Landlord Paying the tenant

[DaleGG]

Hi

Yes, that is right. As a landlord, I have recently paid my tenant in my WA IP one weeks rent because the property manager took too long to install a new oven which meant that my tenants went without an oven for a whole week.

Why?

To restore goodwill and show the tenant that I care about them enjoying the use of the property; to protect the value of my investment by having good tenants who will do the right thing by me; and, to show the property manager that there behaviour is reprehensible and will not be tolerated.

So, what sort of things have you done to reward your tenants and protect the value of your investment?

Dale

 

[GoAnna!]

Cinema tickets while renovating adjoining apartments.

Will send Christmas hampers to tenants this year to thank them for putting up with huge building works (lotsa noise) and having to park in the street all year!

Usual "present" to great long term tenants is allowing rent to be a little below market.

 

[wylie]

For the house we contracted to buy at the start of November 2005, we ordered a new stand alone stainless steel cooker. We got permission to renovate prior to settlement. Ordered the cooker early November. Settled 1 December, finished renovation Christmas Eve and rented it on Boxing Day. Cooker held up on the wharves and didn't arrive until mid February. Our tenants had no cooker for about six weeks. We took $60 per week off the rent but these young men didn't really care because they didn't cook!!

They have moved on and we have a family in. If that family had moved in originally we would have had real problems. We got the cooker at a fantastic price and wanted to wait for it but we would have had to pay an extra $1,000 to get a different model if those young men had kicked up a fuss.

Reducing their rent was worth it. Even though they weren't fazed, I was mortified that they had nothing to cook on, even if they wanted to.

Wylie

 

[ok180]

I gave mine a rent increase.

 

[babushka]

This year we had to give our tenants 2 weeks rent free because both bathrooms (ensuite and full) had water damage and the builder / developer was not cooperating in fixing it in accordance with the tenants' time table. It took more than 2 weeks to fix both bathrooms one at a time so tenants could use one while the other was being fixed. There were a lot of negotiations by myself and tenants with the project manager from the builder / developer. The property manager was pretty useless. She was just waiting for my instructions at every step. Sometimes I wondered why I had a property manager.

 

[Strannik]

we had a dishwasher and a garage gate broken for about 3 months until we have sent the notice to remedy breach. until then PM didn't wanna fix it.
Now we have a stove broken, but we just can be bothered asking them to fix it cause we are moving out soon.

 

[Milan]

Dale

Did you penalise the property manager?

M

 

[Xenia]

Good on you Dale, that attitude will get you EVERYWHERE!!!!

A good solid foundation of ethics and morals and a "people before profits" attitude will mean that you will always be successful in whatever you do.

We also run our businesses by the exact same rules and it's funny how profits accumulate when you are not focused on money but rather in providing the best service you can. I honestly believe that honesty and integrity is the key to success in any business (and anywhere!).

I would not have punished the pm (to me that's just being petty), I would have been more focused on a lesson being learned. The pm giving you a better service next time because of a better communication now is worth more than re-embersing the one weeks rent!!!

 

[DaleGG]

Hi M

No, not at all. They know that we are disappointed with them for what has happened but that is all that is necessary. The whole thing has cost them a little in reputation and respect from the tenant and myself and tI think that hurts more than anything else.

More importantly though. we have made it clear to the PM that we want the tenant looked after and the property properly managed, not just rented.

A weeks rent is only a couple of hundred dollars ($220 in fact) but the property is worth about $350k and I know which number I would prefer to protect.

Have fun

Dale


ps Thanks, too, for the other suggestions and comments guys. It is great to see.

Dale

Did you penalise the property manager?

M

 

[Sultan of Swing]

The property manager was pretty useless. She was just waiting for my instructions at every step. Sometimes I wondered why I had a property manager.

Hi Babushka

Could you explain to us regarding what sort of things she was waiting for your instructions for?

I'm not in the PM department but I've seen enough in the last 14 or so years to know that landlords are a diverse and sometimes fickle bunch.

Or company has a limit on how much we can spend, ($200 I think) without having to refer to the owner. Anything major and we need their instructions. You'd be surprised at how many landlords don't want to fix problems or can't afford to fix problems even when they're quite serious.

In the situation you've described, imagine if the PM went ahead and ordered a lot of work be done and then the owner bucked and screamed because it cost more then they'd allowed for and then refused to pay.

From what I've seen, PM's ahve one of the worst jobs ever. They're always the meat in the sandwich. On one side you have owners breathing down your neck and then the other side you have tenants you need to deal with with all matter of problems and requests. When you have repairs to do you have a bunch of tradies you're at the mercy of. They say they'll be there today and don't turn up for 2 - 10 days, which in turn gets more interesting reactions from tenants and landlords alike.

There's been many a time I've thought to myself, 'There's no way in the world I'd want to get involved in property management.' It's one of the most thankless jobs going.

My 2 cents.

 

[redwing]

We've given our tenants double pass Movie Tickets for Christmas and have reduced the rent on occasion if there has been a pro-longed situation such as Dale described, however, if its just a one day event (i.e Hot water system blows up Monday night and we can't replace until Tuesday Afternoon; which happened the other week) then we just advise the PM to let the tenant know the problem is being sorted by replacing the system and getting a new one and give them an expected time of completion.


I put myself in thier shoes and treat them as I would want to be treated if there was a problem with something I was hiring.

