Horror Tenant

J

JennyP

I have an absolute horror of a tenant. I have a duplex and rent one out and live in the other. We had to get a new back fence and she had made a small garden against the fence and when the fence was installed the fencers, of course, trampled this tiny garden and dug to install cement footings. She went complety beserk and threatened to burn down the fence, the house and my possessions, because she somehow holds me responsible for the damage to her garden. She ranted and raved, issuing threats to me and my property for about six hours. And then again, the next night. Obscene language and just complete out of control behaviour. I contacted my property manager and although she was sympathetic, she was pretty unconcerned about it.

I am an elderly woman and feel very intimidated by my tenant's behaviour.

What do I do?
 
.....don't waste your money putting up new fences anymore ??


now you're in that predicament, why not get our the share pages and the dartboard.
 
JennyP said:
She has three months to go on the lease, but in her ranting and ravings, she was screaming that she is going to take out squatters rights. I am not sure whether she will do that before or after she burns down my house.

:)
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Best to check your insurances are all up to date :eek:
 
twobobsworth said:
How does she know you are the LL?
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I agree.

My thoughts are, if you have a PM there is no reason the tenant should know.

With the threats and etc, i can see why the PM was sympathetic, but more or less unconcerned - they can't do much without evidence - meaning PM can't issue an eviction notice/breach notice unless actual damages has been made to the property.

Unfortunately it's a tough situation, but there's not much you can do.

I know you're an elderly woman, so i take it you're not wanting to move. But considering the situation have you considered moving out of your part of the duplex and letting it to another tenant?
 
It's not as bad as it seems. If you haven't got LL Insurance, go get it now. If she breaches the lease at any time, send the required notices. When the lease ends, don't renew it. If she doesn't leave, then go through the tribunal and remove her as soon as possible.

She is just being a bit of an emotional wreck. Don't get pulled into her world.
 
If she is planning on becoming a squatter after her lease is finished it will take you 1-2months to get her out, and that will be because she is failing to pay rent (if she pays the rent, she isn't a squatter).

Not sure, but here in Vic you can give a 90 day end of lease notice, with no reason apart from it being the end of the week. Catch is, you have to issue it to coincide with the end of the lease exactly. We missed out on doing this by a day (when the pm realised they could have, it was a matter of they should have, it was already too late, so we issued them 120 days notice with no reason).

Let your property manager know you want this person out asap, to expect problems, so they can be ready to deal with them as they arise and stay ontop of the process (ie earn there commission of your rent every month).
 
JennyP said:
We had to get a new back fence and she had made a small garden against the fence and when the fence was installed the fencers, of course, trampled this tiny garden and dug to install cement footings.
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Jenny, it wasn't your fault that the garden was ruined, but the tenant doesn't know that. Why not just apologise on behalf of the fencing contractor and offer her a $50 discount on the next month's rent, to pay for new seedlings and to acknowledge you value her privacy and possessions. I've taken this approach when I inconvenienced a tenant with a new fence installation and the tenant was delighted that they were respected. They took amazing care of the place and delivered it in perfect shape when they eventually moved on after buying their own place.

It's easy for owners and PMs to forget that tenants are people too. They are still entitled to privacy and respect, even if that's not strictly in the Residential Tenancies Act. In my experience, if you respect your tenants and exercise some grace and discretion, the rewards will be exponential!
 
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KateMelb said:
lovely story
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But before you gave them $50, were these tenants abusing you like Jenny's are? I bet Jenny would have to give them hundreds to make them happy, but that would be just getting taken advantage of, and would attract more problems :eek:

Don't let any more tenants find out you are the pm, or you might as well self manage imo, especially since you are living right next to them!

I'm curious Jenny, was the tenant given some sort of notice that work was going to be carried out on the fence?

Either way, you don't have to put up with thier crap :mad: +1 Make sure your insurance is all good, let the pm know that they are upset and there could be some trouble, and that you want to get them out at the very first chance you get.

I imagine that you've told them you didn't mean for thier plants to be ruined, you just wanted to fix the fence, but if they want to become criminals over it then that's thier choice.

At the end of the day, they have to leave the gardens in decent condition or they will have to pay for them, it's not thier land to feel they have ownership of. Perhaps you've been too nice Jenny, and letting them feel that it's thier home, by letting them perform all sorts of personalizations?
 
Just let your tenant calm down, we all get burned off when we feel we have no control over the situation and steam pours out of our ears, then we calm down and become rational. I bet tenant has poured absolute loving care over this garden and it has become some sort of symbol to them. Just wait until she's calmer, then offer her a discount on the rent to pay for new plants.
 
twobobsworth said:
How does she know you are the LL?
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Lil Skater said:
I agree.

My thoughts are, if you have a PM there is no reason the tenant should know.
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vincenzo said:
Don't let any more tenants find out you are the pm, or you might as well self manage imo, especially since you are living right next to them!
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With all due respect, when you are living that close to an IP it can be nearly impossible to keep the fact that you are the LL from the tenant.

For seven years we lived on a block with a second battleaxe home at the rear. It was completely fenced off and looked like any other home in the area. We always use a PM and we never once told any of the tenants that moved into the back house that we were the LL's yet they all found out, usually by talking to the neighbours.
 
KateMelb said:
Why not just apologise on behalf of the fencing contractor and offer her a $50 discount on the next month's rent, to pay for new seedlings and to acknowledge you value her privacy and possessions. I've taken this approach when I inconvenienced a tenant with a new fence installation and the tenant was delighted that they were respected.
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I've always assumed that the Teannt paid the Landlord rent due to the Landlord unfailingly providing a roof over the Tenants head every single night. They also provide every service to the property - every day. That's the big stuff. A fence out the backyard is small potatoes.

The fence may be repaired - no thanks there, and the little garden of love may be trampled, but the roof is still being unfailingly provided, and everything else that the Tenancy brings with it. To discount everything, threaten to not pay and verbally abuse an elderly lady is not on, regardless of the condition of the little garden of love.

I'm getting the feeling that the notion of respect being a two way street is somewhat missing here. Shovelling cash to the Tenant (meh ?? Landlord's now have to pay tenants to live in their IP to somehow gain their respect ??) is a very strange notion indeed.

Why not tell her rent is now no longer payable, you'll drop over a big food hamper every day and you'll be over at 10am to clean the house and do the laundry for her. How far do you honestly go before it becomes a sad joke.

Keeping Tenants "happy".....however ill defined that is, seems to be the game in town lately.


Poor ol' Jenny probably reckons a few CBA shares are looking pretty attractive right now.
 
JennyP said:
She went complety beserk and threatened to burn down the fence, the house and my possessions, because she somehow holds me responsible for the damage to her garden... issuing threats to me and my property for about six hours. And then again, the next night.

What do I do?
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This is assault. I would be contacting the police and making a formal report. It's highly unlikely they'll actually do anything but if she does burn down your house or physically harm you they'll know who to arrest.

Sounds like she has a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock to me.
 
agreed this is assault

get a restraining order from the police

tell them ur a scared LOL

are there any other witnesses

get them to support you and provide evidence

then get ur PM to issue her 60 day eviction before the 3 months is up so she goes on the day the lease is up
 
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