Tenancy Agreements

[drelly]

Up until now I've been using the standard tenancy services agreement but I've found that this simply isn't broad enough and so I'm looking into drafting my own or adding appendices to the standard one. What sort of agreements and additional clauses do you guys use?

(reposted from tenancy forum due to lack of response!)

[cube]

Hi drelly,

We use one, that unfortunately I can't post because it is copyrighted!, that includes all sorts of clauses that spell out the responsibilities of the tenant.

E.g. no pets, no more than 'n' people, no more than 'x' cars (all of which must be roadworthy), cleaning receipts for carpet and curtains to be provided at the end of the tenancy.

A lot of these things are things that are fair and reasonable, but don't usually get written down, so put on your thinking cap and construct a contract that suits you, and get your lawyer to check it over.

You can (theoretically) put anything in, so long as it doesn't breach the Tenancy Act. And likewise, any clause can be over-ridden by written agreement (cats being the usual reason!)

Happy contract writing

cube

[tamara]

Hi

the PM we have include such things as not repairing cars on site, no cars that dont run on site, the number of people residing in the property and a host of other very reasonable things.


Maybe it might be worth asking so PMs what clauses they have in their agreements.

Tamara

[Rach]

Draft Tenancy Agreement

Hi guys...
We currently have a draft Tenancy Agreement we will be passing to our lawyer and after reading some of the topics on these forums, it occurred to me that some of you may like to make submissions as to the content. If you would like to, please email your submissions to [email protected] by Friday 5th, March. (sorry it is so soon) We will also be submitting the agreement to our privacy consultant to fully ensure this agreement will be water-tight. When the agreement has been approved, we will make it available to download (at no charge) from our website. All and any ideas welcome...we will look at all of them (providing we aren’t TOO inundated!) and include everything applicable in the draft. Then we will leave it up to our legal eagles to determine the final cut. We are hoping to have it available in around 8 weeks time (depending on how long it stays at the lawyers)
Cheers,
Rachel

[Glenn]

I hate to sound a know all but I have found over the years that when it comes to a show down at the tribunal the adjudicator does not take a lot of notice of all those extra clauses.
However the big thing is 90% off all tenancy agreements do not ever get to the tribunal. So really if you can convince the tenant to do something by being reasonable then you have won.
All those special clauses about carpet champooing are great ( I have special instructions I give the tenant when they give notice) but really when it comes to a show down all you can claim is reasonable costs. You are unable to force the tenant to shampoo the carpet despite having it in the contract. The same goes for numbers of people in houses, number of cars, and so it goes on. I have had comment that the adjudicator has made mention re smoking in houses, this needs a special clause to claim for the clean up at the end. Really the RTA does not deal with lots of things that can make some tenancies very poor. So if I do not like what is going on like too many people there or cars being repaired or what ever then all you can reasonably do is issue a 90 day notice to terminate the tenancy. This is actually faster than going into the tribunal, getting a work order to remove the dog or car or what ever then having to go back and face more arguments that the dog was really not there and is harmless and so forth.
As for lawyers. Really what do any of them know about the tribunal. They are not permitted anywhere near the tribunal and as such the tenancy issues become a lost art form for them.
The tenancy tribunal adjudicators are a law unto themselves. What other court judges themselves for rehearings like the TT.

[muppet]

Hui Glenn

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience at the cliff face.

Your views and the sharing of your experiences are greatly appreciated by most on this forum.

Regards

[cube]

Hui Glenn

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience at the cliff face.

Your views and the sharing of your experiences are greatly appreciated by most on this forum.

Regards

Seconded, although you may have meant the "coal face". Unless you are implying that Glenn spends most of his time at the beach......

Happy sunbathing (hah!)

cube

from a very wet Auckland.

[Glenn]

Yeh
I am not too sure I am at the top pushing them off or at the bottom emptying their pockets.
Coal faces are not the only place you can get a black face.
You may well joke.

I had a call a few weeks ago from a lady who had three tenancies in our most infamous street. She had been doing what ever people do on the beach when the person next to her (it has been so long since I have had time to go to the beach to notice that it was crowded these days) told her to call me. Yes fair dinkum for a change this is a true story. The "client" who was telling the story had time to go to the beach because I was managing his two properties.

Well out of three tenancies she had, two were seriously in arrears, two had no written tenancy agreement, (one of the two in arrears and one ok), and she only had the their first names of the females in each of the two flats without agreements.

Well since meeting her (she had got out of her beach gear by then) Opps what did I just say....

I have got one tenant to increase his weekly payments by $50 and the other one is heading into the tribunal this week as well as increasing her payments. She has been trying to intimidate me but being a white male honkee with no feelings left it is like water off a ducks back.

I got to meet all the "nice" defaulters and have created tenancy agreements for them.
The other really BIG issue was I have carried out a bit of simple maintenance on the flats and this makes them like putty in my hands.


So folks must be off.
I had a tenant just ring me after a stand off last Monday about her moving out of a flat on time I left her gear in place and now she has come to her senses and has asked me nicely if I can move it all for her to her new place.
All she has achieved is loosing all of her bond.
Silly girl.

Glenn

[muppet]

Hi Guys

At least both coal and cliff start with the letter 'c'.

Oh well, youse guys no wat I meen that Glenn's sharing of his real life experiences in dealing with tenants and landlords make for interesting reading.

Regards