Your tenant giving you sleepless nights?
You’ve just bought a spiffy new apartment in a Complex and plan on renting it out. So, now you’ve got the tenant and the signed contract. You sit back and smile, knowing that your investment is secure for a year. The money will start trickling in.
In an ideal world, the tenant in your investment unit in a Sectional Title complex is quiet, well behaved and pays the rent regularly to cover the monthly levies and slowly pay off your bond for you.
As I said… in an ideal world.
All too soon your reliable tenant’s in arrears with his rental! You can’t pay your bond or the monthly levies owing to the Body Corporate.
Complaints start rolling in… your tenant is smoking in non-smoking areas of the complex; he’s arguing with the neighbours. The cherry on the top – raucous, all-night parties!
When the letter from the Body Corporate arrives addressed to you, demanding payment of the levies and complaining that your tenant is rude, ill-disciplined and obnoxious, you blow a fuse. You haven’t done anything wrong!
Sorry for you. According to Sectional Title law, you are responsible for your tenant. You have to pay the outstanding levies or face the Body Corporate issuing summons against you. You also have to control your tenant’s behaviour or you will face separate legal action on this score.
Once you’ve simmered down, write to the Body Corporate explaining your situation. Try to get them on your side. Show that you are trying to sort out the problems and be sure to keep them in the loop when you communicate with your tenant.
Now write to your tenant: Place him in breach of the lease agreement due to non-payment of rental and any other amounts and warn him about causing trouble in the complex. (This is the first step in cancelling the lease agreement. You must follow this course of action so that you can later evict the tenant should he refuse to leave.)
You may want to issue summons against the tenant for the outstanding rental at the same time – this can often scare them into getting their act together and you might not have to proceed with any further legal action.
Don’t take the law into your own hands by changing the locks. Any tenant with a bit of fight just needs to google and will instantly know that what you’ve done is illegal. They can be in and out of court within a day with an order compelling you to give them access to the unit. And you will be responsible for the costs of that order.
