Tenant end of lease difficulties

Hi guys,

I'm after some opinions on an exiting tenant situation that my PM is trying to manage.

Due to a number of issues with a tenant in a townhouse of mine, primarily a large series of domestics/noise complaints and more recently some late rent resulting in a couple of breaches, we opted to ask them to vacate at the end of their lease period which expired 21-August. The notice to vacate at the end of lease given by our PMs at whatever the 60+ day requirement is in QLD.

With about 2-weeks to go the tenant contacted the PM asking for a 'couple of week' extension to vacate due to caring for an sick and elderly parent interstate that had delayed her hunt for a new place. When the PM passed the request on to us I said if they didn't think it would cause issues we would grant an extension on compassionate grounds as long as I had a specific date agreed before the lease expired.

Fast forward a few weeks, the vacate date has now passed by a few days despite my few additional requests to the PM to confirm a date. There has been a series of cancelled meetings with the PM by the tenant and my request of only allowing additional time if I had been provided a specific date has not been met.

I'd also made an interstate trip up to inspect the place and perform any minor maintenance required - originally expecting this to be in a vacant property, but the tenant had agreed to the written request to allow access. When we turned up today, despite the tenant agreeing to a time with the PM to be on-site to allow access, she was not around and the PM did not have any keys that would work (this was identified in Dec-13 but the PM seems to have dropped the ball and let the request for additional keys to be cut slip) so we couldn't gain entry.

To top it off a few days ago the tenant rings up the PM saying she's fallen off the balcony and is having X-rays and wants to talk about it. The "balcony" is not much more than a slightly raised small deck at the back door, less than 1m, that has never had railings. We're not quite sure what she's trying to pull with this.

So..

Now the PM is telling me that because she was not out by the vacate date, it may take 2-months to force her out because a period lease is applied. Is this really the case? We had a formalised vacate date, with a request for an extension but nothing formalised.

The PM has just told the tenant today in an email that if we don't have an agreed date to vacate this week that they will start court proceedings.

The advertising process had started a few weeks ago and we do have replacement tenants lined up but that seems in limbo currently. The one positive is that the tenant we are trying to vacate is still up to date with rent I'm told.

Any thoughts would be appreciated on what my options might be. I do feel that the PMs may have let me down here.

Cheers,
jroth
 
Proceed to evict asap. The vacancy date has passed. Nothing to negotiate. You were agreeable but aren't now. Get a nasty hard **** lawyer to assist. Will save you a fortune.

Good lawyer will seek proof of these illness issues and try to prove they are lies and argue that injury claim is also a lie. You get where this is going ?

Got LL insurance ??? Kinda wish you did now ?

Typical soft PM. They don't want to upset anyone.
 
You mentioned it is a townhouse. Owners Corp will have building insurance in place as well as liability insurance if she is going down that path.

Your PM needs to make immediate application to Tribunal to have possession order granted so you can get her out. Stalling tenants always worry me and are usually up to no good. Tell PM no more delays.
 
Proceed to evict asap. The vacancy date has passed. Nothing to negotiate. You were agreeable but aren't now. Get a nasty hard **** lawyer to assist. Will save you a fortune.

Good lawyer will seek proof of these illness issues and try to prove they are lies and argue that injury claim is also a lie. You get where this is going ?

Got LL insurance ??? Kinda wish you did now ?

Typical soft PM. They don't want to upset anyone.

Ouch.
I agree. Business is business. Is it being too much of a hard *** to say I wouldn't have agreed to the extension in the first place, given their chequered history?
 
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