Author // Georgina Auton, Place Graceville
Choosing to make your family home or property into an investment property is a big step.
There are so many questions that you don’t know the answers to (yet), so the property management team at Place Graceville chatted to us about five questions and answers that owners often ask before renting out their property.
1. What utilities are the tenants responsible for?
Everything, except for water in some cases!
Water is massive.
In order to charge your tenants for water consumption at your investment property, you must obtain a water compliance certificate from a professional and the property must be individually metered.
The certificate allows you to oncharge all water consumption costs to the tenants.
The property also has to be individually metered, for example, in a house.
This is because townhouses or units, water consumption is divided by number of units so that may not be fair on all tenants who may not use as much water as their neighbours.
2. How do I make sure I’m getting good tenants?
There are a number of things that property managers will do before tenants are passed onto the owner for approval.
There will be previous rental checks, employment checks and of course, the application form!
The potential tenants will also be checked against a tenant database.
Once the property managers have processed the application(s), they will send them through to the owner for approval.
The property manager has to be neutral in these circumstances.
3. What am I responsible for when the tenancy begins?
The owners are responsible for ensuring that maintenance is attended to within the legislative timeframes.
If maintenance is reported, you have seven days to respond to maintenance within reason.
This also involves understanding the difference between general and emergency maintenance.
4. What if my tenant doesn’t leave the property in a reasonable condition at the end of their tenancy?
An exit condition report is conducted within 3 business days of end tenancy.
This report is to determine any variations from the entry report excluding fair wear and tear.
The bond that’s held with the RTA at the start of the tenancy is used should the tenant fail to rectify any issues brought up at vacate.
Tenants are provided with a reasonable time frame to go back and rectify any items brought to their attention following the exit.
5. What are routine inspections?
Routine inspections are conducted to make sure the tenants are maintaining the property during their lease agreement.
Legislation is that inspections are carried out once every six months, however different real estate agents will always provide what they feel is best practice.
This could be entering the property every 17-19 weeks excluding busy periods and public holidays.
Are there any other questions you have or want further clarification? Comment below!