[wim]

Article

As usual the comments are interesting.

Quote

'Evict me, you die'

Anne-Louise Brown | 2nd September 2010

SHE has been told that if she evicted a tenant she would be stabbed.

She has been screamed at while trying to take her daughter to school.

And her children have been hassled by others at school because their mother, a property manager, “made them move house”.

After 15 years in the real estate industry a frustrated Sunshine Coast property manager, who wishes to remain anonymous for the safety of her family, has decided to lift the lid on the realities of her job.

She wants us to know about the daily struggles that come with her work.

She wants us to hear the rentals story from the other side.

“Every day I see people struggling to pay their rent and I have been doing this long enough now to think I know when I am being lied to,” the woman said.

“I thought I did, anyway.

“But just last month I had a tenant ... do a runner owing $4000.

“The tenant said her daughter had died and that was the reason for the late rent.

“After speaking to the landlord, it was decided she had been through a rough time and the landlord was happy to wait for his rental payments.

“I have since found out her daughter helped the tenant move house – and did not die.”

The woman said verbal and physical threats by tenants were a daily occurrence.

Her life has been threatened on “more than one occasion” and her children have had to deal with the ramifications of her job in the schoolyard.

[staringclown]

wim, on 02 September 2010 - 10:18 AM, said:

Article

As usual the comments are interesting.

Try working for Centrelink or the Child Support Agency. It's all a hoot selling overpriced property and spruiking the increases in rent till it starts affecting you personnally and people are no longer nice to you.

[Max Carnage]

So many real estate agents, so few homicidal tenants...

“People go on about landlords being rich but most of my landlords struggle each week" = heart warming.

But seriously, nutter renters and their kids should leave the agents' kids alone. There's no excuse for that, no matter how sh*t the parents.

[Easy Tiger]

Sorry to play the Devils Advocate Max but Australia is a dog eat dog country.


Your Mum threatened to my Mum by putting our family on the street is as damn personal as you can get.


Maslow's hierarchy of needs has shelter being one of the most important things to a persons survival. Indeed isn't that one of the reasons why specufestors are attracted to the RE game? That people HAVE to have somewhere to live? Tough sh*t if the renter takes it personally if you try to kick them out and they have nowhere to go.

[tor]

Max Carnage, on 02 September 2010 - 10:31 AM, said:

So many real estate agents, so few homicidal tenants...

“People go on about landlords being rich but most of my landlords struggle each week" = heart warming.

But seriously, nutter renters and their kids should leave the agents' kids alone. There's no excuse for that, no matter how sh*t the parents.

Personal is as Personal does.

You take a job which is heavily personal? Sure you don't deserve personal retaliation. But hey be a grown up and show a brain: it is going to happen.

Vigilante type activity is never to be applauded and I would love to think I can rise above it but expecting my hypothetical kids to rise above it? Pffft not going to happen.

Be happy it was not identifiable when the parents couldn't buy a place to live.

[Dose]

It is a thankless job providing shelter to the unwashed. Reads like an ad for a property manager who is losing properties to manage.

Ah the ol' Sunshine Coast. They should consider renaming it Central Florida.


This one has a pictured leaky shower + mould but something I've never seen before... "car accommodation". That PM is getting into the fine details of marketing a property to find the right tenant!

[Max Carnage]

Okay, fine. Let the sins of the fathers be visited upon their children - but not beyond the third and forth generations, ya hear?

[Tinkerbear]

Quote

“Last week I had to stand in my workplace and be yelled at by a tenant for over an hour in front of other customers because he didn’t feel it was fair he had to go back and wipe out one window track, wipe down one wall and put some lawn seed down where he had parked a car that killed the grass.

Well is it fair that he had to go out and wipe out one window track and a wall? Was suitable alternative parking available or did he have to park on the grass?

Sounds to me that he left the house in pretty good shape. We aren't talking someone who ripped out the whitegoods and punched holes in the walls. I think that this article sums up the problems with PM's treatment of good tenants rather than the promblems of being a PM.

[jas25t]

Oh the irony.

Im currently writing up a letter in response to some nit picking by the landlord and PM.

[dp1]

jas25t, on 03 September 2010 - 02:24 AM, said:

Oh the irony.

Im currently writing up a letter in response to some nit picking by the landlord and PM.

Hey- me too!
Fool decided 2 days after returning the entire bond that we owed $540 for cleaning and consequent loss of rent- ha ha ha.

[tor]

dp1, on 03 September 2010 - 04:33 AM, said:

Hey- me too!
Fool decided 2 days after returning the entire bond that we owed $540 for cleaning and consequent loss of rent- ha ha ha.

I always stopped paying rent 4 weeks before I moved out. Effectively negating the bond and creating "an issue".

