advice needed re: tenant eviction process pls?

Hi There All,

We have a difficult tenant in our property. Rent never paid on time, won't allow us entry to get a property appraisal or show house to prospective buyers etc. Keeps house very poorly, mess on lawn, long grass, extremely untidy inside.

Long story short... Initial Agent who let the property for us seems to have not done correct background checks etc. We have changed agents, went to VCAT and were granted posession of the property due to rental arrears (tenant did not attend hearing). Police officer appointed, attended the property yesterday to serve warrant of eviction effective Thursday (so allowed four days).

Tenant has now applied to VCAT for another hearing?! And it has benn granted. Now I was under the impression that there could be no further hearings after the warrant is served.

Has anybody been through this or got any advice please, I am fuming angry right now.

Many Thanks, Kel
 
I've had several evictions from NSW property. I think the process is slightly different here. If I get a date from the tribuanal as the final day of the lease, if the tenants don't remove themselves, then I can have the Sheriff remove them and change the locks. I've only once had to have the Sheriff come.
 
We had a past tenant who did this. And got another hearing.

Get this.....

She didn't show up to that hearing either, and again we were awarded the right to evict, only to have her lodge a dispute to the discission again!!!!

I was ropeable. The tenants hadn't paid a cent in rent since they were given 60 days notice (to renovate)....but claimed we were being unfair (3 months later), not giving her more time to find a place.
I had the PM ask for the Member to pay tenants rent if they really thought she should stay....to me if she really wanted to stay, she would have been paying the rent, or at least part.

All up it took us four months from 60 days notice served to get them out, and that took me also having words with the sheriff who also didn't want to evict this poor single mother (hello her parnter had lived with her the whole time, so dont know how they saw her as a single parent).

Finally the nightmare was over, they had trashed the joint and it cost a lot of money to clean up before we could even renovate. Luckily it had been purchased years before and was done up and sold at a huge proffit. In the end it was just getting them out.

Now have another place with bad tenants, have given them 120 days notice to vacate and they have already said they will dispute it, so am bracing myself for that outcome....bring on june.
 
It's just beauraucracy gone mad isn't it?

Schweedy thanks for sharing. We'll just have to see what happens tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
Push for that eviction notice and no more leniencies etc, stand your ground.

Had to join to share, but wanted to let you know, this might not be their only attempt at delaying, they may get away with doing this again, you/your pm have to keep pushing for the order and get straight onto the sherrif to get them booked in etc. As it can be quite a long process.

Oh and then if they leave anything behind you have to wait for Consumer affairs to decide if its important or discarded (rubbish). If they decide it needs to be stored, you then also have to organise storing said items, this cost can be charged to the tenants before it is released, and I think its 3 months you have to sit on it for. But again it can take a while to get someone from consumer affairs out to assess said items.

I was roapable through the whole thing, but had actually believed the whole, 2 weeks and they are out crap the PM told me. I still have them telling me that and I now tell them I know it can take up to 3 months to get a bad tenant out, thus to stay ontop of them.
 
Shweedy, IP is in a small country town. Have spoken to the police officer who will be responsible for evicting these tenants eventually and he knows of their awful behaviour.

I am having trouble with my PM being a little inexperienced in this field and I have decided if she does not get the desired result at tribunal, I will be transferring the management to another PM who is aware of the situation and has a can do attitude!

I am on a steep learning curve here, thats for sure!
 
We are onto Pm's 8 & 9 in 11 months, you dont need to talk to me about incompitent/inexperienced ones. Still at the same agency, but will be giving them the flick once these tenants finally move on. Got work from pm today that they are looking, and they are keeping their rent 2 weeks behind, so not sure what their plan is there. Just hoping they are out soon so I can start afresh all over with mine.

Do you attend the tribunal as well?? Often its better if the LL goes with the Pm to these things, we got screwed by one pm making and agreement and costing us 1k because we weren't there and these tenants like to pull the bully act.
Often a cool calm landlord, who is showing that he has been more than reasonable to the tenant has more affect. I send my partner as I'm the hot headed one.
 
Schweedy I did consider attending tomorrow but the PM has advised me she is only applying for posession based on rental arrears, and that bringing up any other issues eg. tenants denying access to property for valuation, abusive language is irrelevant???!!!

She advised me it would "annoy" the magistrate if we throw all these cards out on the table. Do you think she is full of it? I am concerned she is, but this being the first time I have gone through this I am unsure!
 
Nah, well if she has just lodged it based on rental arrears, as long as she knows, not to leave without a set order, with no recall ....ie the tenant cant ask for another hearing, and action can be taken, you should be fine.

The tenants could try and turn your other complaints around and use it against you, so maybe best to leave it to the pm as she wont want to keep wasting half a day at the tribunal for the hearing, if she didn't have to.
 
Wow, as a self-managed investor, I'm reading your stories with interest and waiting to hear how it all turns out.

My tenants have been great over the past five years so I have no horror stories to relate but as for PMs ... well, that's why I manage my own!

Good luck with it all ...
 
I had a very similar experience, renter constantly late paying and was eventually more than 14 days behind. My agent applied to the tribunal for eviction and the tenant did not turn up so it was granted. Tenant then lodged an appeal and another hearing was granted and for whatever reason they were allowed to stay in the property, even though they were still way behind in their rent.
The tenant eventually caught up, then fell behind again and after deciding he could not afford the property and left on his own accord. I consider myself lucky as the property was left in excellent condition, even though I was out of pocket thousands.

What I learnt is that the system is there to protect tenants however landlords end up paying.
 
All up it took us four months from 60 days notice served to get them out, and that took me also having words with the sheriff who also didn't want to evict this poor single mother (hello her parnter had lived with her the whole time, so dont know how they saw her as a single parent).

I would have had a word in Centrelinks ear....................
 
Finally, they are out!

Their appeal hearing was yesterday which they never attended. Spoke to local police officer about removing them asap, earliest he could go out there was today.

PM and police officer arrived today and low and behold the tenants had already moved on!

Property not as as we thought it'd be. PM tells me it is very dirty, but no structural damage and all their furniture has been taken away.

Oh and as a parting gift to us, they also removed the shower-head!

So Locksmith will be out in the morning to change the locks and I'll be out there Monday to go through and see what we can claim from the bond.

Thanks for your advice on this matter.
 
Good news. Now all you need to do is give the place a good clean and a new shower head. You know they were giving the things away at one time in the shopping centres. I went in one day & collected one for each of the properties. I've now got a cupboard full of the things. :D
 
I'll be out there Monday to go through and see what we can claim from the bond.


Let us know when all is settled and you have new Tenants how much this has cost you - assuming you pay yourself nothing for your time.


Unpaid rent
Lost rent while fixing up to Tenant's standards
Locksmiths
Court application fees
Cleaners / cleaning products
Re-letting fees
Advertising
Showerhead


I'd be surprised if the Bond covers the shortfall, and I reckon the insurance lawyers will be very keen to dodge as much of the expense as possible.


If you allocate $ 20 / hr to yourself whilst you stop earning to deal with all of this stuff, I imagine this event gets expensive.
 
No problems there Dazz, they were only a week behind in their rent in the end, and I know the insurance policy fairly well as I worked for the enemy! ;) Current LL policy still under the staff discount of 50% off too! $100 excess and I know the assessor well!

We are not re-letting as we were planning to sell at the end of the lease anyway :)
 
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