Property managers, you are equally to blame if tenants are living in squalor
How is this allowed to happen? For months now, I’ve been sharing with Property Observer some of the conditions I’ve personally seen tenants have to endure. Things haven’t changed much in this time.
While we asked before “Are your tenants living in squalor?” and aimed it towards the investors who own the property themselves, it’s time for the real estate agents to get off their high horses.
Stop blaming the owners, stop blaming the tenants, you are just as responsible.
I was asked to attend a property inspection as a potential vendor had asked me to look at placing his property on the market. The slideshow above is what I encountered.
You can see leaking ceilings and mould on walls throughout the unit. Not only that, but mould and fungus growing in the kitchen cupboards and toilet floors and walls. The windows are unable to be opened due to fungus and a build-up of dirt along the tracks. You can even see the rising damp on most walls!
To be downright honest and frank with you, it makes my blood boil. There was a child living in this unit, as well as an elderly person.
I asked myself: how did it become possible for the dwelling to reach this state?
And no, it’s not self-managed. This property is managed by a brand name agency in the area.
I showed the owner the photos and gave him a quick report on the condition. I say quick as I could not spend anything more than five minutes in the unit due to the odour and the pungent smell of the mould.
I also asked the vendor if he had received any mid-term inspection reports from the managing agent, if they had been invited to attend the inspections and why the tenants had been allowed to live like this. Much could be gathered from the silence and the shake of the head in disbelief as he ran his eyes over the photos.
My straight to the point recommendations were these:
- Sack the property manager
- Take the property manager to tribunal and recover all management fees charged
Quite frankly, they have not performed their job accordingly over the four years or so that they had managed this property.
When will landlords and property management teams take matters more seriously? Oh yeah, I forgot, it’s not their fault if the tenants choose to live like this. It’s ridiculous.
I believe that if periodic inspections actually took place and reports were not doctored, landlords would take their business to management teams that place value and care on the landlord’s property as well as the tenant’s living conditions.
It is true that property management is an underpaid job in the most part, but if you take on the responsibility then you have a duty to provide the service. Alternatively, you can simply get out if you’re not going to do anything other than collect rent and charge fees.
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Is your tenant living in squalor? This video is hard to watch