Going to house inspection not happy

[devo76]

Hi all

One of my properties had an inspection 2 months ago. A few things were picked up

Broken window Told to fix before next inspection
Dirty carpets Told to clean ( they were brand new i might add)
Lawns messy Told to mow. They have not been mown for 4 months


Now tomorrow is the second inspection and i know a few things

Lawns still not done
More windows broken
And there is 6 ot 8 people staying in the house not 4 like is on the lease.


Now this house was freshly renovated and the tennant is a contractor for a local project who said he would put 4 workers in it.
I have told the agent of my concerns and i intend on tagging along for the inspection.

Does anyone have an input as to how i should proceed assuming nothing has changed and there is extra people staying in the house.

Cheers

 

[Player]

Depends on the tenancy laws of the state that the IP is in. Assuming their lease had four max residents documented and this has been signed by the tenant(s).......hopefully not four individuals signing for it; although from your post it appears not.

Also read the fine print about sub-letting in your lease and what rights you and the tenant have.

Hope you have decent landlords cover when you read them their rights and give requisite notice to vacate.

How astute and proficient is your PM?

EDIT ** Take plenty of photos for the tribunal if it goes that way to compare to pre-letting freshly reno'd state **

 

[devo76]

Happy with my agent and they said it will be sorted out. The thing is they only intend on staying another 6 months or so and always pay rent in advance.

Grass can always be cut and carpet cleaned. windows fixed. I guess as long as they action these things asap then im happy to continue. Not real happy with the extra workers mainly due to extra wear and tear on property. Not sure what to do about that one.

 

[Player]

Stay on their case

Read them the lease and request they rectify and ensure the PM stays on their case or............you may find that in the next six months anything can happen if you give them an inch..........

You're already concerned about unkept yard, extra tenants (wear and tear) and broken windows. Your call, however I would be ensuring your PM remains vigilent. What you're describing has transpired in only two months since your last inspection.

I'd still take pics. Always best if you can sort it out withoiut resorting to tribunals of course. Their responsibility doesn't stop at just paying rent (advance or otherwise)

 

[hobo-jo]

How exactly are they breaking windows , I've lived in the house I'm in for 3 years and haven't broken a window...last place I was in I was renting for 18 months and one of the windows out the front broke (I suspect from the neighbouring units kid who used to kick a ball around in the yard). So 1 window in almost 5 years.

 

[devo76]

How exactly are they breaking windows , I've lived in the house I'm in for 3 years and haven't broken a window...last place I was in I was renting for 18 months and one of the windows out the front broke (I suspect from the neighbouring units kid who used to kick a ball around in the yard). So 1 window in almost 5 years.

Not sure what you are getting at.Are you saying you are a good tennant.

The windows were fine
They moved in
Windows are broken

They said they were happy to fix the first window they broke that was found during the first inspection. Clearly they know it was there fault. The window locations tell me it could only be from the occupants.
Its an old house so i believe the glass to be thinner than todays windows but previose tennant managed to not break one in 35 YEARS. These guys two in 4 months. I call em how i see em.

 

[hobo-jo]

Not sure what you are getting at.Are you saying you are a good tennant.

Not really, I'm just questioning how they are managing to do it. I wouldn't let them continue to run rampant in the house, especially if there are twice the number listed on the lease living there...

 

[devo76]

Not really, I'm just questioning how they are managing to do it. I wouldn't let them continue to run rampant in the house, especially if there are twice the number listed on the lease living there...

They are old timber sash windows so my guess is they are slamming them down. They where all free moving when i did the reno so basically they are being a bit careless.
And imagine how bad the carpets would have to be to require a steamclean at two months old.

This inspection will be interesting.

 

[alplant]

Nip this sort of behaviour in the bud pretty quickly and they might actually turn out to be good tenants. Paying the rent in advance might not be the b all and end all, but it sure beats the alternative. We are in the process of evicting poor payers.

We had a somewhat similar experience to you in our other property, rubbish mounting up in the yard and extra people living at the place. We insisted the extra people move out. One of them abused my partner. If that hadn't happened it might just have been a case of getting their names on the lease but in the end it worked for us because it showed we wouldn't take any nonsense and the original tenants are still there and have turned into model tenants now.

 

[devo76]

Well just got back from the inspection

3 windows smashed
carpet trashed
Kitchen trashed
Gardens trashed
Walls marked
Spoiled food everywhere
A smell i cant describe

11 BEDS IN A 4 BEDROOM HOUSE

All this in a house i fully renovated 4 months ago.

