Tenants just moved in sent us a breach notice!

[bdc]

How on earth do they think you need to pay for them to eat out?

Funny, I think that's the only reasonable claim they have, can't eat their food they brought as there was no power, it doesn't stop their ability to sleep in their beds, if they need a/c well too bad they can pay for the motel, because if the a/c breaks down in 3 weeks time at night time then tough luck.

They certainly didn't need to take a day off of work, its summer, probably have a cold shower anyway, and its irrelevant, they stayed in a motel, good nights sleep and a warm shower and an alarm clock in the room too.

But like the others, if I had the time/energy to fight them, I would, retract offer of free rent, get the things that need fixing fixed, tell them to get stuffed on everything else.

If they told you on monday, and you fixed it on monday, then you did all that can be expected of you, **** happens, as another poster said earlier, they seem to be confusing renting a house with staying at a resort.

 

[Casserole Dish]

bdc

they seem to be confusing renting a house with staying at a resort.

Got it in one.

 

[kathryn d]

This is ridiculous.
Who gave them the keys to move in, without a written lease?
Evan so, wouldn't there be a verbal lease?
Not sure about there, but we have 10 days to provide the tenant with Residential Teancies Act.(your equivalent)

Until the tenants notify in writing there are maintenance concerns, you haven't been notified.Mother is not your tenant has has no business with this matter.

Fix what is broken.
What isn't broken, they rented "as is"
Play by the rules.

If they are behind in rent now,,,,,give them their breach notice.
Stop this now..they will only ask for more and more.

 

[boods99]

This is ridiculous.
Who gave them the keys to move in, without a written lease?
Evan so, wouldn't there be a verbal lease?
Not sure about there, but we have 10 days to provide the tenant with Residential Teancies Act.(your equivalent)

Until the tenants notify in writing there are maintenance concerns, you haven't been notified.Mother is not your tenant has has no business with this matter.

Fix what is broken.
What isn't broken, they rented "as is"
Play by the rules.

If they are behind in rent now,,,,,give them their breach notice.
Stop this now..they will only ask for more and more.

I agree, the mother has no authority to request anything from you, as she is not a party to the contract (Lease).

I would inform them of this, and not do anything until a formal request is received from the tenant. I would then kick the PM's a** for not doing their job properly, firstly for allowing someone to reside in the house who is not authorised to do so, secondly, for hampering to this unauthorised person's wants, and thirdly, for being so weak and obviously not doing his/her job properly by looking after the landlord's best interests.

Boods

 

[JDM]

We didn't hear from the PM if the tenants accept the 1 week rent free offer but we didn't receive rent which was due last week so suppose they accepted the offer, just not enough.
According to PM, she has received a note from the tenant's mom with a list of things she's not happy about. We are yet to find out from PM whether it was just a note or a requested. Our PM has already treated it as a request promised them repairing will be carried out.
There is always a lease, tenants signed it, our PM signed it on our behalf. We need to sign it too.
We had the same question: Lease only allows the 2 tenants in the property, not the mom, apparently the mom stayed there while the tenants away.
We will treat the compensation and repairing seperately.
Do you think it is wise to find out ask them what they want?
We thought to offer them what they want in the first place but was quite concern this would let them walk over us which then they might still play the same game..
We are quite ready to get another IP, considering in Frankston again but this kind of put it off..
We are in another state where prices are 10 times and tenants are 10 times better.

I hope that your PM has a written agreement stating that acceptance of the weeks free rent waives the tenants right to any further compensation. Without this they make take your offer of a weeks free rent and still take action for further compensation which is not what the offer was all about.

Regarding the repairs - I would like to think a bit of common sense should be used here. If you were living in the property, would you reasonably want those same problems rectified? Legal standpoints aside, it's always much better to have a happy tenant for the sake of your properties well being.

 

[rugrat]

sounds like your pm sucks at their job.

Joel and boods have the right of it IMHO

 

[rugrat]

Oh maybe ask them nicely if they would like to rescind the lease. They may be so troublesome because they decided they don't actually want to live there any more? Even if it ended up costing you a little to put towards their moving cost, it could be worth it to get rid of them.

 

[TSS]

I know I wouldn't be accepting the fact that they didn't pay last weeks rent as their acceptance of the compensation. Until something was signed to that effect, they haven't accepted it.

Then in that case, they are now one week behind on their rent and unless it is rectified, they are in breach of their lease and should be dealt with accordingly.

Who's calling the shots here?

 

[Olive]

PM has confirmed that rent was late due to tenants thought that they can put the rent on hold while seeking legal advice. etc etc..
Spoke to agent today, not a pleasant feeling, she doesn't seem to agree that it's not necessary to reply tenants mom while she stated that as PM they need to response to all requests due to it was a 'on behalf of the tenants' request.
I am really not sure about that one...
Thanks for all the support, help, input, ideas and trouble-shooting skills, you guys are fantastic! Put you all together sure be the most powerful PM team on the planet!

Thanks Joel McAndrew for the "I hope that your PM has a written agreement stating that acceptance of the weeks free rent waives the tenants right to any further compensation. Without this they make take your offer of a weeks free rent and still take action for further compensation which is not what the offer was all about."

Do you think we should just go hard on the PM and don't worry about turning the landlord-PM relationship sour? Not sure what side effect if PM not happy with LL, have a feeling she's already not....

