Just wondering what would you do we have a property and the tenant has just recently moved out at our request.
We self managed this tenant for around 5 years, but they were getting less forthcoming with the rent, so gave the property over to an agent to manage, early 2013.
Now the agent has been less than efficient and in hindsight, we possibly should have found another. The tenant left damage that according to the agent was not claimable, and arrears in their water bill. I inspected the property the day after the tenant left and was of course not happy with some of what I found. I approached the agent, saying this should be fixed and this should be done, and one thing that I thought was reasonable was that they remove the gravel from where they had put their pool for a couple of years, the 5cm of fine gravel is still there in a rather large circle where there should have been grass. As well the tenant decided to remove the shower screens from the en-suite and the main bathroom, as they had managed to do quite an amount of un-claimable water damage, and they said we need to fix the bathroom anyway, so they left the screens outside for our benefit. I questioned why the agent had agreed to this, and said I wanted them to be put back, nothing happened so in frustration my partner did this only to find of course they no longer fitted as they had been broken.
I approached our agent again to say that now they would need to pay for either a new screen or to repair if possible the existing screen the agent, sort of did not bother to answer this, and told me as she had not been the original agent 6 years ago who put the tenant in the property, then she could not claim any damage, with out a 6 year old report of course which we do not have.
Here is my question and I am hoping that someone help me see my options. The tenant owes us substantial amount of water and has chosen not to pay, we are going to try and claim this from the bond, but as my agent seems to not know the law, the tenant has now claimed their complete bond back and we are now having to take them to court fight to get any of the $450 of water. I am thinking if I (my real estate agent) have to go to court anyway, should I try and claim the repairs such as covering the gravel with soil and the shower screens, or should I just walk away and think lesson learnt, as I do not feel the agent is really going to act on my behalf, as when the tenant claimed their bond without my knowing, I sort of lost it and accused my agent of not looking after our best interests or she would have claimed before they did, then I feel we may have had the upper hand. I only now two days later got a reply, saying that she had never had a tenant claim their bond so that I suggested she was not on top of things was not reasonable.
So any ozbargainers who have experience with tenant issues or landlord issues that can give advice I would appreciate hearing from you.
I think you should take him/her to court. Give him a lesson, not just walk away.
I wouldn't expect that you will get the money for the damage. But it's clearly that they have to pay the water bill.
For 6 years, have you spend any money to fix up something in that house? You can't expect everything would be in the perfect condition but a bit older.
You should claim for it anyway then the judge and your tenant will negotiate/argue about that, and try to be reasonable about the money that you ask for.
Did you have all photos before your tenant moved in? This is very important.
Your agent is quite right about that they didn't start the lease. I don't know what they can do bu they took your money so they suppose to do something, right?