The Joys of Student Tenants

As many of you know, I have a 16-room student accommodation in inner Brisbane. Mostly, my tenants have been great - until this semester. :( I've now got a group of tenants who have turned the place into a filthy party house. The neighbours ring me at 3am telling me that they need to be quiet (like I'm their mother rather than their landlord :rolleyes:), complaining (quite justly) about them parking and blocking the neighbour's driveway (nothing I can do, unfortunately - can't legally tow their cars or I wouldn't hesitate to do so), but most significantly (to me), the place has about 5 or 6 empty rooms, because whenever anybody new looks at the place, it's such a pigsty that they're not interested. :mad: (The past few years I've had no significant vacancies.)

The PM has been keeping on top of it as much as she can, issuing breach notices left, right, and centre, and we've been trying to find an on-site caretaker. (Will have this in place within the next couple of weeks, and I'm sure it will resolve > 90% of problems.)

Nothing seemed to improve their behaviour, so last week we took the courageous step of issuing 10 eviction notices. :eek: I do risk having significant vacancies, but I don't see any alternative. We've basically accepted that this semester is largely a write-off, and we'll empty it out, take the bonds, clean it up, and try to get better tenants for next semester.

As they're mostly young people starting out in life, fortunately the breach notices - accompanied with a letter advising them that we'll be listing them all on TICA - appear to have gotten their attention. ;) We've received a number of emails asking what they need to do in order to have their bonds returned and avoid listing on TICA.

For those who are feeling sorry for the "innocent" tenants (as I do), the problem is that we've repeatedly asked those who claim innocence to tell us who the people are that are causing the noise, mess, and driveway blocking, and they won't give anybody up. So our attitude is that if they won't allow us to restrict punitive measures to those who are deserving, then unfortunately, we have no option but to take such measures against all of them.

Today I'll email all tenants advising them of the actions that must be taken. It will be interesting to see whether they'll pay attention now that we have the evictions/TICA listing pending.
 
Hi OzPerp,

I have also ran a place for students - although not on such a scale as yours. Mine was only a 5 bedroom place.

Can i hazard a guess that the majority of the students in the situation you describe are aussie students and not international students?

I had roughly the same situation - i was happily running my student house for a number of years to international students only and i was living on site and managing it. Nothing went wrong, the place was clean, rent was paid and no complaints. Bliss i thought (and seeing one of the japanese girls walking around the house in her undies was an added bonus too).

But one semester i thought i would try some aussie students. big mistake. beer cartons kept in rooms, half empty beer bottles left lying around, smoking inside (even though rules were written down about no smoking in the house), carpet stains, broken lamps, kitchen not cleaned up, little plastic bags which have previously held illicit substances left in front yard etc. Being behind in rent, And plus, stuff nicked.

Not worth the hassle and left me with a promise to myself to never rent to aussie students.

I speak from experience and as a business person, never rent to aussie students. no care or thought from them - even with a live-in onsite manager.


thanks


g
 
Oh yes, it's definitely the "white" (Aussie/European/American/Canadian/South American) students who are always the problem; the Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese etc don't give me any trouble at all. But you can't discriminate based on these trends, nor would I want to.

I've had a mix of nationalities before, and not had problems. I think I just lucked out this semester in getting a few who get along really well and have decided to become party animals, and have roped in some of the others. I'm glad they're having a good time, but not when their fun extends to costing me money. (And we're talking about $20K+ in lost rental income.)

I'm pretty confident that an on-site manager will really help. I placed an ad stating "Chopper Reed lookalikes are particularly encouraged to apply." ;)
 
OzPerp,
Just be carefull,my sister in law has a few set-up for O-S students and only has one lady from the Arabian Peninsula,and she is off in a few weeks too the ISLAM UNI set up by the Saudi King in NSW in a few weeks,and no new booking first time like that in many years,might have a bit to do with "high "Aussie dollar??but if you were to go for a drive around Annerely-Dutton Park-Moorooka- you will see many O-S students renting properties with 20 plus living in those houses, and caravans and leased Taxis in the back and front yards:rolleyes:,pity the interstate landlords..imho willair..
 
....but if you were to go for a drive around Annerely-Dutton Park-Moorooka- you will see many O-S students renting properties with 20 plus living in those houses, and caravans and leased Taxis in the back and front yards:rolleyes:,pity the interstate landlords..imho willair..

Yeah poor interstate LL's - must only be pulling in $2-3K per week :rolleyes::eek:
 
Yeah poor interstate LL's - must only be pulling in $2-3K per week :rolleyes::eek:
No,one person will take on the lease then relet the rooms-caravans out to who ever they want,property is always markets within markets ,the lease holder may only pay $300 per week for the rundown property but make 3 k per weeks renting every sqm out on the property:)..,gotta love those free thinking new Australians:)imho willair..
 
