lies and BS from new tenant

[Marbo]

tenant moved in a month ago, reckon he's told more lies than my fingers and toes combined. he's been behind basically from the first week, moved in as bond was going through but never showed. now 2 weeks behind and also still no bond. he's got a family with him and seems decent enough, just has a large problem with telling the truth, oh and paying.

gut feel is give him the boot as I cant see it improving as nothing he says thats going to happen, ever happens.

interestingly if the bond didnt clear, does he actually have a formal tenancy agreement?

or should i just follow the tribunal path? he's had his 14 day notice which has expired. also 21 days in arrears

[Keys]

Yes, regardless of the state of the bond. There is a tenancy agreement.

Apply now for termination under Section 55 (a)

Don't bother discussing it with him, don't bother agreeing to time payment. Just boot him out.

[PTILoveYou]

Keys is right, get him out through tribunal asap!

[Owlectrician]

Hi Marbo,

I've been in the same boat in the past. If it starts out that way, you can expect it to stay that way. If it does by chance happen to rectify itself, it's only a matter of time before it happens again.

One thing I've learned is to make sure you have the bond before you hand over the keys.

One of my tenants in past, a beneficiary, stopped paying rent by cancelling his automatic payment from WINZ and investing in beer and loud parties. I managed to get him back on track after 3 weeks in arrears, which lasted all of about 2 months and he went back to drinking the rent money again. Wound up in the lengthy process of going through the tribunal process, all the while he was robbing the neighbors and making the area unpleasant in general. When he finally lost at the tribunal hearing, he couldn't leave because they were having a party that weekend. And then it was another week before I could get a bailiff in to kick him out, after which he camped on the front lawn for a week.

Whilst it doesn't sound quite as bad, I'd start the process as soon as possible so you can get him out and start seeing some return on your investment.

On a side note: I've heard of landlords paying out tenants to leave as it saves them the time in the court process and loss of rent. Is this a legal activity here?

[Marbo]

Hi Marbo,

I've been in the same boat in the past. If it starts out that way, you can expect it to stay that way. If it does by chance happen to rectify itself, it's only a matter of time before it happens again.

....

On a side note: I've heard of landlords paying out tenants to leave as it saves them the time in the court process and loss of rent. Is this a legal activity here?

funny isn't it though, from early on like week 2 i told him if it continued to be like this it wasnt going to last. you'd expect because he has a young family etc that he'd get his ship together. hes certainly old enough to know how to behave, not an early 20s partying, idiot. I wonder if his upbringing he just learnt to lie rather than come clean and say, hey look i havnt got any work and finding it hard etc etc... i took him on because of the family thing, he didnt drink, seemed to be an achiever with sports, national teams etc. it all sounded reasonable. sigh...

dont think its a case for paying him out. but good idea for others in future (fingers crossed dont have any more like this). more important to him will be a house for his family, so that'll freak him out. yeah, just weird, why would anyone behave like that...

[NomoneyNotalk]

Hi Marbo,

Sounds like one of my previous tenant. The bond was short and i had to talk to WINZ manager to collect the rest. After one week at the house, rent was not paid, and he paid me extra $50 a week to cover the arrears, but as soon as rent arrears are almost clear, he missed another week of rent. Never improved. Got him out through tribunal, and there was a punch hole on one of bedroom door, heaps of rubbish left in the garage.

So the only way to go is get him out asap through tribunal. Even without bond he is already in the house so you still need tribunal to get him out.

[Walter Ichikawa-Doyle]

You've been given pretty sound advice above, Marbo! No need to beat a dead horse (beat)!