Irritating Tenants

Just had a new couple move in a semi-basement apartment.
They killed 10 small black beetles, and she is having a fit.
We had this apt completely painted, which took a week (no hurry, they weren't moving infor a couple of weeks) and no bugs seen.

We painted 2 other apts on the same floor level.No bugs seen. We live in Nova Scotia, it is just coming to end of summer, and life as we know , has insects. They are probably looking for a nice warm spot for winter.

All I can think of when this person emails is Dazz. How come these whinging tenants can't spray their own apartment, without their Mommy and daddy aka landlords being involved.

Rant over...on my way to work now. :)
 
buy her a spray can of surface spray (usually cockroach spray, but not sure if you have cockroaches there) - and leave it with a big stick on loveheart.

sheesh, i had a tenant once call the pm in a major panic because a spider had built a web right outside the laundry door.
 
It sounds flippant: But why would you own rental property if you don't like tanants?

Buy shares in a listed company and the management will go to extremes not to worry you. Mind you, I know well that ignorance is not necessarily bliss. :)
 
LOL! We had tenants move into a newly renovated house some years back. No only had it been reno'd, we had also fumigated too. There were NO creepy crawleys of any description. We just about lived at the place for a couple of weeks prior to them moving in, so we would have known if they were present.

Anyway, we get a call from the PM, just a couple of days after the tenants move in telling us that the tenants were complaining about all the cockroaches. She kinda had a chuckle when telling us, because she knew that it had been fumigated. Tenants continue to whinge.

PM tells tenants that the place had been fumigated and asks if it is possible that the cocky's were in their furniture and had moved in with them. All hell breaks loose because the tenants feel that the PM has just accused them of being dirty (they are recent immigrants from Europe & don't get cocky's). Poor PM had to explain that new furniture is sometimes stored at big warehouses & can sometimes get infested before arriving at it's new home.

End result, tenant bought bug spray & dealt with the infestation. BTW, I use the word infestation VERY loosely too. I believe there was less than a handful that she had to kill.:rolleyes:
 
It sounds flippant: But why would you own rental property if you don't like tanants?

Buy shares in a listed company and the management will go to extremes not to worry you. Mind you, I know well that ignorance is not necessarily bliss. :)

Most of the tenants we have, I do like. I even liked this woman when I met her.It's just they contact us instead of the supers who live upstairs from them (by email) stating we told them there weren't any bug problems.
Then again a few hours later (2 am from her email) stating she is freaking out from the bug problem.

There are no bugs for 30 days before they move in...they move in...and now there are 10 bugs. hmmmm

We will pay for a can of spray...and their grandad aka as the supers...will spray their apartment.:)

Actually I love our tenants..they will make us rich !!!!
 
Mum has the "princess" tenant which I have spoken about on another thread. I forgot until this bug post that one of the things she wanted, apart from some security grills in bedrooms, was fly screens :eek:. Why somebody would rent a house WITHOUT flyscreens and then expect the landlord to spend a couple of thousand installing them beats me.

Of course, the answer was "no" and we suggested she do what we do and buy a plug in.
 
Mum has the "princess" tenant which I have spoken about on another thread. I forgot until this bug post that one of the things she wanted, apart from some security grills in bedrooms, was fly screens :eek:. Why somebody would rent a house WITHOUT flyscreens and then expect the landlord to spend a couple of thousand installing them beats me.

Of course, the answer was "no" and we suggested she do what we do and buy a plug in.

Bugs are just a fact of life. I have bugs - and I'm neat and clean in the house (mostly). My tenants had problems with ants - I organised a pest spray of the block - they still had ants - I told them to buy some Antex. What more can you do? It amazes me the things that homeowners put up with, that tenants complain (endlessly) about!

Wylie, off topic (sorry Kathryn), are flyscreens not usual in QLD? I've never had a house with no screens, they are just 'normal' here.
 
Wylie, off topic (sorry Kathryn), are flyscreens not usual in QLD? I've never had a house with no screens, they are just 'normal' here.

