garden your own IPs?

Hi all,

I love gardening and i like the feeling of working in the garden - and plus, i see the value a good garden adds to a home. Because of that, i get rather upset, and sometimes disappointed when tenants say they have an interest in gardening but yet they make no effort in keeping the garden clean or in good shape.

But i don't like paying anyone to do gardening. In fact, if i can do the job myself, then i don't like paying anyone anything.....

Anyway, does anyone do their own gardening for their IPs - that is, you go around to the IP and do the mowing, edging, pruning etc yourself?

If so, how does the tenant react to it? Do you tee up a certain time each fortnight or so that you'll go there (and only do the gardening on the outside). Would they see it as an invasion of their privacy, if you the landlord, went around on a regular basis and did the gardening, or would they be happy that they are then not responsible for it??

BTW I would only do this after the signing of a new lease where it is stipulated that i'd go around every 2 weeks to do the gardening (and only work on the outside)?

Is this a feasible thing to do?


Thanks


g
 
I think that many tenants would see this as an invasion of their privacy. They don't mind a gardener coming over but I don't think that many would appreciate the actual LL doing it. I wouldn't be really comfortable in this situation if I was a tenant. Like that anxious feeling I get if the cops pull me over, even though I haven't done anything wrong.
 
What they don't know won't hurt them! :D

If you include "gardening" in the lease, does it matter to the tenant who does it? It could be the landlord or a "representative of the landlord"; spouse, contracted gardener, etc.

I had a block of units years ago, and I'd go around every fortnight or so for exactly this; the tenants had no idea I was the landlord. It probably helped that I had a ute and wore overalls! :p
 
I was also thinking that it would be better if they didn't know i was the landlord. I may get some juicy info out of them that way should they choose to chat to me....

As wobbly said, i just turn up in an old ute and overalls, rip out the Victa and just chug it around the yard and clean up after myself. who knows, they may even take pity on me and give me a cold beer...

As long as the lease said that a gardener would come around every 2 weeks or so...

Sound fair?


g
 
That's how I'd go about it if I wanted to do my own garden maintenance.

BUT, I'd make sure that I didn't act on any information that I might pick up whilst there. eg. don't ring the PM and say "you need to get tenant X to wash the windows out the back"
 
Only for a few of our closest IP's, the others are further away.

The arrangement we have is extra rent for the garden maintenance, I enjoy gardening btw, I am an outdoors person, the tenants can be international scientists or exchange reseach programs, so even though we don 't necessarily catch up regularly, (they might be short or medium term stays), we talk, sometimes work around language challenges, although I speak some French, Italian, less Greek, German, Japanese and Thai...

So it's furnished accommodation they require, it's not appropriate for them to do the gardening, we have it all arranged. Yes, frienships/relationships have developed/ are made...
 
As the others have said:

There's only one thing a tenant hates more than the sight of a PM walking in knee high grass to their front door with the sherrif.....and that's the sight of a Landlord coming down their driveway :eek:
 
I would check with relevant state leglislation.

Regardless of whether the tenant knows it or not, you ARE the landlord and as such laws state you have to give adequate notice whenever you want to enter the premises, which would include the yard.
Marg
 
Marg is right, however, we have never had any issues with tenants knowing it is a family member doing the mowing, except for one prickly tenant who was causing a little strife in other areas, and decided my brother needed to drop a "notice to enter" in the letterbox with the appropriate notice each time he wanted to mow :eek:. She soon left due to other "differences".

On the occasions hubby has done some mowing when my brother is too busy, we never have an issue, but we do self-manage so the relationship is a little different. We let them know hubby will be around, but he has on occasion just "arrived" and there has never been an issue. This is rare though, and we would never just turn up and knock on a tenant's door but they have all been happy for hubby to mow occasionally. There is no contact generally as they are not home.

If we had any "issues" with any tenant, we would make sure everything was done by the book.
 
I would check with relevant state leglislation.

Regardless of whether the tenant knows it or not, you ARE the landlord and as such laws state you have to give adequate notice whenever you want to enter the premises, which would include the yard.
Marg

Does this apply if you happen to be a director or shareholder of a company which is the trustee for a trust which is the landlord? :)
 
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