Notice of intention to declare property to be sub-standard

Again the lastest.

It has been about 4 or 5 weeks since I last posted. So the girl and guy moved out and a new tenant has moved in. The bathroom is completed and the inspector is to return to give the lastest about the letter. He has been playing hard to get. Waiting a week to return calls whereas before he replied straight away. We are claiming the full bond from both. We got his signature so no worries about his. We are awaiting her signature which we think is going to be harder. This is b/c the dad may tell the daughter to refuse to sign and so we will have to go through the tribunal to get the money. It has been absolute mayhem the whole ordeal and really makes me question why I'm doing this. Only the long term view helps me out. The job in the bathroom was ok. This is b/c the floor tiling I did doesn't run towards the drain so it is pooling in other spots. I will need to get a proper tiler in to complete the job. Another thought I have was getting an enclosed shower cubicle which would solve the problem as well. Getting back to the bond the agents who I think are money hungry will take their share from the $320 we got from the boy. The girls money as I said we might not see. That means really I will walk away with very little.
 
I'm not sure about other states, but in Queensland recently we claimed some bond money for unpaid rent for the last few days of tenancy and the water bill. We filled in the bond return form stating what we were owed, what the two remaining tenants were entitled to and sent it in with only my signature.

The RTA sends a letter to the other two and if they don't dispute it, simply distributes the money as per the form I sent in, which is what happened.

I don't understand why the agent could take any of the bond money?
 
Confident the saga has ended.

Here is the snapshot of what has happened, hopefully you learn something from it and I really hope noone has to deal with these tenants, the dad is a monster.
Dec 09 get a letter from Housing SA stating the intention to declare the house substandand.
Over Christmas, New Years and subsequent months work through the list and repair everything. Gutted whole bathroom out and replace new drain, shower and tile everything. Cost around $4000
Order removed in May 2010
In the meantime the tenants boyfriend/girlfriend combo have a split and it gets nasty between them.
Meanwhile the dad steps in against me and decides to take me to the tribunal on two occasions. Firstly he won't let the daughter release the bond. Tribunal overturns this decision and the money is released.
On the second occasion the dad again wants to go the tribunal this time he wants compo for daddy's little girl claiming there was no toilet and no shower for certain periods of time. When the repairs were being done (which he had instigated with Housing SA) we had to take those things out and in strict agreement with the tenants they said in no uncertain terms they will make their own way. I did provide a portable toilet and shower after a couple of days and understanding how long it would take. I admitted to the tribunal they didn't have these things for some time. But that was only b/c they agreed to it. The tribunal will grant them compensation yet to be decided. Very ugly situation. That means you should go against your tenants wishes. What did I learn from it? Know the law. The tribunal member said even if I got written permission that they were happy not to have a toilet and shower it would not be suffice. BTW to photos are useless the tribunal member just says you could have photoshop them. In many ways it was in the tenants favour. This is b/c they relied on all my facts and receipts etc. Their word was good enough and the landlord has to have everything documented. Also when I was being brought to the tribunal you don't have a clear idea as to what they are claiming against you. I read through the tenants statatory declaration and it was very confusing. Had no idea what the claims were against me. Finally the tenant didn't even come to the tribunal the dad did. I found this wrong b/c the agreement was made with the daughter and boyfriend and she like a spoilt brat didn't accept her responsibility. She made the agreement she should have appeared at the tribunal. I look forward to brighter days ahead. Please do yourself a favour and be very discerning who you put in your houses. Take care Happy investing.
 
I have dubious tenants in my house and there's one or two things they could probably raise with the HIA mob but their rent is very low and they like the house and besides being rather dirty they are looking after it, so I think I'll ok there.

How was the HIA inspector to deal with? We are quite close to finishing up this house and need it reassessed with a view to either sell or rent it at the end of the year. I'm a bit concerned we won't get the order off, we had a 3 page list of items and once the weather is warm and we finish the bathroom and laundry the only remaining item will be salt damp, which is so common in 110 year old stone houses it is virtually a standard feature. I'm hoping they'll lift the order even *with* the salt damp, it is only along part of the bottom of one wall in a bedroom and is quite minor.
 
wow resi property in S.A sounds really really ****.

How funnys that they sign the lease accepting the condition, as soon as thats done, apply to have rent reduced by like 70% sounds like a free ride to me

Regards,

RH
 
Best wishes with your inspection.

The Housing SA Inspector I dealt with was Michael Taverna. He was sympathic to the tenants initially. With him they would just point out all the so called problems like defective door locks etc. But once the tenants moved out then he was more easier to deal with. Once he saw I had made a fair effort to getting the house up to scratch he just walked through ticked all that had been done. Let me off the bathroom which apparently needed a power point. Moisture in the bathroom was the big thing. He got his moisture meter out put it up against the exterior wall it beeped and then said Oh that's just residue, it will subside soon enough. And continued the inspection. Best wishes with yours.
 