And to top it off my other property we looked at today also has trashed gardens etc to the point a rental appraisal today would yield about $35 pw less. The first property is uninhabitable.

Excuse me while i take this toaster for a swim in the bath.

 

[rugrat]

I hope you are opting for an eviction. The REA should have been all over this when they first saw a problem developing, not waiting for another inspection.

goodluck.

 

[Player]

Yellow flags become red flags

Sorry to hear that mate.

Trusting you have adequate landlords cover. Remove them post haste.

If this is a property not local to you, the PM needs to be more vigilant especially when the yellow flags you described above in your earlier post(s) were evident.....

You aren't the first this has happened to nor will you be the last. Sour right now..........but this too shall pass.

 

[depreciator]

And if you don't have landlord's insurance, you may find that the contractor who has put his workers in there won't be very happy about the situation and might come to the party. Worth a shot if you can get him to inspect the house. I knew a guy years ago who used to rent house for his workers and he would have been the type who would dock their pay to sort out that mess.

 

[Pa1nter]

Well just got back from the inspection

3 windows smashed
carpet trashed
Kitchen trashed
Gardens trashed
Walls marked
Spoiled food everywhere
A smell i cant describe

11 BEDS IN A 4 BEDROOM HOUSE

All this in a house i fully renovated 4 months ago.

And to top it off my other property we looked at today also has trashed gardens etc to the point a rental appraisal today would yield about $35 pw less. The first property is uninhabitable.

A similar thing happened to me around Christmas time quite a few years ago.I was a softy then and allowed them to stay on over Christmas cause they promised to pay the rent up to date and fix damage and clean up.

Next time I saw the property they were gone,I was so shocked,walked around like a zombie for a little while.
They had 5 children and a toddler that obviously had no nappy for most of the time.
It was so bad,I gernied out the inside of the house and even the oven
It was a renovated Queenslander I had done up myself for 12 months while I lived there.
I opened all the french doors to dry it out and put a "for sale by owner" sign on it after cleaning and rubbish removing for two days.

I hated being a landlord then

Your story is reminding me of why I sold all my houses years ago.

I feel for you,
Best thing is do not take it personal,
I,m sure a lot of us have been through it.

 

[alplant]

Sorry to hear it turned out to be such a disaster. It's amazing how much damage has been done in what must be such a short amount of time. It sounds like the contractor tenant has been subleasing the place out like a boarding house.

 

[devo76]

Still letting it sink in atm. I feel like grabbing a few of the boys and going over there and sorting this out in 5 minutes if you know what i mean but that cant be done i know.Yes i do have insurance and on a positive a bloodey good clean should see most of it come up like new again.I guess this is when i will be watching the agents performance.

Oh and yes we are going for eviction asap.

 

[devo76]

I guess this is that crossroad many property investors seem to face. Do you let a bump in the road put you off for good or do you take it on the chin and keep going. Im not going to be one of those people that wished they kept that house or wished they had a go when they were younger.These guys will be turfed out. The house will be cleaned/repaired. It will be re-let. I will move on. My other property will also be cleaned up returning it to its former glory.Infact i will probably add a few rooms to it.

And im 99% positive i will go ahead with my development of my first property.

So apart from some ill feelings i will not let it affect me.

Now where is that property guide

 

[skater]

I guess this is that crossroad many property investors seem to face. Do you let a bump in the road put you off for good or do you take it on the chin and keep going. Im not going to be one of those people that wished they kept that house or wished they had a go when they were younger.

There are many bumps in the road on the path to success. Some are mere swells, so small you hardly feel them. Then others are like huge mountains which seem impossible to climb. But climb them anyway, because bit by bit you will get there. The rewards are there, but you need to do the hard yards first. This is why so few people ever achieve their goals, whether it be investing or life in general. Like the saying goes "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

 

[marg4000]

The important thing is to learn lessons from this experience.

We also learned the hard way that once a tenant (or a PM, but that is another story) slacks off or starts to go bad then get out as quickly as possible. Things rarely improve, sometimes stay the same, but generally get worse. Once a tenant sees that you will put up with late payments or damage then problems usually snowball.
Marg

 

[Peter 14.7]

Get Landlord insurance and make sure it is good one. I am with one firm and not "happy to be with RXYZ" .

I have found $1k in serious cleaning is not covered and damage from pets, etc.. no covered. My firm refuses to pay the first 4 weeks because you have bond where other allow cleaning to be covered by that.

Peter