.

We’d come to Canberra from Melbourne and the car had to have a vehicle roadworthiness inspection prior to being registered in the ACT. It passed the roadworthy without incident, but there was a sound from the rear you could hear when the brakes were applied. My enquiry to the mechanic about the noise was that it was dust and nothing to worry about.

The noise did sound like dust in brake drums, because I know that sound. This car had disks all round. The months passed and the noise got worse. Before the car was taken to a brake specialist there were clunking noises and a noisy scraping sound that reverberated through the whole car. The brake pads had worn down to the extent that there was no pad left on one of the wheels. The noise was the sound of metal on metal, and the wear had been such that one of the callipers was damaged. If the brakes had been inspected property during the roadworthy check the $1000 expense of replacing disks and callipers may not have been required. During such checks, mechanics often check one side of the vehicle during their inspection and assume the other side to be the same. That may have been the problem, but I have to wonder if any brake check was done at all. The mechanic might take offence at that suggestion, but the bottom line is that the noise couldn’t have been dust and they missed picking up the brake problem.

Getting the finance for this property was a bit touch-and-go at one point. The last straw on camel’s back that nearly brought things to a halt was the solicitor’s fee. I was expecting them to bill me, oh, sometime later. No, they wanted their fee included in the settlement cheques. I didn’t really account for that and consequently had to use credit card money to help cover the cheques.

Banks have a killer interest rate on cash advances from credit cards. It’s not that borrowing on the card maxed out the card, but it came close. Then there were other expenses that did max out the card. As a consequence I’m having trouble getting the card’s debt cleared. I’ve had the property for about a year and I still have the credit card debt, and the way banks operate the cash advance interest will remain until all debt on the card has gone.  A banking policy of kicking you when you're down; making things hard for you when you can least afford it.

So just when I wanted a steady uninterrupted flow of money to help pay off these debts we were asked by our tenant if we could fit new screen doors to the property.  I don't know why we were so soft.

Should you bother with what the tenant says?

Well, of course you should. But you shouldn't let their requests get in the way of your own priorities in life.

The last thing anyone needs immediately after settlement is bills. Some effort and money was invested in cleaning the place. We repaired a few things around the house that needed doing, and replaced the existing lampshades in the unit. To improve presentation prior to renting. There had never been a need for a letterbox by the previous owners, but one was required now before we could rent. Things were generally done economically. We were looking forward to getting a tenant into the place.

The property was advertised and a tenant was found remarkable quickly. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly it was taken. The agent was considering several applicants and gave it to a young woman who had a few pet cats.

Very soon after our new tenant took up residence she came to us with a request. She was concerned the unit would get hot and uncomfortable for her cats if they were locked up all day with the doors shut. The house had two sliding glass doors along with two sliding aluminium screen doors. They were security doors but not as tough as some products on the market, and of course the fly screen was nylon. Not the most durable thing when cats start scraping at the door. She was concerned the screen doors would not offer sufficient security if the main doors were left open. Could she please have security screen doors fitted?

As it happened she knew someone, a friend, or a friend of a friend, who was in the business of making and fitting security screen doors. He could do a deal because of her relationship with him and the price would be good. And he would fit a new screen door to our downstairs unit at the same discounted price.

We briefly explained our financial situation, which I doubt interested her. Basically, we were saying we couldn’t afford this. Stainless steel mesh insect screen doors are relatively expensive. She volunteered to pay for the doors herself. She must have said that without thinking, and possibly bit her tongue afterward. At least it indicated the strength of her bank account. We agreed to have the doors fitted, but only if she purchased them and we undertook to make regular repayments to her each fortnight. I find that arrangement so bizarre: she was to pay us rent for living in the property, we were to pay her for screen doors.

Anyway, we had three aluminium and stainless steel screen doors fitted to the house. I had seen these things advertised for some time. They have an aluminium frame with stainless steel mesh. The screens give the impression of having the door open which of course allows more of the view to be seen. In hindsight we should have said something along the lines: no, put up with things as they are or move out.

Experiences like these make you hard. Particularly when unexpected car repair bills hit. There were a few other expenses too. Clearing the debt was tougher than expected.