From: Jenny Nowakowski
Last year I bought my first IP 7 hours drive away already tenanted. It's one of two villas and the gardener does the common areas and my tenant has to to the bit up the back which is my garden.
My tenant got into arrears after Christmas and vacated but hadn't kept the garden tidy. My PM gave him a letter about it before he vacated but he still didn't do it. He was told if he didn't do it the cost of the gardener doing it would come out of his bond. But his bond money went to arrears and cleaning fees because he didn't leave the villa in a clean condition.
Now my new tenants are vacating after 2 months because the garden still hasn't been tidied by my previous tenant. My PM has gotten me one quote of $550 which I think is excessive! It's only about 200 square metres or less that needs tidying. The regular gardener who does the common area isn't interested in doing it because my PM has asked him to do it a couple of times and he says he'll do it in a couple of weeks and still hasn't done it. He charges $20 per hour per gardener.
My first tenant has until Monday (10/6) to do it but I'll doubt he will. And it will be difficult to get the money off him to pay the gardener now. So my question is, can I get a gardener to do it and then take him to the tribunal to make him pay for the gardener?
Going up there myself and doing it in a couple of days would be cheaper than the $550 quote but at the moment I can't take the time off work to do that.
My PM is going to get a couple of other quotes.
Jenny
Last year I bought my first IP 7 hours drive away already tenanted. It's one of two villas and the gardener does the common areas and my tenant has to to the bit up the back which is my garden.
My tenant got into arrears after Christmas and vacated but hadn't kept the garden tidy. My PM gave him a letter about it before he vacated but he still didn't do it. He was told if he didn't do it the cost of the gardener doing it would come out of his bond. But his bond money went to arrears and cleaning fees because he didn't leave the villa in a clean condition.
Now my new tenants are vacating after 2 months because the garden still hasn't been tidied by my previous tenant. My PM has gotten me one quote of $550 which I think is excessive! It's only about 200 square metres or less that needs tidying. The regular gardener who does the common area isn't interested in doing it because my PM has asked him to do it a couple of times and he says he'll do it in a couple of weeks and still hasn't done it. He charges $20 per hour per gardener.
My first tenant has until Monday (10/6) to do it but I'll doubt he will. And it will be difficult to get the money off him to pay the gardener now. So my question is, can I get a gardener to do it and then take him to the tribunal to make him pay for the gardener?
Going up there myself and doing it in a couple of days would be cheaper than the $550 quote but at the moment I can't take the time off work to do that.
My PM is going to get a couple of other quotes.
Jenny
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