I like the idea of a phone call advising we are concerned we may not be able to offer you a further lease based on your current rent payments.  See what reaction you get from that before putting it in writing..

That is a tough one Bronwyn. The legislation allows you to obtain a termination order and warrant of possession for repeated breaches, but if the owner is not on board with you that is not an option.

We have had some limited success with having serial offenders attend a formal interview at the office to discuss the arrears and sign up to direct debit, but the law allows them to cancel it at any time and revert to one of the "approved payment methods" under the legislation. These tenants are obviously well aware of how the system works and your limitations in enforcing the arrears. 

I resigned a management a few years ago because of a similar situation and simply refused to keep allocating unreasonable resources to managing the property. The owner came rushing in to the office anxious to retain our services and is still with us five years later. They now have a more collaborative approach to dealing with us in the management of their property. It is an extreme measure but can be effective.

another good one is to send a letter to the landlord (there's one in the forms & letters) confirming the tenants rent arrears status, your advice given the legislation and the fact that your company 'holds no risk' in the matter. 

You can basically start counting and by the time you hit 10, the landlord will be on the phone telling you to terminate the tenancy... works everytime.

Yes - very frustrating I called these people "Arrears Careers", they make a career out of being on the list every week.  The trick I used was to ask one of my Salespeople to call my top 5 offenders.  Script went something like:  "hi I am the financial controller for Ray White and Michelle Delaney has advised me that you are in arrears with your rent, I am calling you today to discuss this and work out a payment plan to help you with this problem".  I would also get them to ring on a Saturday!!!  Worked for the team

We

We warn

Oops sorry about the 2 earlier posts.

We warn out tenants in our sms's that we sent that they risk their lease not being renewed.  We also advise that continued arrears will risk their name being added to a tenancy default database which could affect their future endeavours find a property.

If the landlord is adament that he wants them to stay which then in turns creates extra work for you, we send a letter to the landlord advising that his fees will need to be increased accordingly (if you think it warrents that).  They may rethink their choices then.

Darrenhunter.com has a letter that he uses for this.

apmasphere has one too as requested by KathM!

which letter did I request Emily??????  :-/

I think the idea of the letters and the calls are good, I had an owner who would not allow me to apply to the courts for constant arrears and remedied breaches.  I explained to the owner that if we do not follow through they will start to think we have no authority and are constantly bluffing.

The last arrears we were finaly given permission to complete the steps as there was no returned contact from the tenant and as soon as the the sms said we have applied to tribunal the rent was paid again, we will go to tribunal and possibly allow them to go onto a 3 month good behavour bond with the understanding(order) if they fall so much as one day late they will be terminated.

The statements that get me is when the tenant states legistlation and says it does not matter how long my rent takes to get to you as long as i can show the receipt that i paid it on the due date.  This part does not help the owner when they are in arrears of 14 days and then pay on the same day as EOM.

oops sorry KathM, we have this letter in Letters & Docs but its one fo the orgionals, not requested by anyone.  Feel free to request anything you like....

;-)  No probs Emily!

Do agree that Bob Walters "letter to unprofitable clients" would come in handy to situations like this.   http://www.bobwalters.com.au/files/2OGMDAADLM/Letter%20to%20an%20Unprofitable%20Client.pdf

We regularly hold meetings with chronic offenders and make them sign payment plans advising them that should their rent continue to be behind we will take matters further. That's usually enough of a scare to get them to pay rent.

We also currently have a landlord who refuses to let us terminate their tenant for arrears. She has recently signed up on Centrepay but she is making no attempt to pay her arrears off. However as the landlord is getting the correct amount each month he wants to leave her there. We got the landlord to submit a letter to us in writing that he did not want us to proceed with terminating and admiting he is taking responsibility for any amounts outstanding following vacating.

I also have a landlord who didnt want me to breach a long term tenant.  I asked her to put it in writing to me so that we were coved.  Then when the tenant became $2,000 in arrears she wanted me to get the money asap.  The tenant is now on an Order but it will take months for him to catch up.  Landlords dont realise that the longer arrears are left the longer it takes the tenant to catch up.  I do tend to Breach a tenant for rent arrears then advise the landlord.  Much easier.

