Hi all,
I am new to this forum and was hoping to get some opinions or advice. Please bear with me as this is a long post.
My husband and I have an IP which was tenanted out 6 months ago and managed by a PM who came recommended (not from this forum though). Being first time investors we did not know what to expect - however we got the property tenanted without much hassle. The PM assured us all the necessary reference checks and TICA checks were performed on the tenant, and highly recommended we take this tenant on. The lease agreement was signed for 12 months, and everything was fine.
The tenant missed the December rent, and we noticed this because no payment was made to our bank account for that month. Unfortunately our payment cycle fell right in the middle of the Christmas shutdown period, so we could not contact the PM.
We contacted the PM the first day their office opened in January and notified them of the missed rent. PM said they would get back to me.
Despite repeated calls and emails the PM did not respond with any update on the missed rent. During this time the January rent was also missed. In mid January the PM said that the rent would be 'paid soon', as the tenant had written a cheque. Still no payment arrived for both Dec and Jan, and we were informed by the PM later that the cheque had bounced.
Finally at the end of January the PM decided to proceed with notice to evict, however this was just communicated to us verbally. At this stage we had enough of the PM's unresponsiveness (not just with the rent issue, but with other things that we asked them to do over the last 6 months) so we decided to let them go and we found a new PM. New PM took over from February.
This is where things get interesting. Old PM says they have filed for a VCAT hearing to evict the tenant. New PM contacts the old PM to ask for the file containing all documents relating to the tenancy of our IP, and offers to pick it up personally. Old PM says not to worry, the file has been sent to the new PM. The file never arrived. Old PM decides not to wait any longer for the file and decides to pay a visit to the property under the guise of performing the twice-yearly inspection (bear in mind that the property has not been inspected since it was tenanted as the tenancy was not up to 6 months yet).
The new PM paid a visit to the property and was greeted by a lady who claimed she was not the tenant. The lady very reluctantly granted access to the property. Upon inspection the new PM found the property empty as if it was abandoned. There were holes in the walls and ceilings which looked like it was done for ventilation. There were other people besides the lady in the house, who were doing some repair work to the damaged walls. Apparently these people were engaged by the old PM to do all repairs, we're not sure why as by this time the old PM should have had nothing to do with our property.
New PM smells something fishy and decides to call the police to investigate. The police advised that they can only observe the property. To enter the property they will require a warrant to enter the property, but there were certain conditions that must be fulfilled to get a warrant, and we didn't meet those conditions.
We have had the property declared abandoned today, and also found out that the old PM only filed the notice to vacate this morning (1 month after they said they had). We have not been successful in contacting the tenant. Our next course of action will be getting the police to investigate the place to ensure that there is nothing illicit in the property and that we are cleared of any illicit activities that may have taken place in the property while it was tenanted out (this is a precaution we are taking).
Our insurance should cover the damage bill and loss of rent, however I was wondering if we can take any sort of legal action against the old PM and/or the tenant? Also is there anything we should be doing prior to re-letting the property?
Thanks for reading,
Swan Queen
I am new to this forum and was hoping to get some opinions or advice. Please bear with me as this is a long post.
My husband and I have an IP which was tenanted out 6 months ago and managed by a PM who came recommended (not from this forum though). Being first time investors we did not know what to expect - however we got the property tenanted without much hassle. The PM assured us all the necessary reference checks and TICA checks were performed on the tenant, and highly recommended we take this tenant on. The lease agreement was signed for 12 months, and everything was fine.
The tenant missed the December rent, and we noticed this because no payment was made to our bank account for that month. Unfortunately our payment cycle fell right in the middle of the Christmas shutdown period, so we could not contact the PM.
We contacted the PM the first day their office opened in January and notified them of the missed rent. PM said they would get back to me.
Despite repeated calls and emails the PM did not respond with any update on the missed rent. During this time the January rent was also missed. In mid January the PM said that the rent would be 'paid soon', as the tenant had written a cheque. Still no payment arrived for both Dec and Jan, and we were informed by the PM later that the cheque had bounced.
Finally at the end of January the PM decided to proceed with notice to evict, however this was just communicated to us verbally. At this stage we had enough of the PM's unresponsiveness (not just with the rent issue, but with other things that we asked them to do over the last 6 months) so we decided to let them go and we found a new PM. New PM took over from February.
This is where things get interesting. Old PM says they have filed for a VCAT hearing to evict the tenant. New PM contacts the old PM to ask for the file containing all documents relating to the tenancy of our IP, and offers to pick it up personally. Old PM says not to worry, the file has been sent to the new PM. The file never arrived. Old PM decides not to wait any longer for the file and decides to pay a visit to the property under the guise of performing the twice-yearly inspection (bear in mind that the property has not been inspected since it was tenanted as the tenancy was not up to 6 months yet).
The new PM paid a visit to the property and was greeted by a lady who claimed she was not the tenant. The lady very reluctantly granted access to the property. Upon inspection the new PM found the property empty as if it was abandoned. There were holes in the walls and ceilings which looked like it was done for ventilation. There were other people besides the lady in the house, who were doing some repair work to the damaged walls. Apparently these people were engaged by the old PM to do all repairs, we're not sure why as by this time the old PM should have had nothing to do with our property.
New PM smells something fishy and decides to call the police to investigate. The police advised that they can only observe the property. To enter the property they will require a warrant to enter the property, but there were certain conditions that must be fulfilled to get a warrant, and we didn't meet those conditions.
We have had the property declared abandoned today, and also found out that the old PM only filed the notice to vacate this morning (1 month after they said they had). We have not been successful in contacting the tenant. Our next course of action will be getting the police to investigate the place to ensure that there is nothing illicit in the property and that we are cleared of any illicit activities that may have taken place in the property while it was tenanted out (this is a precaution we are taking).
Our insurance should cover the damage bill and loss of rent, however I was wondering if we can take any sort of legal action against the old PM and/or the tenant? Also is there anything we should be doing prior to re-letting the property?
Thanks for reading,
Swan Queen
