Dear Hailey,

It is surprising that the Contract for Sale of Land did not include a List setting out what inclusions were part of the sale, which could then in turn, have been used by the previous Owner.

Was the conveyancer a solicitor as well? I would have expected the solicitor to have ensured there was no doubt as to what was included in the sale, which in turn, would have affected what the existing tenant was able to use (given that there was no such list attached to the old lease).

No doubt, the tenant would have claimed some of the items belonged to them, so this needed to have been defined prior to settlement.

If this was not forthcoming, then it may have been necessary for your client, the new Owner, to have gone around the property prior to settlement and to have compiled a list of what he/she believed was to be included, which could then have been sent to the previous Owner for confirmation. Failure to do so would mean that the settlement would be delayed.

Hailey, the only thing I can suggest, which I’m sure you’ve now thought of, is advising any Landlord to ensure they at least sight a copy of the documentation prior to settling on the property.  If you’re able to handle this for your client, you’re then able to give them a ’head’s up’ on potential issues.  Or, you could issue your clients a checklist style document that requests to at least sight the documents and lists some potential issues should they elect either not to see/get a copy of the documenation, or decide to proceed without it.  It really is a part of her own due diligence, but as a good PM, I think it’s worth delveloping something like this for furture investors.

My doozy for the day 

I took a management from a private owner, who could not tell me accurately where the rent was paid to… the tenant argues that they were not behind, the owner said they were not.  In the end, I told the owner, that they would have to accept that the tenant was paid up to date as they can not prove otherwise.  Not a happy owner.

Then, the bond….  What Bond?  The owner said that the tenant didn’t pay a whole bond to them.  The tenant argued that she did.  I then spoke to the wife of the owner who said that she told her husband that the tenant paid the bond to her, but in secret the tenant was paying the bond off to her.  The owner then sent me a cheque for 2 weeks rent.  Apparently that is all the tenant paid in the end. (but they are not sure)  Now this bond has never been lodged until I came along 5 years later…

The tenant was getting very cheap rent. The owners decided that it was time to jack the rent up as she had been paying a pittance for so long.  Then the tenant jacked up.  There were so many maintainance issues that she didnt report to the owners apparently because she didn’t want to complain because she was getting cheap rent.  How dare they give her a second rent rise in 5 years !!! (tenant paying $170 a week!!!!)  The tenant wanted everything fixed and threatened CTTT.

I guess most of you by now are glad you arent me…

Tenant comes into my office and her and her daughter are crying because they do not want to leave the only home they have known for so long… bla bla bla.  My heart is bleeding – not.

Tenant then runs off to join a travelling show.  Then rent starts to not get paid.  I evict.

All of a sudden, I am the worlds biggest ass, and I recieve phone calls demanding to know where the bond is, that it has not been lodged etc etc etc…  I contact the tenant and give her the bond number of the bit that has been lodged. (by me)

Today I will go over and see what the property looks like now the tenant has vacated.  I have no condition report.  No photos’s.  No nothing.  I know the oweners are going to swear to god that the property was spotless when she moved in, and I do not have bond enough certainly to cover the cleaning or carpets.

Here I am procrastinating doing this outgoing by writing my story. 

Stupid self managing owners.

Boy this is an interesting forum! How did you go Kylie?? Hailey I like that you raised the question about what we can do as agents, possibly differently to prevent these negative experiences for everyone?

We have just had our own – unfortunately bad – experience of a property that was previously privately managed. We took over the management from another real estate, the property had been managed by the owner prior to that. Because of this, there was no ingoing condition report on file and we had the lovely situation where the tenants vacated (just after we took over) and no records to go on (written or photographic). It was ultimately difficult in some ways to determine what was acceptable and what was not. We have now lost the management, after communicating with both owner and tenants about various items at the property.

The owner thought we should have carried out an inspection and provided an ingoing condition report when we took over the management – and never accepted that a report done at that time would not have actually been an ingoing at all. While we were very understanding of the owner’s frustrations about the circumstances, he was very abusive to our staff, so we are a little relieved now he’s a former client (sad but true).

KYLIE ! ! My god thats a bad story! !

Doors off hinges, no cleaning done, chips in paint, rubbish left in yard sheds, all blinds need replacing… you can guess the rest.  Locks not working… I really can NOT do anything as I have no condition report.  Told the owners wife that the tenant has THEM by the balls, (Not ME) and they have to suck it up and get on with it.  She agreed.  Now I just have to tell her husband!! lol… that will be the difficult bit. 

Vallium anyone?

That’s a nasty one Kylie!! I don’t envy you!

Wow this discussion has gone crazy! It really was a rant for me with the faint hope of a solution and I’ve only just had the time to check back and unfortunately its great to see I’m not alone in this.

Mary – both sides used conveyancers (not solicitors) and it was really hard for me to get anything out of either of them! It’s easy to blame others I guess, but I relied on their “expertise” too much. I asked about the inventory being in the contract of sale, but told different answers from both conveyancers, and both the vendor and purchaser. I think I need to get a degree in convyancing. Luckily when the tenant vacated he left (what appeared) to be everything plus a portable air conditioner in working order – bonus yeay. The purchaser really had a case of having cake and eating it too. She was desperate for the property to settle on time, but wanted all the non-existant lease paperwork too. Without being the conveyancer myself, the only advice I could give the purchaser is that I didnt have the paperwork and she needed to decide what to do in regard to settlement.

Jodie – I like the idea of issuing clients a checklist for this sort of thing. It doesnt mean that I wont continue to attempt to source the paperwork, but its both a great resource for them prior to settling to take to their conveyancer and also a reminder of the work I am putting in for them!

Kylie – “What do you mean a rent paid to date?” is the private landlord favourite. I feel your pain. I just picked one up that doesnt even have a signed lease. The owner drew one up, but then when the tenant started to pay her rent, he trusted her enough not to push the issue – or lodge the bond. Cheap rent, bleeding heart, property managers are the devil – I feel your pain! Procratinating too – I’m with you. Good luck!

And thanks everyone – for the advice and making me feel like I’m not alone :)

M and M’s help :)