My previous PPR has been an IP for 5 or so years now. At the time I moved out, it was a renters market and so the agents weren't keeping a close eye on increasing the rent and as it was my first IP, I guess I thought that the PM knows best and I just wanted a tenant (if I only knew back then...).
Anyway, have had the same tenant in there for a while now and until the last 12 months have had to push to have rental increases made. Before then, the tenants would then push back to only have $5 increase rather than $10. In the past 12 months, the PM has been suggesting rent increases of $15 per week. So the rent has increased by $30per week in that time.
Rentals have gone nuts in that area in the past 12 months and due to the earlier lax attitude of the PM and my naive reliance on the PM to keep with the rents, we are now a long way behind on market rent. We don't tend to hear from the tenants much these days re repairs and I think they are aware that they are in a good position with low rent and don't want to ask for too much.
There are some high cost items that need to be replaced (air con, motor for garage door) and we'd like to inspect the place to get it back in good nick as we expect there would be other things that need updating replacing too. We'd also like to see what we can do to get the property back up to market rent. Apart from the air con, the tenants haven't asked us to repair anything else so we are going to do the air con regardless.
I'm aware that a tenant can object to a large increase in rent. Should we just hit them with a big increase and hope they decide to move out, do we tell them we are going to do the repairs then increase the rent, or do we somehow find a way to end their tenancy and then fix the place up and put the place back on for rent at a much higher price? Or do we just have to suck it up and accept the fact that we didn't push hard enough a few years back and have to wait until the tenants leave on their own accord (which we assume they won't any time soon)? FYI, it is a 3 bed townhouse in Guildford, rent has just increased to $325 per week which I believe is at least $50 under standard rental round there.
Anyway, have had the same tenant in there for a while now and until the last 12 months have had to push to have rental increases made. Before then, the tenants would then push back to only have $5 increase rather than $10. In the past 12 months, the PM has been suggesting rent increases of $15 per week. So the rent has increased by $30per week in that time.
Rentals have gone nuts in that area in the past 12 months and due to the earlier lax attitude of the PM and my naive reliance on the PM to keep with the rents, we are now a long way behind on market rent. We don't tend to hear from the tenants much these days re repairs and I think they are aware that they are in a good position with low rent and don't want to ask for too much.
There are some high cost items that need to be replaced (air con, motor for garage door) and we'd like to inspect the place to get it back in good nick as we expect there would be other things that need updating replacing too. We'd also like to see what we can do to get the property back up to market rent. Apart from the air con, the tenants haven't asked us to repair anything else so we are going to do the air con regardless.
I'm aware that a tenant can object to a large increase in rent. Should we just hit them with a big increase and hope they decide to move out, do we tell them we are going to do the repairs then increase the rent, or do we somehow find a way to end their tenancy and then fix the place up and put the place back on for rent at a much higher price? Or do we just have to suck it up and accept the fact that we didn't push hard enough a few years back and have to wait until the tenants leave on their own accord (which we assume they won't any time soon)? FYI, it is a 3 bed townhouse in Guildford, rent has just increased to $325 per week which I believe is at least $50 under standard rental round there.