Recently we were asked by an owner to assist in finding them a tenant for their property.
They were a first time landlord having recently moved from their owner occupied home and decided to keep it as an investment property.
We received an application from a potential tenant but after speaking to him and doing our usual checks recommended to the owner that he shouldn’t proceed.
Unfortunately the property had been sitting vacant for around 4 weeks and the owner was starting to feel the pinch financially.
He offered the property to this tenant who moved in within a few days.
A month down the track and the owner came back to us somewhat sheepishly with his story of woes.
The following would be comical if it wasn’t so stressful for the owner.
- Tenant said TV didn’t work. Owner replaced it
- Tenant said fridge didn’t work. Owner went and had a look and saw that the tenant had overloaded the fridge so it wasn’t cooling down
- Tenant said they were being badly bitten by fleas. Owner arranged for the house to be fumigated and offered to pay for the tenants to go to the movies for the afternoon while it was being done. Tenant turned this offer down and said they expected to be housed in a motel overnight. Owner obliged.
- Tenant complained few days later that they were still being bitten by fleas. Owner had an independent assessor go to the property who said there was no evidence of fleas.
- Tenant asked for a rent reduction owner said no but the tenant decided to give themselves one anyway
- Tenant said property wasn’t acceptable to live in and wanted to be released from their fixed term tenancy. Owner agreed but asked that the tenant give him 4 weeks notice. Tenant said no they want to move out straight away.
For you experienced investors you will be shaking your heads and will have varying opinions on what should have happened.
However this is a first time rookie landlord who, when he called us, said he was out of his depth and didn’t know what to do.
Moral of the story: when you engage a professional listen to their recommendations. Having been in this business for 14 plus years during which time we have rented over 2000 properties we figure out pretty quickly who we would rent to and who we wouldn’t.
