Poor Property Management

[argentina]

Just interested to know what others make off this scenario.

Mid October- I instructed our property manager to give notice to our tenant to leave at the end of the lease 29th November.

6th November - I telephoned property manager to ask if everything was on track. I was told by the property manager that the tenant moved out on 30th October to another property. I was told that we cannot expect the tenant to pay rent in two different houses ! And that because we had issued a notice to vacate at end of lease she could leave at any time before that and not be liable for the rent.

I suspected this information to be totally incorrect and liaised with the Office of Fair Trading NSW (Tenancies). I was advised that we could put in a claim for the bond money to make up the loss of rent to the end of the lease. In fairness to the tenant we decided to only claim 2 weeks rent.

A week or so after this we were alerted to some minor property damage which appeared to be vandalism. Police were called in to investigate and as a consequence they spoke to both the property manager and the tenant about the damage. It was clear the tenant was not involved in any of the damage, however, some time later we heard through business acquaintance that the tenant had been trying to get our phone number. She thought the bond money was being claimed because of the damage.

I contacted the property manager via email and asked her to clarify the situation with the tenant so that she was made fully aware of why the bond was being claimed. However, today I have found out the tenant has disputed the claim and the property manager did not pass on the message to her as per our email.

The property manager said
"it's got nothing to do with us. Once we do final inspection on the property, we sign off on the bond and that's where our obligations end".

Obviously this will all get sorted through the tribunal but I have found the property managers attitude to be appalling.

 

[Scott No Mates]

Arge, as far as I know the tenant is liable for rent for the entire fixed period as they have agreed to pay for the term. See the extract from the lease:

Ending a fixed term agreement
If this agreement is a fixed term agreement it may be ended by the
landlord or the tenant by giving written notice of termination. The
notice may be given at any time up until the end of the fixed term
but cannot take effect until the term ends. The landlord must give at
least 30 days notice and the tenant must give at least 14 days
notice.

The essential thing to note is that the notice does not take effect until the term ends, so if the agent gave the requisite 30 days notice it would not take effect until the 29th November (regardless of the date of notice provided it was given in October). The tenant cannot simply vacate just because you have given notice. You have already buckled and accepted less than the 4 weeks rent to be taken from the bond.

The agent's obligations do not finish with the release of the bond, it finishes with the settlement of any outstanding dispute eg tribunal claims.

 

[argentina]

Thanks Scott. You pretty much echoed my thinking. I am considering lodging a complaint in respect to the property managers actions (or rather, non-actions). I personally believe that the property manager mis-informed the tenant. Of course the tenant needs to understand the legislation for herself but the property manager has taken little, if any responsibility for their part in all of this. Since the tenant moved out I have received no formal letter advising the termination of the lease, no formal letter advising termination of our property management agreement and no final property inspection report.

This would appear a totally inappropriate way to run a business and I should add that they are a reputable well-known firm.

Thanks again for your comments. much appreciated.