Including lawnmowing & gardening

[kheaver]

Hi all,

I've got a house coming up for re-let in a couple of months and I was toying with the idea of including the lawnmowing and gardening in the rent.
The advantage is that its got a nice garden now which helps with the valuation and makes a nicer rental. Tenants tend to do just enough gardening to get by and the gardens tend to run down over time.
The disadvantage would be asking a higher rent, I'm guessing the lawnmowing & gardening would each be worth about $10/wk.

Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on this.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[PIppety]

Kim,

I personally think this is a good idea and do it myself with one particular IP where the yard isn't necessarily all that nice but becomes a problem because a fair bit of maintenance is involved.

I think it depends on the tenants. If they are young people then I would definitely recommend this approach.

Cheers
PIppety

 

[Bushy]

Hi Kim
Ive been thinking of a lease agreement where you charge an extra $10-$20 and include lawn/garden maint and then pay the tenant periodically when you do the inspection.The tenant has a great incentive to look after the place.and you have a tenancy agreement with a higher rent on it that you can use to help future borrowings. We haven't tried this yet but we do encourage watering -we pay the water excess bill
regards Bushy

 

[ruk]

the tenant would be getting a cheap gardener at $ 500 /a.

you've got a bloody good idea.

hope you've got the time and energy.

 

[Glenn]

I like this idea as well, banks take 70% of rent for serviceability but only 30-40% of income from wages, so the higher we can get the rents, the better our serviceability will be

Glenn

 

[GoAnna!]

Hi Kim

Yes we do this where appropriate and it works for all the reasons already outlined.

Improves valuation

Improves servicability

An extra $10 a week doesn't seem to be an issue when letting. A well kept place attracts the right tenants and most people these days are way too busy or unmotivated to take care of gardens.

 

[Ross Sneddon]

Hi

As a Landlord, you have the right to inspect your property, say once per quarter and the tenant has the right of quiet enjoyment all of the time.

Now this means that the tenant may have four big cleanups per year waiting for your inspection and the rest of the time, things are a bit dodgy.

If you charge an agreed rent and then say ask for an extra $5 per week (or $10 or whatever), and you will see that the garden / lawn is maintainred. Now you can sell it on the cost for the tenant of mower petrol, gardening tools etc., They mostly agree to your offer.

You now engage a gardener and you supervise the gardener as often as you want. That means you can legally enter the yard, front, side and rear to inspect the gardener's work but in reality, you are inspecting your own property and who says you didn't accidently take a peek through the window occasionally.

regards

Ross