Woo! I can has tenants! (after the paperwork is done)

The people who looked last week want the house. They seem a teeny bit simple and had some trouble with the concept of a bond. Housing SA will give low-income earners the bond so I dug out the forms off the internet for them and will give them to them on Saturday when we do this paperwork signing thing.

So ... having never signed up a tenant before, and these tenants not seeming to be seasoned renters (I probably should ask, but this has been a long time coming so I'm not going to get picky), what's the deal? Sign dotted lines on that lease form thingy off the internet (including a line that says tenants git their own damn water), fill out inspection form, give them the big pamphlet about renting, and in this case, tell them to let us know when they have the power connected so we can come configure the satellite set-top box we're providing with the house (I can't see them being able to work it out themselves) and double check the new water connections - the house is on rainwater so with the power out we haven't been able to test with mains pressure water. Oh, and have to give them the keys and get the spare set off the REA who has the place for sale.

They are an older couple on the pension with two small dogs. I'm not really fussed on smaller pets, dogs are very common out here. The house is in extremely good condition other than the dust that has collected while it was vacant so there's not much to say about it.

I have lots of PDF files here, several from the OCBA website regards the lease and 2 from the housing SA site about the bond guarantee.

Am I missing anything?
 
I have lots of pics already and a pdf template for a condition report :)

Big 1876 sandstone house 2 hours outta Adelaide on 1800sqm. Totally renovated. Looks a million dollars (for the area). Impossible to sell, apparently. It was for sale about 6 months with a fair bit of interest but no firm offers and for rent for 1 month.

Thankfully it is very positively geared for me - mortgage is P&I and we're overpaying at $45pw. Rent of $110pw.
 
Signed, sealed, and waiting on the bond forms. I have no idea how the thing where you get given the bond from housing SA fits in with lodging the bond with OCBA, but I'm sure if I ring them on Monday they'll explain. I gave the tenants all the paperwork they need to do it, anyway. With rent assistance they'll be lucky to be paying $70pw for a bloody nice house, perfect for a retired couple.

And I told the neighbour to behave himself. Hopefully he wasn't too stoned when I told him that to remember.

Ye gods. I'm a landlord. How the hell did that happen?
 
Congratulations Relfy!

Nice, that lovely, big home has some people.

Just wondering, were you able to get any referee(s), someone to chat to about your new tenants, past rental history at all?

Anything?
 
Given the rather underwhelming response (anyone local was scared off by the neighbour) I'm just happy to have someone in who seems utterly in love with the place and wants in asap. They wanted a 2 year lease, I gave them 12 months.

They smoke, have dogs and cats, are from Victoria (a terrible sign, that ;) ), and can't afford the bond (seems they don't know what happened to the bond on their old house). But they should qualify for housing SA bond assistance, and I printed the forms for them off the net.

They've brought two mates with them so far to suss the place out and have been very concerned about me removing the for sale sign out the front, which I'll do myself next week if the agent is slow. They've aready asked around the town about the house, the facilities etc and are happy that they aren't on mains water.

Hey. I have insurance if it all goes balls-up. They seem chirpy but peculiar enough that they'll probably fit right into the town and I'll never get rid of em!
 
Ye gods. I'm a landlord. How the hell did that happen?

Haha I knew we'd turn ya.

You are now offically a "rich landlord".

They seem chirpy but peculiar enough that they'll probably fit right into the town and I'll never get rid of em!

Here's hoping you have some good (if not strange) long term tenants who look after the place for you, pay their rent on time, and that rents increase to make that cf+ property even more so.
 
They smoke, have dogs and cats, are from Victoria (a terrible sign, that ),

....it's just that I seem to be missing a couple of elderly rellies, they cleared out, took the little puppies and puttycats...the smokey trail of interstate fellowship. Word has it they headed for the desert...
 
....it's just that I seem to be missing a couple of elderly rellies, they cleared out, took the little puppies and puttycats...the smokey trail of interstate fellowship. Word has it they headed for the desert...

Actually, thinking about it, they could be former tenants of mine. A weird lot they were. She had some form of mental illness and would lose it sometimes, becoming very abusive. They had 6 (maybe more at times) dogs and two cats, some birds too. She smoked like a chimney, not sure if he did too. They were around retirement age.

The rent was always paid on time. The house was kept immaculate. They even added a few things to the place like ceiling fans.
 
Is she 4 foot tall and he over 6 foot? :)

They look late 50s, maybe into their 60s. Once people get too wrinkly I start to misjudge ages something severe.
 
Is she 4 foot tall and he over 6 foot? :)

They look late 50s, maybe into their 60s. Once people get too wrinkly I start to misjudge ages something severe.

Well, they are around the right age. She is not a lot over 4ft, but he is nowhere near 6ft. She is very petite and he has a large "beer belly".
 
Not likely they are the same people but you never know, its a small world lol

And what's wrong with that?:p:D

Nothing :p The people we see the most in that town are about the same age. They have a daughter and son about our ages. And we tease them about being old too :D
 
Tenants turned out to be lying little liars - very much like dealing with a certain inventive 8yo child I know. Their previous PM/landlord let them get several thousand behind in rent over a very long time, the new PM kicked them out.

Got it all straightened out after talking to their current PM and their tenant's advocate, I'm pending an application with Centerpay so they can pay direct. They'd actually told their advocate they had inherited a house not found a private rental! They moved in today and found out the electricity wasn't actually connected like they were told it would be, so I left them hanging around waiting for the electricity person. Which means I get to do the initial inspection (need to check everything works and you can't do that without power) and set up the satellite TV tomorrow.

Must say its nice being able to walk into the hardware store where we ran up a few $100 account for various fix-up things for the house so it was rentable, and just pay the bill off with rent money rather than my own money. Very nice, in fact.
 
Ohh RE, sounds like you will have to be a "nasty" landlord to keep these ones paying up their rent, if they don't sort out the direct debit from Centrelink...stay on top of them and hopefully they will be ok. Shame you didn't know they were dodgy liars (and peculiar to boot!) before you signed them up.

Good luck!

Nadia
 
I was expecting 'dodgy' tenants. Its a dodgy area, that's just what you get. Only two people looked at the place in the 6 or so weeks I had the ads out - the other was a single mum covered in tattoos.

What does a tenants advocate do? I've never heard of one before.
This one was helping them with their paperwork, filling in forms for them that they didn't understand, help with the processes, tribunal appeals etc - on the tenant's side. Help for people who can't quite grapple all them big words that are on forms these days.

Right now I'm just waiting on my Centerpay registration. They paid the first two and a half weeks rent cash (had to round the rent to pension day), and are applying for a bond guarantee from the trust, with the help of their advocate.
 
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