Tenant/tradesman vent

2 days out from end of lease, and our tenants can't decide if they will be re-signing. They signed the last one weeks in advance, but this one they keep delaying, asking the RE to resend paperwork that they admit they got and then lost, just stuffing around. RE reckons they've applied for another house and are waiting to hear about it. I don't care if they wanna move, obviously they can live wherever they want, but a quick note to say they were looking to move elsewhere would've been much appreciated. We rely on this income so heavily, and now we may be forced to do without it until we can find another tenant. If they had warned us they were looking at moving, we could've had other applications at the ready.

Professor was over there doing works on Saturday - after 14 days written notice of course - and part of it was moving the wallmounted clothesline down lower so the wife could use it. The idiot tradie we had out there obviously though Shaq lives there :/ She came out earlier in the morning to bring the clothes horses in, but when Professor knocked to get her to come and make sure she was happy with it before they left, she refused to answer the door. I just don't get it, they've done it to me before when we went to inspect the storm damaged fence. I saw her peeking out the window, and I hadn't realised she was home, so I knocked on the door to introduce myself as I felt it was rude to just wander around her house, but she flat out refuses to answer the door.

And the frickin tradie - now it looks like the whole ceiling will need replacing in a few months, because of the water damage from the tiles he cracked and didn't bother to seal or even tell us about. Coz I've got thousands of dollars I can pull outta my butt to fix an entire ceiling. I'm so angry at this guy, and it's made even worse by the knowledge that I'm gonna hafta force him to take responsibility. I'm not looking forward to trying to serve him with the complaint paperwork.

Ahhh, fun fun fun!

That must be so frustrating from your side of things, as the owner.

Me as a tenant. I wouldn't tell the RE we were looking to move until I had been approved for another place. I know it must seem inconsiderate to the owner but if we don't find something but still have other people invading our home while the RE is looking for new tenants before we have even given notice.. No thanks.

Bugger about the tradie & the roof! How rude!

argh, so frustrating!

What are your options if they still haven't signed when the lease is up? I would have thought that if they didn't want to re-sign, that they'd have organised something by now. Can you get the agent to find somebody else to lease it? It's more than just inconsiderate - it's going to cost you money. When we rented in Melb, the landlord decided to sell the house. We had to go through all of the open inspections, get the dogs and ourselves out twice a week and also look for somewhere else to live. We cleaned the house before each open and put up with people going through 'our space' only for the landlord to decide 2 days prior to the auction that she'd changed her mind. It goes both ways - we were inconvenienced for the whole auction campaign. I'd say if the lease is up and they still haven't signed it, get the agent to start looking for somebody else to rent it.
Good luck, I hope you get something sorted out soon

Even if the lease ends isn't the tenant still required to give a certain amount of days notice before moving? I thought it was the same for landlords, even though the lease ends in 2 days, X amount of days notice must still be given. So if they tell you on the day the lease expires that they are going, you can still charge them rent (and recover it from the bond if they don't pay) for a certain length of time. 30 days or 60 days or something?

I understand what you're saying FJ, and I guess a lot of others do too, or there wouldn't be over 200 views and 4 responses ;) I do feel it's disrespectful though - at the end of the day I figure, they're living in MY house, I deserve a bit of respect as the landlord. We've gone out of our way to not inconvenience them during the year they've been there, I would've liked a bit of trust back, trust that we wouldn't be constantly organising home opens around them.

Once the lease ends they'd go on a week to week lease, and only be required to give a weeks notice.

Thankfully though, I got the call this afternoon that they'll be re-signing tomorrow morning. A big stress off!

That is great that they are resigning, Keike!! You must be so relieved, and I'm so glad you have had a bit of good news this week. :hug:

Just wondering though if you had a clause in your original agreement about the conditions of a periodic tenancy? If not, then they would move onto a period tenancy which is usually on a monthly basis, not weekly, and would need to give you a minimum 21 days to notice they were leaving (without cause), you would need to give them 60 day notice to vacate (without cause).

I thought I answered but my silly phone must have decided it didn't like my answer. It's irrelevant now but my suggestion was that if there is a bit of competition for rentals in your area give them the boot and get better tenants.

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I thought I answered but my silly phone must have decided it didn't like my answer.

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Sorry to totally hijack the thread Keike but I totally need Onyx's phone permanently installed in my brain...computer says no

Hahaha, that's one of the software upgrades hey Onyx? No more need for mods, the computer does it all! Very Skynet....

With Professor losing his job this week, and a few other personal things, I just don't have the sanity to find another tenant. Apart from this they've been fine, maybe a little annoying but they probably have their reasons. I'm just glad we've got the guaranteed income now, or at least a leg to stand on if they do decide to cut and run.

I'm just going by what the RE told me the other day LS - I wanted to up the rent if they were in there without a lease, not hugely, but enough for them to pull their finger out and make a decision. Apparently I'm not allowed to do that though, I've gotta give them 60 days notice before upping it. It's a good idea for next time though :)