Tenant is a hoarder - what should I do?

C

CHAOS

Has anyone else had a tenant who is a hoarder?

We currently have a hoarder. All rooms are full wall to wall and up to the ceiling. Last internal inspection was 2 years ago. Last drive by was 6mths ago. Outdoor structures, those temporary carport type things and other tarps were attached to the house and guttering. We asked for them to be removed as guttering was falling away. We also asked for the property to be de-cluttered sufficiently that we could send in someone to clean out all the gutters / remove dead branches from the gum trees. On our drive by from the outside nothing had changed. I contacted the PM and suffice to say they are not doing their job.

We realise that we need to do something about the situation. One our first tasks is that we need to take out landlords insurance which we currently don't have - and I need to read the fine print on our buildings insurance.

Next
Do we just move the tenant on? (I am anticipating a big clean up bill on the outside at least, 3-4 weeks probably needed to refresh and tidy for new tenants. Then time to find new tenants).

Do we just keep hiking up the rent until he moves? (It is currently $40 below market value so an increase is due in Nov).

Any comment/ advice/ experience welcome.
 
CHAOS said:
Has anyone else had a tenant who is a hoarder?

We currently have a hoarder. All rooms are full wall to wall and up to the ceiling. Last internal inspection was 2 years ago. Last drive by was 6mths ago. Outdoor structures, those temporary carport type things and other tarps were attached to the house and guttering. We asked for them to be removed as guttering was falling away. We also asked for the property to be de-cluttered sufficiently that we could send in someone to clean out all the gutters / remove dead branches from the gum trees. On our drive by from the outside nothing had changed. I contacted the PM and suffice to say they are not doing their job.

We realise that we need to do something about the situation. One our first tasks is that we need to take out landlords insurance which we currently don't have - and I need to read the fine print on our buildings insurance.

Next
Do we just move the tenant on? (I am anticipating a big clean up bill on the outside at least, 3-4 weeks probably needed to refresh and tidy for new tenants. Then time to find new tenants).

Do we just keep hiking up the rent until he moves? (It is currently $40 below market value so an increase is due in Nov).

Any comment/ advice/ experience welcome.
Click to expand...

I doubt taking out landlords insurance now will cover any existing issues. For me personally, I would change to a more "switched on" PM and get them to move the tenant out.

You will probably cop some cost to get the property into a condition for the next tenant.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
I advised a client recently in the same situation.

Terminate Lease

Do not refund the bond - it was only 800 btw

I believe there were over 40 washing machines/fridges in the backyard

Worse inside

Vermin everywhere.

Being sold as a development block, currently going through DA now
 
I imagine if you get the PM to hike the rent by $40 per week and qive the tenants 1 or 2 weeks to remove external tarpaulines which are damaging the gutters and declutter it will facilitate tenants to move somewhere else. :)
 
I would be looking for a manager who can help, most likely someone other than the one who put this tenant in there and let them accumulate so much 'stuff'.
 
New manager is a given.

Is the inside actually dirty out just cluttered? If just cluttered, get rent to market value and then let them be.
 
i don't think you can tell the tenant he can't be a hoarder unless something he has done has damaged the property. Any tenant should be entitiled to live peaceful and without prejudice even if it means they're messy or have too much clutter in the house.
 
Melbournian said:
i don't think you can tell the tenant he can't be a hoarder unless something he has done has damaged the property. Any tenant should be entitiled to live peaceful and without prejudice even if it means they're messy or have too much clutter in the house.
Click to expand...

It depends on the extent of the hoarding problem. On the show "Hoarders" what starts out as fairly benign hoarding often turns into vermin living in the piles and gyprock needing to be replaced, carpets replaced, whole place repainted due to mould and filth.

I would be changing managers, insisting on a full inspection and if the internal hoarding is worse than "excessive clutter" I would advise the lease will not be renewed. If the internal seems clean but just cluttered, I think you would be within your rights to insist the tarps that are pulling off the guttering be removed and give a time limit. Tenant should be paying to have this fixed if it is their tarps that have done the damage.

