Reasonable Garden Upkeep

[Jimmyjamjars]

Hi Team,
I was just after your thoughts on the upkeep of gardens on your IP's. I'll fill you in on where I'm at. One of my properties is in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast, and I had a tenant (self managed) in there for several years who looked after inside OK but was a bit lapse in looking after the gardens. When he moved out (doing a runner), I spent several days bringing the garden up to scatch. I took photos of inside and out the day before we gave it to Property Managers to run. They got a tenant in there who broke the lease after 5 months due to a relationship break-up. The PM got a new tenant in straight away at no cost to me. This tenant has had a couple of blips come up at inspections for lawns not being mowed, gardens unkempt etc. After the last inspection, he made a comment to the PM that the vines growing down over the large rock retaining wall had gotten out of control. This wall is about 4 metres high and approximately 10 metres long. I didn't expect him to rectify this as the vines were quite predominant when he moved in there. I have been going there some afternoons and all day Saturday cutting and poisoning the vines while ripping them out. I have done 5 trailer loads to the dump so far and expect there to be about 4 more. However, while there, I got his permission to enter the back yard if I needed to. He wasn't home so I went round and photographed the gardens & lawn. Keeping in mind that an inspection was done around 7 weeks ago, with no mention of the back gardens being unsatisfactory, I am at a loss for answers. I have enclosed links to some photos of when the IP was handed to them compared to Saturday. I will be taking these photos to the PM on Tuesday and asking them to explain themselves, as there is NO way that these gardens were neat and tidy 7 weeks ago. My questions to you are:

1. Keeping mind that gardens DO grow over time and that it is unreasonable to bring them back to the level in the photos exactly, how much do you expect the tenant to do on them ?
2. What comments do you think I am entitled to say to the PM ?
Here is the link to the pictures:
HERE

JIM

 

[Tizzy]

Looks like you are perfectly within your rights to get the gardens brought up to scratch. Things must grow really well there!! Doesn't look like they use the outside areas. PM has charged you for doing the inspection and if they didn't tell the tenant to get the lawns into shape and clear up the dead brach debris then you are quite within your rights to ask why?

 

[The Y-man]

Well, the "now" photos do look quite....err.... lush shall we say?

As a tenant, I used to organize inspections at night (after work), so the agent couldn't see outside too well.

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[Oscar]

Hi JJJ,

I have very low expectations when it comes to tenants and gardens. Only one of my IP's is a "house" with garden. I pay a professional gardener to go in once per month and tidy up. They spend 3 hours mowing and left over time weeding. I find the tenants love this, I can charge a bit more rent and I never worry about tenants and garden maintenance. It costs me $75/month.

 

[Oscar]

that's $75/month, tax deductible...

 

[wylie]

Without seeing the very neat "before" photos, I think the "after" photos just look like they need a few hours of weeding and mowing to bring them up to scratch. I do agree that when viewed together you can see that they have done nothing. I would certainly put it to the tenants to either clear the grass from the garden or have them pay for someone to spend a couple of hours doing it. The other option is just to wait until they leave and use the photos to get the RTA to deduct some bond to pay for it.

We get around this with a 36 perch block by including the yard care in the rent. Over the past few years, this has been readily accepted because 36 perches is a big block of dirt to mow every fortnight in summer. We keep "gardens" to a minimum and just mulch, mulch, mulch what is there and have shrubs trimmed occasionally by the mower man.

Whilst the increase in rent doesn't really quite cover the yard care, we can claim it, and we live with the knowledge that the yard looks good. Keeps the neighbours happy, which is important to us.

Wylie

 

[landlubber]

JJJ,
We're in Melbourne and so Qld. may well be different, but here's our story.

We've been to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal down here on a similar case and the magistrate told us that, in general, with lawns/gardens tenants ARE expected to mow the lawn but ARE NOT expected to "prune or weed or trim". So getting you hands on bond money for garden cleanups is something we've never been able to do .


We now either (a) keep our renters with min garden / max lawn or (b) pay for a gardener ..which never seems to increase the rent by the same amount !!
I'd be interested to hear from others ... maybe we're too soft !

I think the best you can do is "rip it into your PM" and see what happens.

Keep us informed.
LL

 

[wish-ga]

I perhaps should not be posting since I do not own IPs with gardens but may I just put this out there?

If a gardener to do the lawns edges every 4-6 weeks (and trim/prune quarterly) is a tax deduction .... and it maintains the property's value (and that of neighbourhood) then might it be money well spent?

If you compare it to body corp fees on a unit you will still be shelling out less for a gardener on a home and seeing where it goes!

eg:
body corp fees on unit: $350-600 a quarter
gardener for freestanding home: $150 a quarter

gardener fee based on $30 to do lawns once per month + a bit extra for a quarterly clean up

I think on that basis I could justify it - even if including a garden maintenance levy in the rent/lease didn't cover the outlay for me as a landlord.

PS sorry you had such troubles, I took the time to look at the pix. Must be disheartening. But on the bright side there are things you can do to ensure it doesn't happen again.... maybe paying a gardener is like an insurance policy. You pay the money because it is worth it to allay the risks in NOT doing so???? Just another thought

 

[The Y-man]

As a landlord, I tend not to worry about the state of affairs while the tenants are in there. More interested when they leave - i.e. as long as the garden is basically back to the state it was when they moved in, I am not too hassled by what it looks like in between (as long as something isn't about to knock a fence or house over.....). Having said that, only 3 of our IP's have any garden to speak of.....

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[johnnyb]

Our ex-PPOR in Brisbane had a lot of palm trees and I was forever picking up the fallen fronds and cutting them up to try and dipose of them. Since renting it out as an IP we've never had any complaints from the tenants so I don't know what they're doing with them - I'll probably discover a huge pile in the corner of the yard next time I visit.

I think the lawns should definitely be kept a bit tidy, and your tenant has dropped the ball there, but not so sure about things like the palm fronds - maybe like to the vines which you are removing yourself, some things are just too much work for a tenant to bother with.

John.

 

[The Y-man]

Having said that, only 3 of our IP's have any garden to speak of.....

Cheers,

The Y-man

Just occured to me - one of them has a dog in it too - probably no weeds to worry about, and well fertilized?

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[wylie]

In Brisbane we cannot go past two weeks without mowing (except maybe in drought - like now) but in winter we can easily go two months. I figure the extra mowing in summer balances out the winter months.

Wylie

 

[wish-ga]

Just occured to me - one of them has a dog in it too - probably no weeds to worry about, and well fertilized?

Cheers,

The Y-man

Waste from carnivores, notoriously toxic in content and odour...

Workmate used to ask if we wanted any oranges off his yard tree? No takers? He used to tell us he fertilised it with dog pooh.... after it had gone white.... erm parg!