Hi there,
I need some advice from the property agents and investor landlords here. Being a landlord myself for a property in Wandoan, I had engaged an agent to look after my property which up to now, tenancies have been short term spanning from 1 week to 12 weeks. Recently, I was told that water usage within excess limit has to be paid by owner. Fine, that could be something legislation states which I overlooked. Then, I was told that as there are only tenants for 1 to 2 weeks closing to year end, so I have to transfer power bills to my name, and tenants will backpay me $10 each day for the usage. Fine. I hooked up the power under my name. Now, I have received a bill from agent for lawn mowing work. the invoice came on Dec for work done in 1 Nov 2012. This is starting to puzzle me. Is it right of them to backcharge the lawnmowing cost to me instead to the tenants, although that happened in transition of tenants?
For such short term rentals, do owners have to look after all the charges?
It starting to bother me whether to continue sourcing for regional properties as there are so limited property agents looking after a certain suburb.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Where is Wandoan?
You’re lucky if the tenant contributes anything toward outgoings especially with short leases. The rent should reflect this rate.
It is somwhere in / around Miles area 30mins north… fairly close to Taroom, past Dalby area.
Why are you paying the electricity and lawnmowing? Did you offer to do so in the lease?
Jacqui Middleton | Middleton Buyers Advocates
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Wandoan is probably a good hour past Miles about 2.5 hrs in from Dalby at a guess
Short leases probably need to be done this way but should have been in your lease that you signed with the agent. They shouldn't be able to change it to suit them when they feel like it if it is not already there.
You need to check your lease
No point changing agents very much doubt there is more than one unless you can get someone from Miles or St George to manage it, but on short lease's I doubt it
You should be getting more than enough in rent out that way from all the mining companies so shouldn't be hurting you too much
I think you should add electricity use and water to tenants' rents. It is usually how hotels do it and you have something similar to them (meaning short terms leases). If you have not done it already, it should fix your problem.
To answer your question, yes the owner needs to pay these charges on a short term lease.
Unless you have a 6 or 12 month rental contract in place, you will need pay these expenses. From my experience having several properties in the same region, the owner usually pays for the yard maintenance, water and sometimes power for short term leases.
Once you have a long term lease with a contract these charges can then be passed onto the tenant.
The company that rents the property for two weeks cannot be expected to pay for mowing, and when the property is empty for a month someone has to pay the expense. The high rent for short term weekly or monthly rentals is there to cover these extras.
I would not be worried at all.
The agent has many short term rentals and I have had good dealings with them for over 3 years.
Hi all,
Thanks for all the answers. Have been trying to sort things out with the agent. Not to perfection, but this rental manager has been really understanding and systematic. Hope she would be there long to inculcate her system of management into the agency.
Have asked other agents from Miles. They are not interested in taking the management due to the distance. I shall leave with the present agency with the management.
Cheers.
Unfortunately that is often the case with locations in the bush. You may be lucky enough to find a decent local agent but will find other agents are unwilling to take something on such a distance away if they are not local.
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