I don't know the mix of screened and non-screened, but we live in an old suburb with Queenslanders. Most people I know don't have screens. I grew up with them and found it difficult at first, but would not have them now after living without them. They do stop the breezes (along with the bugs, of course), get dirty and I personally would not have them. It was a different story when I first met my husband and he convinced me to live without them in our first "together" house.

Of course, for newer suburbs and brick homes, the "amplimesh" type screen appears to come with the territory. A brick house with sliding aluminium windows would probably look silly without a fly screen, whereas a Queenslander (IMHO) looks silly WITH them.

I reckon it is horses for courses..... a bit like which side of the river you live on :D.... an argument that has no winner or "correct" answer. You either like flyscreens or you don't.
 
Ta Wylie. I wasn't thinking of older style / character houses. They probably don't use them on those here either.

When our friends were in NZ a year or so ago, they couldn't believe the lack of screens there. I don't know why they noticed particularly, but said they didn't see any the whole time they were in NZ - so I suppose I was wondering if QLD was the same and that they were just a WA thing.
 
When our friends were in NZ a year or so ago, they couldn't believe the lack of screens there. I don't know why they noticed particularly, but said they didn't see any the whole time they were in NZ - so I suppose I was wondering if QLD was the same and that they were just a WA thing.


Found the same when last in NZ, also found that they had big mosquitos.:eek:
 
All I can think of when this person emails is Dazz.


This is what we have Kathryn in our commercial leases to protect us for this particular issue :


7.6. Pest Control

The Tenant shall take reasonable precautions to establish, keep and maintain the Leased Premises free of cockroaches, insects, white ants, termites, rodents and other vermin and, if necessary, shall employ and pay the fees of professional pest controllers to eradicate the pests from the Leased Premises.


We obviously never get emails or whinges regarding this subject.



How come these whinging tenants can't spray their own apartment, without landlords being involved.

I think you know the answer to this already.

All residential laws in Australia, and probably where you are in Canada as well, strictly forbid you from putting such a clause in your Leases.

As Sunfish has already mentioned, it's all goes back to asset selection if you wish to avoid such a whinge.
 
Dazz,
Part of the package of tenants...agreed.

In our single family homes, even the grown men are scared to touch hornets nests.They watch in amazement when Rob wraps them in a plastic bag,pulls nest off the wall,and then sprays the interior of the bag.
Rob still doesn't have the fear, as he hasn't been stung yet.He only had native honeybees in Aus, which have no stings.

I have no fear of spiders, (will need to learn) as all of our spiders here are harmless.

Wylie & Minxdamanx,
Please feel free to continue off topic.
I actually like to watch a thread evolve to other topics/conversations. They can be quite informative.
 
Me too - it's just like a conversation - when did they ever stay on-topic? Good luck with your bugs!

Our supers were spraying their apartment today.
I asked our supers to remind the tenants they should contact them first about these minor things as they live in the building. We are 100 kms away.
 
7.6. Pest Control

The Tenant shall take reasonable precautions to establish, keep and maintain the Leased Premises free of cockroaches, insects, white ants, termites, rodents and other vermin and, if necessary, shall employ and pay the fees of professional pest controllers to eradicate the pests from the Leased Premises.

All residential laws in Australia, and probably where you are in Canada as well, strictly forbid you from putting such a clause in your Leases.

Are you sure this clause cannot be placed on a residential tenancy lease? I have a very similar clause on a resi lease which I thought to be in effect.
 
cockroaches

When I lived in my previous house I did not see one cockroach in five years then we moved house. When we opened the packing boxes at the new house there were cockroaches in the boxes. And I have had to buy cockroach baits from the supermarket to get rid of them.
So they either came from the removing companies warehouse, their supplied boxes or their truck.
:eek: :confused:

I did also used a fumigation cockroach bomb can from Bunnings as well.
 
We write in our leases that the pest control was done prior to their entry (by the outgoing tenants) and they are responsible for doing in on their exit.

This way, we don't have to outlay anything as each outgoing tenant does the pest control for the incoming tenant.
 
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