A single mother with six kids?

Having a large family doesn't make her a bad mother
She seems to have the income to support it.


Speak to her previous LL

Also because her english may be poor, maybe the previous LL was trying to take advantage of the situtation, and she wants to find a better home for her family.
 
Erm, she's black African, having hard time to understand her English.

One thing you won't have to worry about is the rent being paid. The payments can come straight out of Centrelink. Plus, immigrants are experts at making a little dosh go a long way.
Also, African parents are pretty strict with their kids and these children might not be the type to take a hammer to the front wall. More likely that they'll be pitching in with the washing up, lawn-mowing, shopping, floor-mopping, etc. before they do their homework.
I'd give them a go and then take the skater-approach if they turn out to be problematic.
You never know, they may turn out to be great and stay there for years with week after week of reliable rent and good house maintenance.
Good luck :)
 
wow, I wish I had the guts to do that,

I have rarely evicted a tenant like that because teh leasing fees, advertising, vacancy period say 2-3 weeks, would basically eat up 6 weeks of rent, so I take it up the rear end on pretty much all small things

Don't! It's a business, so treat it as such. I've only ever evicted a handful of tenants & I've only had 2 tenants that I've had to lock out, but I'm not scared of them leaving either. I'm often really tough with them because I use a PM & don't have to directly deal with them.

In saying that though, most of my tenants are long term & I have no problems at all with them. Their rents are at market rates, their homes well maintained, and everything ticks along perfectly for both of us.

Yes, tenant change over is inconvenient, but it is just as inconvenient to the tenant. Stop looking at how it affects you, and look through the eyes of the tenant. They get a letter from the landlord that says, say, $10pw rent rise! Do they move? Well, yes if they were going to move anyway, but if they like living there, they often don't even look at what else is available. Plus most people don't like to move. It's costly AND a real PITA.

So, they annoy me, BANG, rent rise! Of course I can only do that if they haven't had one in the last 6 months, and all my rents go up as soon as they can anyway, but the annoying ones get an extra $5-10 on top of market. It adds up if you do it a few times to them.

Another thing is the annoying late payers etc, are usually the ones who cause more wear & tear on the property too (well, mine are), so they are the ones that are going to cost you money when they eventually leave. In my own way, I rationalise this as a small bit of compensation for the inevitable.
 
I'd pass on this one, 6 kids is a lot of wear and tear even if they're civilised! And if they're not, well, good luck.

Not sure how Centrelink direct payments work if you're self managing, but I do have one tenant who pays their rent this way (through agent) - I get charged $0.99 for the privilege though. Only tolerating it as she'd probably stop paying altogether if it wasn't coming straight out of Centrelink first. But her lease is up soon and I won't be renewing.

I like Skater's idea with the rental increases for annoying tenants - can't do this more than once every 12 months though here in Tassie :(
 
With 6 kids, unless some are adults, she would be on over $1000 per week.
parenting payment 720 pf
part A 1056-1380 pf (depending on kids ages)
part B 150 pf
a+b supplements 38 pf (paid annually)
school kids payment 2500-5000pa (depending on ages and paid twice per year)
large family sup 38pf
52-60k TAX FREE
Could be worth a go.
 
Centapay rent payments are set up by the tenant for their convenience, not for the landlord to ensure they are getting the rent money. The tenant can stop these payments at any time. One if my tenants is 2 weeks behind and they recently cancelled centapay.
 
Centapay rent payments are set up by the tenant for their convenience, not for the landlord to ensure they are getting the rent money. The tenant can stop these payments at any time. One if my tenants is 2 weeks behind and they recently cancelled centapay.

And you've sent them a notice, right?
 
Centrelink payment +Single Mum with lots of kids

I have 2 properties with tenants using Centrelink direct payment, and I'm managing another for my mother.

The tenant has to fill in the forms for the Direct payment, it's not something you can do on their behalf, putting the forms in their face can help though.
It costs about $1 per transaction (Centrelink fee).
You or your PM also need to register with Centrelink to be eligible to use the service, they will provide you with a CRN and away you go, stress free rent payments straight into the bank!

Getting the tenant to arrange the payment is probably the hardest part. I have one tenant that was behind in rent, I had the PM suggest a few times for them to use the direct payment from Centrelink. After issuing them notice to vacate and a QCAT hearing date they pulled their head in, payed up to date, and signed up for the direct transfer.

The property I manage for my mother is the old family house, a 3x1 brick veneer shoe box smack bang in the middle of town. The tenant is a single mum with 5 kids paying Centrelink direct, and this is the second time we have leased to her (hard to find rentals as a single mum of 5, I actually offered her the house again after a move into a bigger house didn't work out for her). She doesn't want to move again and wants to stay forever.

To summarise IMO Centrelink direct payments are a good thing, and not all single mums should be written off as bad tenants, (fighting couples can cause much more damage).

:)
 
my considerations

two throw my 2c into the mix.

My only considerations would be:
1. good applicant/rental history (with ability to pay)
2. is property suitable for an adult with 6 kids. i.e enough bedrooms/living spaces
3. does this tenant sit within my risk profile.

I think we can create a story for her all we like -- it doesn't mean it's the truth and it doesn't mean that she is/isn't right for the property.
 
With 6 kids, unless some are adults, she would be on over $1000 per week.
parenting payment 720 pf
part A 1056-1380 pf (depending on kids ages)
part B 150 pf
a+b supplements 38 pf (paid annually)
school kids payment 2500-5000pa (depending on ages and paid twice per year)
large family sup 38pf
52-60k TAX FREE
Could be worth a go.

Time to have some kids I think.....
 
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