Rent not being paid?
I don’t know if it's a sign of changed economic times, but we are seeing an increase in tenants not paying their rent. In this video, I give some practical tips to deal with tenants who aren’t paying. If you are a tenant, I have some advice to help you negotiate with your landlord.
If you are a landlord dealing with these issues, contact me so I can help you get a speedy resolution.
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Ross Millen:
Hi. I don't know if it's a sign of changed economic times, but we're finding in the last couple of weeks we've had a lot of tenants not paying their rent. And this is both from a landlord and also from a tenant perspective.
Now, if you're a landlord and your tenant's not paying you or is otherwise in default under the lease, please contact us because we can help you prepare the required notices that go to the tenant. We can make sure that they give the tenant... Usually it's 14 days, but depending on the lease, it could be longer. And we make sure that it's either signed by us on your behalf or the agent or you, whatever the lease requires, and that it's properly served to start the 14-day or the 21-day period running.
Now, normally the tenant will then want to negotiate something, and we say those negotiations must always be without prejudice or not impacting the notice that's been given. And then, of course, if for some reason the tenant doesn't pay and the time elapses, we can help you to re-enter by preparing the required notices. You need to organize a locksmith. And we recommend security guards as well, just to make sure, the first 24-48 hours, that the tenant doesn't try and unlawfully re-enter the premises. Then there's all things like business records, personal items, the tenant's chattels, arranging for those to be delivered back in a way that doesn't allow the tenant to again come back into the premises.
But if you're the tenant, what should you do? Well, we recommend the best thing is to talk to your landlord. Most landlords, they don't want to kick you out, they want you in there paying at least some rent. Maybe you can't afford the whole rent, maybe there's some arrears that can be covered, but the landlord prefers to have someone in there paying at least some of the rent. Most landlords are reasonably sympathetic. So remember, talk to the landlord, don't ignore them, because we see the worst situations are when you simply put your head in the sand, you don't talk to your landlord, they don't know what's going on, they've really got no other option than to come in and kick you out.
So, remember, if you've got any issues, either as a landlord or tenant, with these sort of situations, contact me, Ross Millen at Millens. We're here to help. Thank you.