We usually do this too. We advise landlord when they first sign up with us that we automatically send termination notices once a tenant hits 14 days in arrears. In the case I mentioned about we had issued the termination notice however the landlord would not allow us to take the tenant to tribunal. We are still hounding the tenant with arrears letters/sms's/phone calls in the hope she will get sick of hearing from us and pay up!

ARREARS is just like debt collection really and it is about being consistent.  System I have used in the past.  Full arrears process discussed at initial sign up and also in tenant move in pack; SMS sent at 3 days (you must have overlooked it), SMS day 5 please contact your PM, Phone call day 7 - if not paid RTB issued tomorrow stays on your record; If the tenant had not been contactable up to this point the PM must speak to tenant prior to NTL being issued (as after this point the horse has already bolted the paddock really).  Landlord not told if RTB issued but letter setting out NTL procedure was issued to l/lord at time of being issued to tenant.  Then follow up call with them letting them know where you are at and what the tenants intentions are.  As PM you have to remember that "stuff" happens to good tenants that makes them be bad tenants so communicate and help them problem solve.  But at the end of the day NO ONE LIVES ANYWHERE FOR FREE!! I have said this on many occasions and the tenants have agreed.  Also sometimes you have to make hard decisions that the tenant or landlord can't make - be strong and stand behind your processes.

I have only had one landlord really that was very stubborn re: terminating tenancy when they were constantly in arrears due to it being his brother and his girlfriend.  We came to an understanding, I would charge him his commission at the end of the month even if rent hadn't been paid, if they got more than 4 weeks in arrears we would terminate with a Warrant or he could collect file and manage himself.  AMAZING the rent wouldn't get more than 3 weeks in arrears and he never complained about paying his commission up front.  Be strong....

Are the tenants getting to the point of a breach notice or just the ones who love being 2-6 days in arrears?

I love the idea of charging the commission whether the rent is paid or not!!! That should make landlords standup and think again.

I had a tenant like this and I realize my rent roll is small, but I decided to do the 'Tidy Tenant Award' this include being on time for rent as well. At the end of a particular round of routine checks I awared a tenant for being the Best in that Qtr, they recieve a certifcate and a voucher for something, I used our local store and the voucher was $10. You could use anything, if you have a talented staff member whos good at door knocking local business for donations and the such like give them a hit list eg, Glorias Coffee, Mac Donalds etc, I have found that a buy on get one free is a bonus for both businesses relationship building, you may have local businesses you support at lunch ask them if they do vouchers. Collect a few and make this the prize. We live in a small community and most renters know each other so this works for me, they all compete really nicely and I have the best gardens in Turkey Beach on my rent roll.

I am very excited to announce that the tenants who started this topic are now 2 weeks in advance. Whether it stays this way only time and lots of reminders from me will tell. Still a good result with a happy property owner at the end of the day.

The tenant who paid rent at 10pm last Friday night to avaoid a Notice to Leave just paid more rent--Unreal now they are in advance too. Getting cranky does work but I don't like going to these extremes just to get them to pay their rent. We are all happy here too. Lets hope it continues

Something that has worked for me in the past is using their Landlords Insurance.  Many investors don't realise that if they don't follow the process with regards to tenants being in arrears it can reduce the claim they can make against their insurance or void it altogether.

In addition to all of the above, (by the way, signing the tenants to a direct debit system at the start and SMS's seem to work for us), I send the tenants out their tenant ledger and say this is what I'm going to be sending on as your reference for the next property you apply for (given that we may not be renewing your lease as it stands) - along with an explanation of would you rent to you if you had a mortgage that needed to be paid? 

What I hate about rent arrears is having to constantly chase the same tenants week in week out. Generally they get it all paid up and the landlord don't even realize all the conversations and SMS you are doing. I hate making those calls to owners especially just before the EOM to tell them that their tenants is 8 days in arrears and that we have sent a Remedy Breach. Owners rely on that money some to live on, some for mortgages. A Remedy at the beginning of the month is bad but not as bad as the end of month. When its at the beginning of the month at least you can work with the tenant to get that money in to be paid out to landlords. When the Remedy is at the end of the month landlords are missing out on the payments that they are expecting and its harder I think. What do others think?