Of course, it might simply be "clutter" but you need to find this out in order to know how to deal with it.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Tenant is on a periodical lease - so I could have him outn 4mths time (less if I use other reasons). The tenant is a single almost 70 year old man. Yes - I have learnt that I need to treat investing as a business and not a charity, doesn't make the human aspect of it easy though.



Someone commented that insurance wouldn't help - can you please explain.
 
CHAOS said:
All rooms are full wall to wall and up to the ceiling. Last internal inspection was 2 years ago.
Click to expand...

Just read Dazz's post and realised I had missed this bit. That is not just "clutter". How do you know the rooms are full wall to wall and up to the ceiling if the last internal inspection was two years ago?

If that is indeed the case, you definitely need them out.

I have an acquaintance who is slowly heading down this path. She knows she has a problem, but will not discuss it. She doesn't like being judged, but friends are wanting to help her, not ridicule her. I feel very anxious if I go inside. She is in her own home though, so I don't get involved anymore. She sees any questions about it as an attack, even my suggestion that I could help her to clear some things, so I just let it go.

It is not to the "wall to wall and to the ceiling" stage, but I fear that is coming. If she was my tenant, I would be worried.
 
CHAOS said:
Thanks for the feedback.

Tenant is on a periodical lease - so I could have him outn 4mths time (less if I use other reasons). The tenant is a single almost 70 year old man. Yes - I have learnt that I need to treat investing as a business and not a charity, doesn't make the human aspect of it easy though.



Someone commented that insurance wouldn't help - can you please explain.
Click to expand...

Sometimes a business approach can help to de-cloud sentimental reasons which lead to health hazard as in this case. Better approach this issue straight on with time-urgent notification to prevent mould, pest and fire hazard to health if not your assets.

Insurance now can help provided the situation is known to the insurer or else when it comes time to claim it will certainly be refused on grounds of not disclosing relevant information. But when you fully disclose the situation, the insurer may want to place limitations to what you can claim, so it will possibly be of little additional help. However, it is always best to have a landlords insurance for a property investor.
 
Melbournian said:
i don't think you can tell the tenant he can't be a hoarder unless something he has done has damaged the property. Any tenant should be entitiled to live peaceful and without prejudice even if it means they're messy or have too much clutter in the house.
Click to expand...

Yes, but you need to consider the fire hazard risks and pest issues.

There's a difference between general clutter/mess where the property is still in a good condition and relatively clean, and unhygienic mess/clutter.

I'd be concerned about the latter.
 
Hi Chaos,

As to the insurance issue any new policy will not cover things which were already existing at the time the policy was taken out. So if there were holes in the walls when taken out, then they would not be covered.

Kind of like with health policies. If you tell the insurer, which you have an obligation to, that you have heart problems, they will cover you but possibly not for heart releated issues, or will charge an extra excess, or higher premium.

Landlord insurance may cover you as there is currently no issue with the tenant (unless his rent is in arrears). It may only happen when termination time comes.

I wonder if a personality who hoards, may also have a tendency not to comply with the termination notice. A bit of the 'too much to clean up and need extra time' type of thing.:confused:
 
If you are concerned about the humanitarian aspect you could get a social worker in to try to provide counselling. Although I would still be terminating the lease.
 
I am anticipating that it won't be a straight forward eviction. He could apply for more time.

Thanks for all the advice. We are currently renovating our other IP so the hoarder issue will have to wait a few weeks til we can physically get down there and inspect the inside for ourselves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

V
Repair to IP
Replies
12
Views
5K
DaveM
DaveM
V
Need access after tenant moves out
Replies
11
Views
2K
vtt
V
O
Tree uprooted - damages to property
Replies
0
Views
1K
orangestreet
O
Xenia IM
Should tenants be given multiple chances?
2 3
Replies
46
Views
7K
turk
T
M
How to claim on a tenant who has not provided forwarding address
Replies
8
Views
3K
Lil Skater
Lil Skater
Back
Top