 

[sailor]

After Cyclone Larry, our tenants had to move out of the property. Also there was no water and no electricity after the cyclone. We brought down a gas BBQ (loaner), boxes of bottled water, bread, fresh fruit and salad veges. We advised our tenants they would have to move out....and refunded all monies paid in advance WEF date of cyclone. Also gave them their entire bond back. Gave them the health talk about tetanus shots, and provided them with all the details of Govt relief for cyclone victims. In conjuction with PM, helped them find alternative accomm, and helped them pack up.

This year we've also had much tenant interruption (in another block) from repairing and painting stairs and bannisters. They'll be getting a pressie from the body corp this Xmas for their inconvenience.

Cheers
Sharon

 

[babushka]

Hi Babushka

Could you explain to us regarding what sort of things she was waiting for your instructions for?

I'm not in the PM department but I've seen enough in the last 14 or so years to know that landlords are a diverse and sometimes fickle bunch.

Or company has a limit on how much we can spend, ($200 I think) without having to refer to the owner. Anything major and we need their instructions. You'd be surprised at how many landlords don't want to fix problems or can't afford to fix problems even when they're quite serious.

In the situation you've described, imagine if the PM went ahead and ordered a lot of work be done and then the owner bucked and screamed because it cost more then they'd allowed for and then refused to pay.

From what I've seen, PM's ahve one of the worst jobs ever. They're always the meat in the sandwich. On one side you have owners breathing down your neck and then the other side you have tenants you need to deal with with all matter of problems and requests. When you have repairs to do you have a bunch of tradies you're at the mercy of. They say they'll be there today and don't turn up for 2 - 10 days, which in turn gets more interesting reactions from tenants and landlords alike.

There's been many a time I've thought to myself, 'There's no way in the world I'd want to get involved in property management.' It's one of the most thankless jobs going.

My 2 cents.

Hi Sultan of Swing

Agree with you that property management is probably one of the worst jobs to have when you are the meat in the sandwich between demanding tenants and uncaring landlords.

In our case, the builder/developer agreed to repair the 2 bathrooms for no-cost to us as they are still under the 7-year building warranty. The PM advised me the water problems noticed by the tenants. I negotiated with the builder to undertake the work. I had to make numerous appointments with the tenants for the builder to inspect the problems before fixing - because the PM said she was too busy to wait around for the builder and the office was always short of staff. Since I have a PM I prefer for the PM to deal with the tenants instead of me. But in this case I had to write many emails to the both the builder and the tenants (and copy all to the PM to keep her in the loop) to spell out what had to be done, when to do it and how long it would take (to minimise the inconvenience to the tenants). I asked the PM to organise the access times with the tenants for the tradesmen but she botched it up by upsetting the tenants (not sure how - different versions from her and from the tenants) and they spat the dummy and demanded rent free while the work was being undertaken. To pacify them, we gave them 2 weeks rent free. Throughout the fix-up job, the PM did not want to get involved with the process and only dealt with the tenants when I specifically asked her to do something. She would not speak to the builder. She has now left the agency!

This was in contrast to another PM from a different agency we had a few years ago. There was a big plumbing caused by the tenants and that PM advised us of the problem and undertook upon herself to deal directly with the builder to fix it. She knew what to do and how to do it.

As a landlord, we are very reasonable to our tenants. Any problem advised by the PM got given the OK to get it fixed pretty well straightaway. We don't want to be a slump-lord. We do take care of our properties, and demand our PMs to be pro-active in managing both our properties and tenants, and not just collecting the rent.

 

[Sultan of Swing]

Thanks for responding Babushka.

It sounds like you have good reason to be upset. I hope it all works out for you.

Cheers

 

[Dazz]

We've had a fairly mixed bag of circumstances regarding this subject over the past two years.

One of our corporate tenants moved into one of our warehouses that had been badly damaged by the ex-tenant driving his truck into the wall delibrately and smashing the two external A/C units, which tore off half the wall.....nice some folks as they leave. As part of the 6 year lease negotiations, we agreed to fund the repairs up to $ 12,000 give them the cash and then they'd restore / repair / put in whatever level of finish they wanted, spending 12K as a minimum. That was Sept last year and they still haven't touched it.....banked the money mind you, but not spent the money on fixing it up....got a signed guarantee they'd do it before the year's end....so we'll see.

Another tenant just recently we offered to pay to clean up about 15 tonnes of rubbish left by a loser of a tenant, but the tenant was so keen to get in there and control the whole property, which he already had 5/6ths of, just hooked in and did it himself. Having huge bins and forklifts and FEL's himself it was no problem. He's spent $ 150,000 doing up our property over the past 7 months now, so he's at the other end of the spectrum. Mental note - gotta do more property business with him.

 

[babushka]

We've had a fairly mixed bag of circumstances regarding this subject over the past two years.

Another tenant just recently we offered to pay to clean up about 15 tonnes of rubbish left by a loser of a tenant, but the tenant was so keen to get in there and control the whole property, which he already had 5/6ths of, just hooked in and did it himself. Having huge bins and forklifts and FEL's himself it was no problem. He's spent $ 150,000 doing up our property over the past 7 months now, so he's at the other end of the spectrum. Mental note - gotta do more property business with him.

Lucky you, Dazzling, to have such a wonderful tenant! We are living next to some feral tenants at the moment. They don't put rubbish (mainly garden) in the bin for weekly collection. Instead, they stack it against our fence!

 

[ozi]

Good on you Dale!

Recently I had to replace the curtain drapes in 2 of the bedrooms for my IP. The tenant has been living there for 11 years now, so I thought it would only be appropriate that she chose the colours/material. This probably cost me a bit more than if I just put up any old curtains, but it gives the tenant that feel of ownership. I know she will look after the place, so I don't mind.

Regards,
Ozi