Hi there.

I would definately speak to a next of kin if possible.  I love elderly people and try to make the time to speak to our elderly tenants where I can.  But at the end of the day, her ‘issues’ are interfering with your business procedures and creating more work in an already stressful environment. 

I think you have every right to make the call.

Hi Bryar

I also agree contact the next of kin, we recently had a similar issue where our tenant kept coming into our office every day to pay her rent.  She just forgot she had been in already.  After this happened over a few weeks, I contacted her son and discussed this issue.  The end result with our situation was our tenant was suffering from early demetia and the son did not realise her level of confusion.  She has since moved in with her son so he can take care of her. 

Hope all goes well.

Hi Bryar,

It sounds like you are doing everything that you can for your client, which is very sweet. I think that calling next of kin sounds like a good idea.. though I understand that you don’t want to offend your client!

Our office is located close by to all of the major banks so if I was in your situation, I might even suggest taking a stroll across to her bank & speaking with her & a teller about setting up a direct transfer. Alternatively, you could have her take her cash directly to the bank to deposit it?

I wish I knew what to do with elderly owners.. I have a client who is starting to forget her memory & will swear that she left things in her properties which she never did. She also wants to do everything her way, regardless of whether it is legal or not. She then tells me that it is ‘too stressful’ when I insist that we do things by the book. It is becoming increasingly frustrating..

Hi Melanie, trust you are well. What does your client mean..“left things” in her properties..are they furnished or something. Difficult though it may be, I have sometimes found that clients are no longer feasible due to their actions or instructions and have provided notice. I certainly do enjoy the odd day sometimes when I drive past a property and remember that whatever is going on in there is no longer my worry..

Had a couple of interesting calls lately from other agents who are prospective new agents for one of my ‘sacked’ landlords… bit nervous as to why I would be doing it etc..;))

Hi Ian :)

The things I am talking about are extremely trivial.. such as cutlery trays & oil drip trays.. yep!

We have sacked one landlord, almost two years ago, after he continually yelled at me for absolutely no reason at all. His tenants ended up taking him to tribunal. They then moved into another of my rental properties & gave me their own investment property to manage, so things worked out well in the end!

Point exactly Melanie. Time becomes available to assist the right clients. Good job.

I spoke to the Tenant’s daughter and explained the situation to her and we have arranged that she will be bringing her mother down to the office from now on and that the rental payment will be made on eftpos.

A good result!