QUESTION: A tenant moved out and left piles of junk, four sofas, four mattresses and 10 rubbish bags full of clothes.  I know which unit was listed for lease and I also tracked a trail of rubbish back there.

Can we can charge the cost of the rubbish removal to the owner and they can debit the cost from tenant’s bond? – Preet (via Forum).

ANSWER:  One correspondent on the Flat Chat Forum suggested asking your strata manager to chase up the owner or real estate  agent to remove the rubbish at their own expense.

“Owners often don’t care what their tenants have done but real estate managers are usually a lot more responsible ,” says this FlatChatter.

“The Real Estate Property Manager can’t make a claim against the tenant’s bond in the circumstances that you describe,” says Whale, another Forum regular, “but some will approach their former tenants about removal of the rubbish that they’ve left behind.”

Whale also has a plan for future incidents: create a by-law that passes liability to the property owner for what’s left behind when a tenant does a runner.

“That’s what we did it worked a treat,” he says.  Read the original posts, responses and a lot more by clicking right HERE.