By distracting with "the issue" I was in the bargaining seat as I had already got my money back for the bond (more if they had put the rent up). They would have to take me to the tribunal for any of the stupid charges they always try and make.

Always ensure you are in the bargaining seat.

I have yet to work out how to do this with fast food places as they insist on taking the money first.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

tor, on 03 September 2010 - 04:53 AM, said:

I always stopped paying rent 4 weeks before I moved out. Effectively negating the bond and creating "an issue".

By distracting with "the issue" I was in the bargaining seat as I had already got my money back for the bond (more if they had put the rent up). They would have to take me to the tribunal for any of the stupid charges they always try and make.

Always ensure you are in the bargaining seat.

I have yet to work out how to do this with fast food places as they insist on taking the money first.

I like it.

[Sean]

tor, on 03 September 2010 - 04:53 AM, said:

I always stopped paying rent 4 weeks before I moved out. Effectively negating the bond and creating "an issue".

By distracting with "the issue" I was in the bargaining seat as I had already got my money back for the bond (more if they had put the rent up). They would have to take me to the tribunal for any of the stupid charges they always try and make.

Always ensure you are in the bargaining seat.

I have yet to work out how to do this with fast food places as they insist on taking the money first.

I suppose you could get 'blacklisted' for this on some landlord's database, and not be able to get any kind of good reference from the previous landlord at least while looking for the next place. Otherwise it's kind of a good idea, in that most landlords won't bother going to the tribunal, especially if they were going to try it on by withholding monies for stuff that's fair wear and tear etc -- or for no wear and tear.

[Sean]

Easy Tiger, on 02 September 2010 - 11:12 AM, said:

Sorry to play the Devils Advocate Max but Australia is a dog eat dog country.


Your Mum threatened to my Mum by putting our family on the street is as damn personal as you can get.


Maslow's hierarchy of needs has shelter being one of the most important things to a persons survival. Indeed isn't that one of the reasons why specufestors are attracted to the RE game? That people HAVE to have somewhere to live? Tough sh*t if the renter takes it personally if you try to kick them out and they have nowhere to go.

There's something to be said for more not-for-profit housing associations and similar in this country. By 'bureaucratising' the process you will have far less hard personal feelings, and housing associations will not keep ratcheting up rents or evicting tenants and will provide decent housing at a decent price and do the maintenance without dramas etc.

[RumpledElf]

I'm a softie ... I couldn't kick my tenants out unless I knew they had somewhere to go. They're not the brightest sparks out there and they do like the house.

The house is under a rather tentative offer at the moment from some people who wanted to know if the tenants were planning on staying on longterm (which they are) so that does sound like a win-win, if it all goes through.

I think the ultimate insult while renting would be to get kicked out when your house sells, but an INVESTOR buys it, does something trivial, and then puts it up for rent a month later at $60 a week more.

[tor]

Sean, on 03 September 2010 - 09:23 PM, said:

I suppose you could get 'blacklisted' for this on some landlord's database, and not be able to get any kind of good reference from the previous landlord at least while looking for the next place. Otherwise it's kind of a good idea, in that most landlords won't bother going to the tribunal, especially if they were going to try it on by withholding monies for stuff that's fair wear and tear etc -- or for no wear and tear.

Because I tended to have a 2 week overlap in properties (i.e. the current landlord won't have me blacklisted) and also tend to stay in them for a long time I guess I got away with it.

Someone paying the rent 6 months in advance as well probably helped too.

[dp1]

tor, on 03 September 2010 - 04:53 AM, said:

I always stopped paying rent 4 weeks before I moved out. Effectively negating the bond and creating "an issue".

By distracting with "the issue" I was in the bargaining seat as I had already got my money back for the bond (more if they had put the rent up). They would have to take me to the tribunal for any of the stupid charges they always try and make.

Always ensure you are in the bargaining seat.

I have yet to work out how to do this with fast food places as they insist on taking the money first.

I believe the tenancy agreement specifically prohibits this (in WA anyway)- I used to do this in the UK every time when renting as a student though.
LL would still be $100 better off if I could do this because we had to put a pet bond down as well.

[tor]

dp1, on 07 September 2010 - 04:40 AM, said:

I believe the tenancy agreement specifically prohibits this (in WA anyway)- I used to do this in the UK every time when renting as a student though.
LL would still be $100 better off if I could do this because we had to put a pet bond down as well.

They may prohibit it but once you have done it what can they do? I doubt it is approved of over here either. Unless there are specific fines against you for doing this then the real estate is pretty much stuck.

They can't evict you for being 2 weeks behind in rent and after that you have handed your notice in anyways so eviction is not such a threat