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We had a similar situation in our plan but the sign was on the nature strip. After the sale & after what we deemed as a reasonable amount of time, one of our owners – a big burly guy – removed it & took it into the real estate agent’s office & left it there – he didn’t say a word to them when he dropped it off – it was classic – the agent did not say a word either & there were no repercussions, although I should mention the big guy was already not impressed with the agent as the agent had lied to him about certain things when he purchased his unit.
Long live strata legislation I say! In my experience, those whom are happy to comply with them, have nothing to hide & are willing to consider the impact to ALL & are prepared to do the pre-planning/pre-work to ensure the rights & obligations of all are acknowledged, respected & observed. My opinion is that not everyone is suited to strata living & those whom want the freedom to do what they want, when they want, without regard to the impact to others, should wise up & buy a free-standing house.
I actually do self-manage my investment property (always have) AND I live next door! Some tenants agree to all the terms up-front then proceed to do exactly what they want – it’s all “yes, yes, of course” at first then it’s excuses &/or arguments about why they should have the right to do as they please, which comes before the welfare of the property or other residents. I pick them up on breeches when I notice or when other residents complain. Although, I am happy to say, I have had some wonderful tenants & have remained personal friends with them after they leave but I still would not want them feeling like they have a say in the running of the scheme to suit their personal circumstances at the time. Most of my tenants stay 6 months however a few have stayed 2-3 years. Luckily, most don’t get away with it for long. Also, self-managing the strata scheme is becoming more & more attractive.
Thanks. I wish it was as easy as tightening up the rules however, when things happen like informing a tenant that the unit is non-smoking & then when doing the final inspection, due to the stench, I ask them if they smoked inside the unit & they say “I know it’s non-smoking but I had to as it was cold outside in winter on the terrace.” or informing the tenant that one small pet is OK, then finding they have installed 7 pets or informing the tenant that they should not place candles on the shelves of the dividing wall as it will burn the wood above & then have them tell me “I know you told me not to do it but I did burn candles there & the wood is burned, sorry.” plus many more examples like this (including a particularly interesting episode where they had a huge McCaw bird in a cage inside a tiny 1 bedroom unit plus numerous mouse cages – talk about stench), I just have to shake my head & hope for the best with the next tenant. In my experience, they tend to do what they want despite any rules. Guess I have to laugh, or I’ll cry or sell the investment property & invest my hard earned cash elsewhere. I’ll look forward to the adventures leasing my place brings with the new legislation. Good luck everyone!
@Strata Plan of 4 by the beach said:
…why is she still there? – lease is up very soon & she is out!Don’t forget that you still have to give her 30 days notice that you are planning to end the agreement when it runs out, otherwise it will roll over from a fixed term agreement to a periodic agreement under which termination without grounds will require a 90-day agreement.
Thanks for that reminder although I am well aware of that & have a calendar posted on the fridge where I am crossing off the days. I will give her 42 days notice to be exact to be more than fair over the Christmas/holiday period. Unfortunately, I am unable to talk to her about her indiscretions & work things out as all my attempts so far have met with weak excuses, odd rationales & argumentative behaviour as well as blatently ignoring my instructions about caring for the property to avoid damage or information about the rules etc – apparently she knows better than I do.
You CAN take photos to use as evidence, I have tested this in the local courts, successfully. I took photos and frecorded footage from video surveillance cameras (as was suggested by both the Chamber Magistratate and my Lawyer) of the following: all the letterboxes; the common lawn area outside the front of my unit; the driveway; the car park; the balcony of another unit where the resident was on the balcony at the time. I also took audio recordings which the Magistrate was more than willing to listen to thus, proving the Police wrong whom advised me that the person I was recording had to provide me with permission to record them although, it might depend on the particular Magistrate whom is hearing the case (should it get that far). I did initially put up signs in my windows that recording devices were being used but the Police told me this was not necessary to use my video surveillanc cameras so I took them down. Often the actual gathering of the evidence is not illegal, it is the ability to use them as evidence that is debatable. Call the Police if you are unsure, they will clarify or go to a free legal advice appointment in your local community to ask specific questions.
…why is she still there? – lease is up very soon & she is out!
Don’t forget that you still have to give her 30 days notice that you are planning to end the agreement when it runs out, otherwise it will roll over from a fixed term agreement to a periodic agreement under which termination without grounds will require a 90-day agreement.
Kangaroo, you are making so much sense! I just posted on another thread (before reading this thread – my post is awaiting moderation so Jimmy will probably pick this up & direct me to this thread – sorry Jimmy).
In my SP, where Option A is the default, owners & tenants (& even a past Managing Agent) considered part (2) to rule out part (1) so they felt they could do what they liked regarding pets. The result? In a tiny one bedroom unit, a large dog, 2 small dogs, a cat, a snake, live mice (to feed the snake). In another tiny one bedroom unit, a yappy small dog who would bark, cry, howl & rip apart the screen door (bye-bye bond) when the owner was away (the front door was left open). In a 2 bedroom unit, 1 very loud bird who the owner liked to sing to, again, very loudly on an otherwise quiet & peaceful mornings/afternoon, a small yappy dog who was never on a leash & defecated on common property (not picked up by the owner) & would rush as residents and visitors (including small children), chase our beloved wildlife away etc. (I know Jimmy will say this is an extreme case – no arguments there but after being through this to some degree over & over, it get’s real old).