 

[boods99]

PM has confirmed that rent was late due to tenants thought that they can put the rent on hold while seeking legal advice. etc etc..
Spoke to agent today, not a pleasant feeling, she doesn't seem to agree that it's not necessary to reply tenants mom while she stated that as PM they need to response to all requests due to it was a 'on behalf of the tenants' request.

Absolute rubbish, this opinion held by the PM would lead to all sorts of possible claims made "on behalf of the tenants".
I can't help but feel that this whole situation is being exasperated by this paticular PM's inability to handle the situation...

Boods

 

[Olive]

agreed, but what can we do now? they have everything in their hand and the worst would be they work against us if we upset them??
To find a new PM, who would like to take over a hot pan? no bargaining power in rate etc.
It all sound really sweet during the interview, of course if everything is smooth the PM be one of the best and one of the most recommended. Somehow only the real situation put it to real test.
Sack or not sack...

 

[kathryn d]

That is why we self manage.
We had the RCMP call us today because we dared to show the rental house to new applicants.Tenants are in rental arrears for the months od Dec and Jan. We have waited appropriate time (30 days here) and issued notice and gave them until Jan 15 to vacate. Hearing is Jan 14.Tenant wouldn't permit us to show new applicants thru.Rcpm officer agreed we had that right..their charges are unfounded.
Big mistake on their part. We were prepared to allow them extra time to vacate..no longer.Sheriff will most likely need to be called. So be it.

Get rid of the PM..or go to their boss and start making a stink.
They are not working for you. They are working against you.
Still not sure who gave the tenants the keys before the lease was signed???

It matters a lot who informed you of the maintenance issues.Someone on the tenants behalf is NOT good enough.

You better take charge now..it will only get worse.

 

[skater]

The PM should be working for you. If they are not, then I suggest moving. Don't worry about getting discounts on management fees. Often the cheapest are not the best and the real test of a good PM is when you get a bad tenant.

 

[pully]

by the sounds of this tale, it seems your pm is not managing your property in your best interests.

this needs to be nipped in the bud. the tenants cannot stop paying rent while they get/consider legal advice!!

if the pm is not acting in your interests you need to appoint another to deal with it, or/and speak to the person in charge of the agency and get them to sought it out.

to terminate the agency notice maybe be needed so read the contract.

the maintenance issues can be addressed but they are a separate issue.

good luck and regards.

 

[wylie]

This is a real mess. If it was my mess, I would try to settle with the amount they are asking. I don't think this is reasonable, but if they take you to court, you will lose more money than that which you were prepared to settle at anyway, plus your time, plus the frustration at having to deal with these people.

I would pay them the $460 AFTER they have signed that this will end the matter. I would fix anything that NEEDS fixing or is unsafe, not because the mother wants it fixed, but because it could be something that NEEDS fixing. Anything not NEEDED, I would leave, especially if it is noted in the condition report. (This all is subjective, as we don't know what type of things she wants fixed. Perhaps they are reasonable requests that you may wish to consider. Perhaps they are NOT, in which case, don't do them. Only you can decide.)

Then, when the dust settles, I would change PMs. I would certainly get rid of these tenants, but saying that, they could settle right down and you may keep them. Perhaps they just want to "win" and you have to decide for yourself going forward whether to keep them. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. If they settle down, why spend all the money involved in getting new ones.

Of course, the may not settle down, in which case, get rid of them ASAP.

Self-managing has never been this hard for me. We have had problems, but at least we know what is happening and when it is happening. I realise you cannot do that unless you live close, but geez, this just is a nightmare.

 

[Olive]

does anyone know if PMs often come to this site? or would they not have time to do so?
So tenants accepted the 1 week rent fee offer.
Our PM said we cannot draw up an agreement with 'acceptance of the weeks free rent waives the tenants right to any further compensation' she said anyone can make further claims in the coming 7 years...i guess she is telling us then there is nothing she can do.
So we asked her to tell the tenants when they write their acceptance letter do put down 'they are happy and satisfied with the offer for the 'x, y, z' reasons they claimed in the first place'. At least then there is a record showing these items have been compensated.
We did mentioned to PM after we received the breach notice we wana cancel the rent free offer but she said we can't coz it's been put through. From my understanding we can cancel it anytime due to it's not impose by law LL must compensated tenants? Does anyone know about this grey area?
Also, does anyone know a good solicitor in VIC who is capable of dealing with this kind of matter?

 

[TSS]

These may be of some help .....

http://www.landlordsadvisory.com.au

http://www.poa-vic.org/

http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au

HTH

 

[Perp]

Also, does anyone know a good solicitor in VIC who is capable of dealing with this kind of matter?

Yeah, this issue is definitely suffering from being dealt with too casually. What it really needs is to be ramped up a few notches.

Seriously, this is a textbook example of how conflicts escalate when the parties communicate via a third party rather than directly, and make assumptions about the motives of the other party.

 

[Olive]

Thanks TSS for the links, it's of great help.
Leads to another problem though, tenants not paying rent and they told PM they've been advised not to pay rent. Anyways, PM 's chasing up. It's on its 10th day now. Notice of vacate can be sent after the 14th day. Let's see what happen...

 

[luckyone]

Let us know how it goes Olive. Hope it all works out for you!