Who pays for gardening?

[MiQu]

Just purchased an IP.

The agent calls today and says the previous owner has been paying a gardener to maintain the lawns... Apparently he bought the house from him. Anyway he ask if I would continue?

I was wondering if anyone else pays for gardening of their IP? I certainly don't for other IP's. But at the same time I don't want to destroy any goodwill that might exists with the tenants ..? They have looked after the place reasonably well, but thats why I have decided not to increase the rent with the new lease... Any thoughts?

 

[Propertunity]

Just purchased an IP.

Congratulations

The agent calls today and says the previous owner has been paying a gardener to maintain the lawns... Apparently he bought the house from him. Anyway he ask if I would continue?

What a try-on. Let him do it himself or pay a gardener.

I was wondering if anyone else pays for gardening of their IP?

Some would - but the rent is jacked up to cover it.

I certainly don't for other IP's.

Me either

But at the same time I don't want to destroy any goodwill that might exists with the tenants ..?

Forget goodwill with tenants. There is none. They can and do leave at the drop of a hat.

They have looked after the place reasonably well,

....as is their reasonable service. They don't get a bonus for doing what they are duty bound to do.

but thats why I have decided not to increase the rent with the new lease... Any thoughts?

Yep. Wake up! Increase the rent to market rates - you are running a business not a nursery.
You are going to get walked all over.

 

[Collector]

First of all - cheack the lease (have you read it), there may be an additional term that states that the owner agrees to maintain the lawn and garden.

But apart from this - agree 100% with propertunity

 

[geoffw]

I have a property where I pay for gardening. And I have had to change gardeners because the job was not being done properly.

When I was self managing I gave the tenants the option of doing the gardening themselves for a rent reduction or having it done.

The gardening quality generally was not that great. But I then had reason to change to the paid gardener.

 

[willair]

But at the same time I don't want to destroy any goodwill that might exists with the tenants ..? They have looked after the place reasonably well, but thats why I have decided not to increase the rent with the new lease... Any thoughts?

Goodwill is worth more then people think,sounds like you have done the right thing..imho..willair..

 

[wylie]

Over the years, we have taken on the gardening of our IPs. They are on 36 perch blocks and tenants don't want to mow that size yard, so they generally don't. We were sick of our houses looking like the "rented house" on the street.

Now we pay for gardening, and include it in the rent. The little extra we charge does not quite cover the annual cost so we are subsidising the mowing slightly ourselves, but we are happy to do so because we know the neighbours (houses are in our own suburb, and neighbours know who owns them) and now our IPs have the best kept yards in the street.

For us, it is a small price to pay, we never have the big yard clean up at the end of a tenancy, which probably would cost more than the amount we are subsidising anyway.

We also have a great gardener..... my brother.

 

[Xenia]

Gardening is a tenant responsibility.

I would agree with above that you can pay for a gardener for $10 to $20 more rent per week, depending on garden. This could help your serviceability too.

 

[craigb]

paying a gardener , Good idea! as my wife pays for the floors to be moped, $66 per fortnight?

 

[Ms Jade]

We pay for gardening for a couple of properties that have nice large gardens. If they were let go it would be extremely expensive to return them to good condition. Plus a nice garden does add value to a property so I think of it as protecting an asset. That way I don't have to worry about getting the type of tenant who can be bothered maintaining a garden. I am bad enough with gardening myself, let alone if I was a tenant.

 

[ezza]

I pay a lawnmower guy $12.50 to mow the patch in my IP courtyard every 6 weeks. Happy to absorb this expense. Just hope the tenant is watering the 2 potted yuccas!

 

[Ausprop]

owners pay for gardening. There is very little owners don't pay for...usually just electricity and telephone calls (but connection charge is owners responsibility). And if anything should go wrong at the property, brace yourself for a barrage of contingent liability. e..g the heater broke down, so the cat caught a cold therefore here is my bill for the vet, time off work, petrol money, stress, stamp to send you this letter etc

seriosuly tho, if you don't pay for gardenign (or water) it won't get done and it will die... so there in lies the motivation

 

[wylie]

owners pay for gardening.

I don't agree with this. Owners only pay for the gardening if they wish. Otherwise, they take the chance that the tenant will do a half ar$ed job of the mowing and gardening.

With our big blocks, we got sick of tenants leaving the mowing for a month during summer, so we get it done ourselves. We increase the rent a little, and subsidise some of it, but there are no hard and fast figures here.

I do agree that a tenant who doesn't ever mow the grass means the owner has a big slashing and trimming job once a year or so, and that is why we organise our own yard care. We have three IPs in one street, totalling 108 perches of mowing, and that is a LOT of grass for three tenants to give a rats about .

I believe our large blocks, without including mowing, would be off putting to most tenants if they had to spend half a day every week or so pushing a mower.

But, let's face it, it is a job and an expense for the tenants. It is just that many do not care about it.

 

[marg4000]

We've never paid for day-to-day gardening, but every year or two (as necessary) we pay for trees to be trimmed and overgrown or past-their-best shrubs to be removed. Usually under $100.
Marg

 

[lizzie]

depends on the house - in the past we have paid for lawnmowing once a fortnight if it's a better quality house and we want to keep it looking good. if it's one of our "run of the mill" rentals then, nah.

 

[Minxdamanx]

We pay for the lawns to be mowed monthly, but that rent is upped to cover most of the cost.

We don't pay for weeding or general gardening, that is the tenants responsibility and I make sure it's done or take it out of bond to bring it back to scratch (which I do myself).

I don't expect perfection, just weeding and general tidying.

 

[Normie]

In my renting days lawns/gardening was always the renters responsibility altough when your renting most people will only want to do the bare minimum, i did rent one property where the owner looked after the lawns/garden but he was retired and wanted his propertys looking nice, the cost might have been absorbed in the rent but this landlord really wanted to do the right thing for his property and tenants and would always making improvements like painting, new carpets etc.