Buzzy--Bee

One of my tenants is currently painting a bedroom in one of my houses as they are having a baby. They also want to put up shelves. Provided these are well done, I have no problem with either. If either detracts from the property (eg if they painted the room in lurid orange) then they have to put it back the way it was.

BB

Margaret3

Our landlord seems to favor lurid orange

GarryP

Thing to remember is, it's not yours till you've paid that last penny. Anything goes wrong (such as what might cause a 50% housing price crash) and the bank can, and does, kick you out, take the house, sell it for a song, pocket most of the cash in what you owe and 'fees'. Add to that the cost of the interest rate over inflation, and you'll pay twice the headline price over time. Easy.

Mortgages are like a ball and chain, created to make one person rich - the bank manager.

Owning property can make sense, in the right circumstances - but it's not the sure thing that's sold to you. And the best approach is to put 100% down.

Zen10

I've read that this is a popular approach in Germany. As per the programme I already mentioned, Germans have a very different attitude to society (stricter anti-noise laws, rights for tenants, very little credit card use, preferring cash, etc) and apparently it's very common in Germany for people to rent for much of their working lives and then buy outright for their retirements.

That's all good and well in Germany, which has either the lowest or second lowest housing stock in the OECD depending on who you believe. In that environment it's possible to save for a property while still having money to live on. Australia is one of the least affordable countries in the OECD, where saving outright for a house is a ridiculous suggestion unless you're on a very strong wage. Where I live, a modest detached will cost you at least $600,000. If you could save a whopping $1000 per month (notwithstanding interest accrued) you'll have enough in the bank to buy it after just 50 years. That's how you spell "joke".

roaringmouse

There was one time our agent wrote to us with a date for an inspection. When I checked, it would have been less than 6 months (short by 1 month I think), so I wrote to the agent quoting the relevant part of the Residential Tenancies Act saying this inspection can't take place on that date. They cancelled the inspection.

It's not a matter of keeping them sweet - it is in the tenancies act that the tenant can exercise their rights given in the act without consequence. What your agent/landlord was doing could have been reported as they were not allowing you "quiet enjoyment" of the property. A tenant can have a Breach of Duty Notice issued to the landlord for that.

Pollyana

I've kicked up a couple of times about inspection times. Working nights I refuse to give up my sleep for an inspection and I've got them to change it twice so far but its taken some doing. The agents aren't keen but the landlord seems to be on my side as a last court of appeal - an inspection at midday between two night shifts is just unacceptable but its like getting blood out of a stone to get the agents to see my point of view.

"Oh well, just get up for the time we are there then go back to sleep" is their suggestion.

roaringmouse

Just sleep naked without covers on next time, then they'll soon not want to inspect at that time in the future.

Pollyana

Brisbanefan

We lived in one rental which was at the top end of the rental market. We were there almost 2 years and had inspections every 3 months with glowing reports telling us what wonderful tenants we were. Then when we informed the agent that we would be leaving to move out of the area, they schedules an inspection within days (we were leaving slightly before the end of the lease, but paying to the end of lease as per the contract) they found no end of problems and made out that we were living in a pig sty! The rental market had dropped considerably in the time since we took on the lease and there was no way it was going to rent for what we were paying. We had the property professional cleaned with an 'end of lease clean' but the agents still contacted us to say it was not good enough and that they were charging us $800 to send their cleaners in. I knew that this was highly unlikely as I had already scrubbed the kitchens and bathrooms to an inch of their lives myself whilst passing time when the packers were loading. As we had already left the area I could not dispute this in person and for the sake of drawing a line under it and moving on and not have a black mark against us, we paid up. But it does go to show that these agents not to be trusted.

Zen10

If you have a receipt for professional cleaning work and they still try and steal your money using cleaning as an excuse I think it's off to court.

Buzzy--Bee

Depends how good the cleaning company are. I have this situation in one of my properties but the cleaning company had not touched the oven which was filthy and all the blinds were covered in a years worth of dust.

BB

BadgeIsBack

Did the pelmet belong to the landlady?

We have a huge mirror above our fireplace - life without hanging pictures would be tough...I sometimes rest small pictures on top of low bookcases.

We left a house cleaner than we found it - and it had just been renovated.
The agency were impressed!

louie

We bought our future home in Australia 6 years ago, with tenants in situ and not have seen it ourselves (bought at auction whilst we were in the UK). The place was tatty and decades out of date as the previous owners had not spent a cent on it in years. Tenants are still there, paying considerably less than market rent for an updated place, and the owners (us) have still not spent a cent on it, never having been asked to. They can do what they like to it, we'll be pulling the place apart when we finally move in.

paddyo

lol......Noooooo......I wasn't referring to anyone else, just our experience