Surfers Paradise
A good relationship between parties is important in any personal or business transaction. As a managing agent, we encourage fair communications and outcomes between all landlords and tenants.
However, managing a property and the tenant can sometimes become challenging when so many variable situations can arise during the tenancy, requiring adherence to legislation, compliance, and best practice processes.
During the past couple of months, we have come across matters where the tenant has approached the landlord directly regarding extensions to pay their rent arrears or tenant utility accounts, maintenance requirements and general requests for a tenant to carry out their own maintenance and/or alterations to the property.
As mentioned previously, we encourage good relationships between all parties, however as an investor, you need to be aware of your rights, obligations and legislation requirements when communicating with your tenant, as a telephone call can end up being a verbal agreement with consequences.
If your tenant approaches you regarding a tenancy matter, we strongly recommend that you take precautions and state something like, "I understand your situation, and we want to work with you. Let me talk with our agency to review this and come back to you.”
Requests for the tenant to undertake maintenance at the property may not be covered by your insurance; requests for a tenant to paint a bedroom a different colour needs to be in writing so you don't end up with rainbow-painted walls; and requests for an extension of time to pay rent needs to be in writing and in accordance with legislation requirements.
If you are ever unsure of your rights and obligations, we are just a telephone call away.