Bluey

Can anyone please advise about references for Renting Property down under. I believe that an agent will ask for them before letting a property to you, but we've only ever been house owners and so have no references from previous landlords.

Has anyone else been in a similar position and had problems with this?

Thanks,
Bluey




Now working my notice, Adelaide very, very, very soon.......

Gibson

jopaulss

We rented with Executive reality and they never asked for any references , i told them we had some ( from the uk agents we rented off prior to coming and a statement from bank saying mortage had been paid ) they said that was ok so never showed it , they only want your money !!! We are now with a private landlord nice guy , we asked reality for a reference and he did ask for it , so i would bring references.
Joanne

hevs

Lynnj had good advice on this one. Get a reference from you estate agent to say that the house was in good order when you left it. Also from your mort. company to say you always paid on time etc.

mrladyboy

Our agent ("Elders" in Asquith, near Hornsby, North of Sydney) said "you seem like the sort of people the landlord is looking for". Neither of us had a job, she had met us twice, we had no references.

The agents only get two weeks rent as their commission payment, so they put in the amount of effort to match. Bring references if you can of course, but the agents don't really care.

Out of interest, if you were to make up a written reference, how much effort do you really think the agent would put into verifying it? ;-)

Good luck. We moved over 5 weeks ago and are loving every minute. It's well worth the long wait for the visa.

spuds

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mrladyboy
Our agent ("Elders" in Asquith, near Hornsby, North of Sydney) said "you seem like the sort of people the landlord is looking for". Neither of us had a job, she had met us twice, we had no references.

This sort of Ozzie laid-back attitude is brilliant! When we were in Mel last year we had booked to hire a Saab convertible which it turned out I wasn't old enough to drive. We got off the plane really excited and then the woman in the car hire agency said there was a problem. She phoned her boss and could be heard saying things like "She looks like a really good driver!!". Picture me after straight 22 hr flight from UK, I woudn't have let me push a supermarket trolly!

I got to drive it and thankfully didn't get so much as a scratch, bit lucky really as dread to think how much that would have cost them........ then again there was that incident with the roo but that was a different car and they didn't seem to notice.......

Bluey

Thanks everyone, I'll be in touch with the Building Society tomorrow for a reference (assuming they dont laugh at me like the cashpoint always does)

Merlot

Agreed that most Real Estate's here are more casual but some can be real hell, usually when you leave as they pick on the smallest thing even if you treat the place like a palace. Universal I imagine.

Do bring as many references and copies of statements as you can. Friends of ours here in Australia rented their house to a family that just arrived from the UK to live.

They asked for extra bond money - 6 months to be precise instead of the usual 6 weeks rent in advance. They were recommended to ask for this via their Property Manager at the Real Estate office. The family from the UK paid up without question.

Good luck.

karawara88

AccessRealty in Perth asked for no references, when moving into property its an idea to take digital pics of any problems, marks on the wall, damage etc.

As Merlot said they can be quite picky when you leave, the inventory we were asked to sign was way out of date and listed things not even in the apartment, some things very understated ie. marks on the wall size of 5 cents piece, where in fact they were size of a $10 note.

Couple of photos safe guards you should there be any discrepency when you leave.

Bluey

Great advice, I'll get clicking as soon as we get in.

Thanks,
Blue