Repair work and tenants

[Arni]

Hi all, i am possibly about to become a landlord for first time, so pls excuse newb question..if I needed to do repair work to my investment house and the tenants were required to leave for a period of time (say, for safety reasons), am I under any obligation to provide them with an alternative place to stay or compensate them?
thanks

[Leftette]

Not sure about OBLIGATED, but if the are fantastic tenants and the time is a short one, then you may want to contribute to the difference in cost of temp accom (and do not charge them rent). But if they are drelbs or the time is long, just remove them before embarking on said work.

[flyernzl]

Tenants want the repair work completed.
Tenants don't want the doing of it.
Unlike owner-occupiers who are prepared to put up with the disruption in order to get the job completed.

If pushed hard, tenants are likely to say something like "Well OK, but I don't want any tradespeople here before I leave at 9 in the morning and they must be out of the place by the time I have collected my kids and returned at 3.30pm each day".
So that means that your tradies will spend the first hour of their working day sitting in the van doing the newspaper crossword and the last hour in the pub, so the job will take longer and guess who will be paying the increased cost?

So very much try and get anything but very minor work done between tenants.

[artemis]

Don't forget the pack in / pack out every day. There's another hour at least.

[AeroRob]

Not sure about OBLIGATED, but if the are fantastic tenants and the time is a short one, then you may want to contribute to the difference in cost of temp accom (and do not charge them rent). But if they are drelbs or the time is long, just remove them before embarking on said work.

I agree with this. Try to avoid bigger projects while a tenant is living there, but if it must be done, I think what Leftette said is a good idea.

[skid]

One possible option would be to put it off until vacation time

[BigDreamer]

I had major leak repair work done during a period where the property was tenanted but o had given the tenant 3 months heads up. You might want to try to talk to the tenant first and see if it is ok with them then don't charge them for rent, of course.

[skid]

Of course it also depends on what it is--sanding a window or plaster is alot more disruptive than putting on some cupboard handles etc.

[Rosco]

Hi Arni,

From a tax perspective you need to consider whether the work is repairs or an asset.

If you have just purchased the property, then it is likely to be classified as a cost of buying the property, and therefore an asset. With no more building depreciation, this will mean you get no deduction at all. So for example if you painted the house straight away after buying, this is not a repair and is not claimable

So with new property purchased you have two options

1) do the renovations, major repairs straightaway, and hopefully get a better tenant and better rent. But no tax deduction.

Or 2) wait a reasonable period of time, probably 12 months, then do the repairs. You still need to look at whether the repairs are really repairs or in fact an asset, but it gets you away from a cost of buying the property. So if you painted the house for example after 12 months, this would then be a repair and deductible as a repair

Ross

[mrsaneperson]

Excellent advice above as always from Rosco .

I had to replace a leaking conservatory for my tenants .I got them to sign that they were all ok with the work to be carried out..The job took about a week . This avoids any misunderstanding.