No,one person will take on the lease then relet the rooms-caravans out to who ever they want,property is always markets within markets ,the lease holder may only pay $300 per week for the rundown property but make 3 k per weeks renting every sqm out on the property:)..,gotta love those free thinking new Australians:)imho willair..

agree, very common. I lived in Spring Hill in brisbane in a 3 bedroom house that rented for $370 (at that time). I put 2 beds on each room, charged $100 each person, and had my own room.

100 * 4ppl = $ 400/week

was living for free, having heaps of fun, partying... ahh good 'ol times. I wish I'd saved something for my future IP investing career :)
 
No ,one person will take on the lease then relet the rooms-caravans out to who ever they want,property is always markets within markets ,the lease holder may only pay $300 per week for the rundown property but make 3 k per weeks renting every sqm out on the property:)

Ahhh. Where we do it, our PMs rent each room separately on a separate lease with access to the kitchen & bathroom etc as 'common areas'.

But I have seen it done your way too - but the amount would be what the total of the rooms were let for anyway. It is just a defacto way of making one person responsible for collecting the other's rent money in this instance.
 
Ozperp,

ahhh the joys of multi's and immature ungrateful residents. :rolleyes:

Good move to have an on-site manager to keep some peace and also absolve you of the nuisance calls from the neighbours and other sundry folk affected from the tenant(s) lack of respect.

Is it possible to establish a "head lease" with say a uni or tafe (or other subletting agency) that pay you regardless? Allowing them to be responsible for the headaches (metaphorical and literal). ;)

You would probably concede some rent , however in the overall big picture, it may enable you to have less hassle with the rif-raf yourself.

Are you covered by landlords insurance in this event with such a unique asset you've invested in?
 
No,one person will take on the lease then relet the rooms-caravans out to who ever they want,property is always markets within markets ,the lease holder may only pay $300 per week for the rundown property but make 3 k per weeks renting every sqm out on the property:)..,gotta love those free thinking new Australians:)imho willair..

Not according to TT ;).

I think this happens in every state. Alarm bells should ring when 1 or 2 international students inquire about renting a 3 to 4 bedroom house.
 
Is it possible to establish a "head lease" with say a uni or tafe (or other subletting agency) that pay you regardless? Allowing them to be responsible for the headaches (metaphorical and literal). ;)
Yes, very possible. I'm in a top location and have been approached by a second-tier institution about letting the whole property. I asked them to tell me how much they'd pay, and they never got back to me with a figure... but perhaps I should pursue this more vigorously. ;)
Player said:
Are you covered by landlords insurance in this event with such a unique asset you've invested in?
No, I self-insure for landlord-specific risks. I have several insurance policies covering the building and public liability, but with regards to vacancy and damage to contents, it's cheaper to self-insure. We get 4 weeks' rent as bond, which is nearly enough to cover replacing the entire room's contents. And actually, I haven't had to replace anything other than the odd lamp or desk chair anyway.
 
Throw the book at them Tracey.

Oh yes, it's definitely the "white" (Aussie/European/American/Canadian/South American) students who are always the problem; the Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese etc don't give me any trouble at all. But you can't discriminate based on these trends, nor would I want to.

True, but you can always "selectively" advertise in suburbs where these nationalities (ie the non-troublemakers) frequent. :D
 
True, but you can always "selectively" advertise in suburbs where these nationalities (ie the non-troublemakers) frequent. :D
Good point! Our housemates are Vietnamese, and they just offered to take over and become the master lessee, do the management themselves, and run it as a business. I said to them "Oh yes, you could target the Vietnamese community, then I imagine you'd have very few tenant problems!"

Then I thought "Um, hang on, Perp, you could target the Vietnamese community yourself, y'know!"

Think I'll place an ad in the local Chinese and Vietnamese language newspapers.
 
god i want to get into student accom.

trouble is, the shires here are SO against 7+ room dwellings as a residential BUILDING - not a residential DWELLING (6 beds or less) - and so are the neighbours.

it's easier to do a 6 bed house plus "common room" plus "study" plus...
 
simon macks used to only lease his student accom to medical students (advertised via the uni), never had a vacancy and no problems - to busy and too much stake for them to muck up.
 
god i want to get into student accom.

trouble is, the shires here are SO against 7+ room dwellings as a residential BUILDING - not a residential DWELLING (6 beds or less) - and so are the neighbours.

it's easier to do a 6 bed house plus "common room" plus "study" plus...


Do you think that the new NSW Planning boarding houses rules fit in with this type of developement ?

http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/plansforaction/pdf/Affordable%20Housing_Fact_NewGenerationBoardingHouses.pdf
 
We just recently purchased one in the Hunter that is showing a 10.44% gross yield. This has to be virtually interest rate rise immune. :)
I'd be surprised if that's CF +ve, even at current interest rates. I get about 13% gross and I'm still CF -ve. :eek: The -ve is declining, though, and should be neutral to positive within a couple of years.
 
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