The tribunal member said even if I got written permission that they were happy not to have a toilet and shower it would not be suffice.
Pity you didn't ask us about this one; I could've warned you about that one. ;)

It's analogous to "duty of care". It's not possible to write off a duty of care, which is why most waivers aren't worth much.

Anyway, I'm glad the saga is ending and wish you well on the continuing journey. Hope the compensation for the period without a shower and toilet isn't too high; I wouldn't be surprised if they get free rent for that time, but it sounds like it was only a day or two so no biggie.
 
wow resi property in S.A sounds really really ****.

How funnys that they sign the lease accepting the condition, as soon as thats done, apply to have rent reduced by like 70% sounds like a free ride to me

Regards,

RH

Your comments are spot on. As LL's we offer a product 'as is' and the price is set by the market. Can't afford a top property, rent something cheaper. I understand that we don't want slums but reducing rent because there is no power point in the bathroom. :confused:

Seriously these people need to get real. Who wants to invest in a place where the government dictates your ROI? Surely in the end the number of properties available for rent will reduce and the cost for tenants increase accordingly.

Andrew
 
Best wishes with yours.
Ah, that doesn't sound too bad. My first house was a very run down HIA too and they ticked everything off except the laundry ceiling being too low - it was a lean-to and if you were over about 5'6" you'd crack your head on the back edge. This was 10 years ago though.

My house was previously owned by a drug addict who rented the house out for $300 a week to some mates. The house was in a bad state to start with, the 'mates' trashed it considerably more before reporting it to Housing SA who reduced the rent to $60pw, the bank repossessed it and did the basics (removed stinky carpet, replaced broken windows, removed several truckloads of rubbish), a neighbour down the road went through the house and yard with a fine tooth comb and removed all the syringes, and here we are today with the cheapest house in the town and not a syringe in sight :)

It hasn't been a rental for about 3 years, if Housing SA has any idea of the history of the place they'll probably be impressed. Did they have photos to compare to or just the written order?

Ridin-High: the worst thing in SA is what I described - tenants who actively trash the house and THEN demand a massive rent reduction. The 'mates' who were in this house were serial house trashers, the REA we bought the place from had a file of photos from the last 6 properties they trashed and then brought a HIA order on.
 
Hi, I had 2 nasty tenants. If I count the nasty commercial one, then 3.

But Housing Trust SA is in the poo as well. They've sold so many of their properties they can't find enough to rent to their tenants.

So increase the rent, put the bad tenants on the blacklist.

Thr tribunal is not as sympathetic to whinging tenants as before. My badhat tenants never attended the hearing & I was awarded the bond(s) without any fuss. The magistrates are also quite knowing about bad tenants now.

I suppose the better thing to have done in this case was to give them notice to vacate so that reno could be done.

KY
 
Thanks for everyones comments

Last week I received the tribunal members final hearing comments from the second hearing. I wasn't impressed with the opportunity I got to present my side at the hearing and so left the report unread for a few days. With a deep breathe I read it last night carefully. On the whole I am very happy with the outcome. That's right very happy. I don't believe the tenants walk away laughing and I know I don't either. There were three claims for compensation that this hearing consisted of. The first was the general condition of the house. They said we want money b/c it affected our living there. Tribunal member (TM) ruled it didn't affect your living there so no compensation granted. Second claim we didn't have a toilet for 2 weeks we want money. TM said if it was so bad why didn't you make this claim two years ago when it happened and the landlord gave you a sufficient toilet anyway for you to use. If you don't use that that's your fault. No compensation granted. Finally no shower for 1 week we want money. In this claim I agreed that they didn't have a shower for 2 days and they were happy about that. The TM granted them $200 for this claim. Saying that I should have provided a shower from day one. Fair enough. From the money owing to me $100 is split between the two tenants. The father of the girl as you know was the big claimer pushing this whole saga. I really hope it has ended. As far as I am concerned I did my best with the whole situation. Keeping peace, knowing the rules and always looking ahead helped me survive. I am looking for house no.4 now.
 
Great result. I know there are stories about the the tribunal being in favour of the tenants, and I don't doubt that this may often be the case, but the time my mother took tenants to tribunal and the time she was taken by tenants, the tenants lost out.

So I have every faith in them (until there may come a time when I change my mind if things go against me :)).

I know the time I attended with my parents, the tenants were rude to the "judge", rude to us and they got about $12 back from their bond. Mum got the rest, which was a fair call.

So, great outcome for you.
 
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