Maintenance. How much do you do yourself ?

Hi all. I have spent more time at the IP fixing stuff than I have at home the last few weeks. Lots of niggly little things. Couple of handles on internal doors broke, pool cover (tenants not using pool) needed replacing, fly wire screens just plane fell apart, guttering at back of place fell off in last down pour, security doors needed new handles, back security door needed to be re hung and last but not least me spending 4 hours in the roof cavity (about 50 degrees up there) re wiring the coax cable for the TV's !

I suppose I am lucky as I can do most of it myself having designed and built my own house from scratch. It also helps that my IP is 1.2 km away ! It saves a heap of money on tradies which in this town I would be more likely to win tatts than get a tradie !

I have a couple of questions :-
How much work do people do themselves ?
Is it possible for me to claim some of my time on doing this work ?
Can I claim any depreciation on my tools when using them at the IP, drills, saws, angle grinders etc. ?

Thanks.
Chris.
 
I do the odd small jobs myself. All of my IPs are in Melbourne so they're reasonably accessable. If it's a job I don't think I can handle, the agent takes care of it.

The main reason I do the small stuff is not to save money, but so I can have a quick and impromptu inspection of the property.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

PT-Bear.
Good point. I suppose I am doing the same but everyone has heard about the tenants from hell, well I have the tenants from heaven. That is why I am probably keen to do the jobs as they really nice people and are looking after the place.

TPFKAD.
Wow. Those are some large figures there ! No offense but those figures make me feel a whole lot better about the money I have out laid in the last couple of weeks !

Chris.
 
Commercial v's Resi leases

..................TPFKAD.
Wow. Those are some large figures there ! No offense but those figures make me feel a whole lot better about the money I have out laid in the last couple of weeks !

Chris.

However, it was TPFKAD's tenant(s) that got to foot the bill. :D

It's all in the wording of the leases and the responsibilities of the tenant. We are not talking straight resi tenancies here ;)

The post highlights the difference b/w the landlord requirments of two different asset classes and the state tenancy laws so heavily skewed to the resi tenant.
 
Do you find that when you spend the time doing the maintenance work, that it is harder to claim your time & effort for tax?

Wishing you every success,
Ana Stankovic
 
Do you find that when you spend the time doing the maintenance work, that it is harder to claim your time & effort for tax?

It honestly doesn't take that long to fix the door knobs for the Tenants. We're happy to do the work for free to make their life a little more comfortable. It's all just part of the friendly service.
 
One of my tennants has been a bit slack in the yard area.( done nothing in over 6 months). To help make it easier I have organized three trees to be removed at great expense and I spent three days with a labourer cleaning the place up 100%. this is far beyond what I should do as the grass section is small and and paths just need a sweep. So I guess I go too far.
 
Over 30 years of having an IP we have done various amounts of work to bring them back up to scratch after long term tenants. We have done probably 40 small/medium renovations over that time, sometimes just painting, sometimes ripping out kitchens/bathrooms/walls.

Each time we have done so willingly. Hubby loves wielding a sledge hammer as a welcome change from wielding a pen and our kids were renovating almost before they could walk.

Doing things ourselves has saved us thousands and thousands of dollars, is easy and some of my best memories are Mum and Dad, my brother and I and our boys all sitting around on paint tins having smoko and talking. We pull together as a family while we do stuff like this, and it is only the past few years that my boys have lost interest in doing more reno work. To be honest, at nearly 50 I also am a bit over it, so we will probably pay someone to paint from here on, unless it is a quick, easy job.

Hubby, just about to turn 51, is seriously thinking of "retiring" from his pen pushing job and taking up the looking after of our IPs plus those of my parents. We might dabble in developing our double block, or paying someone to oversee it.

We have two houses vacant now, one rented from today. We had to do nothing (except hubby had to fix the shower rail back to the wall when the screws fell out).

We had a plumber install a brand new under the house toilet because the original one was leaking and was so "original" that the tenants refused to use it. Apart from those things, it was pretty much one tenant out, next tenant straight in, as it was left in pristine condition.

Second house now being advertised was left clean (professional cleaners paid for by tenant as he was out of Brisbane for work). Tenants were three young folk, and the house was always a mess, but it was their stuff. The house was left ready to rent straight away.

Last chap leaving left a bit of rubbish under the house but we told him to leave it and we would take it to the dump when we took some of our own stuff that was stored on the dirt under the house. If he had been a smartar$e we would have made him take it or take it from the bond, but, like you said, sometimes it is okay to help others out.

This is a long ramble, but basically, we do as much or as little as we want to. Some people hate painting, renovating etc, but we enjoy it, so whilst we will probably outsource more than we ever have before, there is no way we will not be continuing to do whatever we want/can, not to save money (though that is a bonus) but because we enjoy it.
 
We've had nothing break yet (the house has only been rented out for 2 months) but if/when something does, we'll be doing it ourselves if we can. The house has new everything from top to bottom though so fingers crossed it all holds until the tenants run off.
 
Thanks for the replies.

For those that do the work themselves, do you claim some depreciation on your tools that you use ?

Is it possible to claim some of your time as well ?

Chris.
 
Thanks for the replies.

For those that do the work themselves, do you claim some depreciation on your tools that you use ?

Is it possible to claim some of your time as well ?

Chris.

I do not claim the time, but the tools for the job in the IP. Often the cost of the tools are insignificant compared to calling for a tradie to do the job. Most time the cost is less than $300 and can be written off. Cannot claim on the time unless you have a separate company with ABN to issue a tax invoice, but then you will also have to declare the income in your tax returns. A lot of paperwork, so unless the job is large just let the ATO win on the unclaimed freebie labour used in the IP. :)
 
I would do everything I could myself but as I will be overseas soon I will have to use the PM's handyman I guess . But that worries me as when I rented the handyman was pretty useless and charged hundreds per hour to fix something in a few minutes for my old landlord.
 
To claim depreciation on the tools, they need to be left at the rental property and theoretically able to be used by the tenant. Depreciation is compensation for wear and tear on an income producing asset. If the tools are kept at home, they're not really earning an income.
 
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