People wonder why owners do not like pets, I have had approximately 10 tenants in 11 years & experienced other tenants of other owners (I live at the property as well as lease a unit there) & I am sorry to say, they ALL have been irresponsible in some way (noise, collecting mail, clothes line issues, damage to the unit, etc) & those with pets have been particuarly so, – maybe we have just had back luck but now pets are a zero tolerance issue for our SP. The other owner/occupiers agree. The legislation can change anyway they want it to but we will NOT be forced to put up with irresponsible tenants & their pets no matter what!
HI David, I bought into an ‘unusual’ strata scheme that after years of disuptes over many issues due to the strange/incorrect way it was converted into a strata property, the Department of Lands told me they use it as a case study in what NOT to do when they are educating their staff. My advice is to put your sneakers on & run … fast … away from it. I chose not to do the same as by the time I realised the magnitude of the problems & the implications, I had already sunk a lot of time, energy & money into the process of recitifying the problems. If I could go back, I would not have bought into it.
Hi Wade, I recognise your original post was from a number of months ago & therefore, you have probably sorted out your issue but if you are still interested, here is a reason why direct debit is the preferred way to pay for landlords. I now insist on this & make it a condition of renting the property due to my experience with my investment property over the past 10 years. The short reason is that the tenant is able to rely on having a place to come home to every day/week/fortnight/month to live in & the owner should be able to rely on having the rent for this place paid excactly on the day it is due every day/week/fortnight/month but unfortunately the only way to ensure this happens is a direct debit due to human nature & human error.
The long reason is, my bank takes my mortagage payment for my investment property out of my account every week on a Friday. Therefore, I need the rent to hit my account on the same Friday each week to cover this however I don’t mind fortnightly or monthly payments as I can adjust my budget for any frequency.
I manage the rental property myself as I live in the same suburb & used to explain this to tenants & ask that if they choose use direct deposit, they need to do this on the Wednesday so it can be processed & hit my account on the Friday – the rent is due on Saturdays. I have had too many problems with teants forgetting to deposit on the Wednesday & either do it late, so it ends up hitting my bank account on the Monday or Tuesday or following Wednesday which means they have stayed in the property for 3 or 4 or 5 days without paying for it (this becomes a problem for a whole host of other reasons which are different topics such as giving notice & exiting a rental property).
Some have forgotten to pay altogether or a bit short that week so end up being 1 week or more in arrears. I think some of them think that because they have paid a bond, it’s no big deal however these are the same tenants whom cause damage (not maliciously or intentionally) usually by doing careless things & they don’t get all of their bond back anyway after the repairs have been paid for.
The reasons/excuses I have been given for paying after the due date are: I had to work overtime & was too tired to remember, I got busy, I was sick, etc. Well guess what? If there was a direct debit in place, they don’t have to remember so it’s easier for them too. Can you imagine if I gave those excuses to my bank for being late paying my mortgage? It might sound harsh to some tenants but you have to pay BEFORE you stay & I am providing a home for them every week/forntnight/month so it is only fair that they pay for the priviledge every week/fortnight/month by the due date. If all tenants considered paying their rent a priority & never stuffed up with this, I would feel differently but I need to protect my interests & minimise risk. Interestingly, the best tenants I have had, never had a problem with paying via direct debit, they did not incur any extra costs & they were able to stop the payments easily when they stopped paying rent. I don’t understand what the drama is with doing it this way. Now I know if someone objects to this, they are not the tenant I want.
Our Managing Agent just started emailing us all quite a while back (which we are all happy with) although I don’t recall seeing a reduction in their fees/costs though, interesting.
Words like ‘permission’ or ‘approval in writing’ do not matter to some people. They only take notice of the general gist of the communication/by-law/etc & view the requirements mentioned as a formality & unnecessary. Similarly, in my strata plan, an owner who was taken to task for unapproved building works, some structural, appeard to learn his lesson but simply changed from totally doing his own thing to ‘notifying’ the Executive Committee, via the Managing Agent, after the fact, then, when challenged again, improved somewhat by ‘notifying’ the Managing Agent a couple of days before doing whatever it was that required ‘permission’. He never quite got to the seeking permission beforehand stage so the EC could actually consider the request or ask for clarification or actually provide approval or dissapprove. Some people choose not to grasp that they have to wait for a result of their application/request. Unless you are willing to do all the chasing for compliance of the actual wording of the by-law, it is dangerous to ‘imply’ via the wording that the request is likely to be agreed with.
I agree with the original post & like the replies. Personally, I have found that unless you want to spend time & energy regularly, at best – negotiating & at worst – arguing with other owners/tenants who come & go regarding each matter they want to raise (usually, in their own best interests rather than for all) & then dealing with the results of the ‘deal’ that is struck etc, it is better & more clean cut, black & white, clear/fair to all if the rules are expected to be adhered to & non-compliance enforced. Even then, you will get the rogues whom choose to interpret the rules the way they like, for their own benefit & some of whom will resort to charm/manipulation/nastiness to get their own way if they sense there is any scope or leeway to go around the rules – then they usually push the boundaries anyway & bingo, you potentially have damaged relationships & an uncomfortable living situation. If any exceptions are to be granted, it is best to have these approved in the most formal, legal way possible, again to be crystal clear & to minimise miscommunications.
peterepete, I am interested to hear how you went. I am in a similar situation. I have learned it is best to say no upfront to these requests as giving an inch, usually results in a mile being taken. Pet owners living in strata are rarely responsible or thoughtful of others, in my experience anyway.