Leasing Your Property

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Alex Scott & Staff is a great place to come an discuss all your Investment property needs. A family owned and operated business since 1886.

Managing a rental property is becoming increasingly complex due to legislation changes, legal requirements and increasing social complexities. Making professional management a must for investment property owners.

The importance of investment property owners being fully aware of and compliant with all aspects of these laws and procedures to avoid any possible fines or loss of income that may result from non-compliance.

Alex Scott & Staff property management team keep up to date with all changes and take the worry out of property management for all our clients.

Below are a number of things that Alex Scott & Staff Property Management Department do to ensure your investment property is in safe hands:

‘Experience has shown that Tenancy selection is the key to

successfully protecting your Investment’

Service

In accordance with our strategy, ‘caring for our clients’, we offer a unique total letting and property management service. This concept incorporates:

At Alex Scott & Staff, our professional Property Management Team are dedicated to finding the best possible tenant for your property.

We do not give out keys to prospective tenants.  Our Property Managers accompany all prospective applicants to inspect your property. Ensuring security of your valued property is another facet of property management that we deem of utmost importance.

Prospective tenants are required to provide a complete detailed Application for Tenancy.  All prospective tenants are subject to extensive checks and furthermore must satisfy our unique 100-point ID check as well as proof of income.

Once the applicant’s suitability as a prospective tenant has been fully established, we contact you to discuss the application in relation to the leasing of your property.

Security Deposit – Bond

A minimum-security deposit equal to a calendar month’s rent or 4 weeks rent is collected from tenants for each property and held against any damage or loss of rent that may incur during the course of the tenancy.  This security deposit is lodged in a Government Trust Account as required by legislation.

The security deposit can only be released by mutual agreement between the Tenant and the Agent/Landlord.  Any disputed amount, be it all, or part of the initial deposit, must be referred to VCAT for arbitration.

Condition Reports

Detailed property condition reports are conducted when management of your property commences which is signed by ourselves and the tenant.  The Condition Report includes full internal and external photographs of all aspects of your property and a full written component also. These are provided to the tenant electronically and track all changes and submission of Condition Report by the tenant.

Periodic Inspections

It is the policy of Alex Scott & Staff to conduct regular inspections of your property.  We conduct inspections at 3 months and then every 6 months after.

Periodic inspections allow us to convey to you the state of maintenance of the property, make recommendations or submit quotations for upgrading that may be necessary in order to maintain the value of your property.  Landlords are invited to accompany us on these inspection’s; however a full written report will be sent to you electronically along with photographs where possible.

Rental Arrears

As mentioned previously, the stringent selection process Alex Scott & Staff implement before placing a tenant in your property, has aided the minimization of rental arrears.  However, regardless of the care taken, occasionally tenants may fall into arrears.

Alex Scott & Staff Property Management system provides for timely supervision for tenant payment, whilst alerting to any potential arrears, following which prompt action is taken minimizing inconvenience to you, the landlord.

When a tenant is:

0-3 Days:   This time frame allows the direct debit to clear which can take up to 3 days.

3 Days – 14 days:   Arrears messages are sent daily to tenants who are in arrears. The following steps are then taken.

3 Days – 5 days:   Phone call and or email to the tenant advising of their overdue rent and the amount owing.

5 Days:   Phone call and arrears letter issued

10 Days:   Phone call and letter sent advising that if payment is not made commencement of eviction procedures

14 Days Plus:   A ‘Notice to Vacate’ will be issued. If payment is not received within 7 business days an application will be made to Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for possession of the property.

Please note – No formal action for recovery of outstanding rent can be undertaken until the tenant is more than 14 days in arrears, as per the Residential Tenancy Act.

Repairs & Maintenance

Our flexible system for maintenance allows us to cover the requirements for owners who instruct us to attend to all maintenance on their behalf, or if preferred, owners are given the opportunity to carry out maintenance on their property themselves.

Only in extreme emergencies would a tradesman be organized if we were unable to contact you.  Qualified tradesmen can be organized at your request at a reasonable rate.

You may certainly appoint trades people of your own and we suggest providing their contact and insurance details on our ‘Owner Instruction’ form. Also be sure to provide us with an emergency contact to authorize any repairs in your absence.

Maintenance updates will also be provided in report form following each Routine Inspection at 3 months then every 6 months.

Urgent Repairs  

If urgent repairs are needed on the property we will always try and contact you first. However if we are unable to contact you, within reasonable time of the tenant reporting the maintenance problem, we will have no alternative other than to organize the repair, as the tenant has the right to organize urgent repairs up to $1,800.00 if no response has been made.

Repairs are considered to be urgent if they need to fix the following:

• A serious roof leak
• A dangerous electrical fault
• Flooding or serious flood damage
• Serious storm or fire damage
• A failure or breakdown of an essential service or appliance
• A failure or breakdown of gas, electricity or water supply
• An appliance, fitting or fixture, which is not working properly and causing a substantial amount of water to be wasted.

Residential Tenancies Tribunal

The basic function of the tribunal is to arbitrate on disputes between tenants, landlords / agents. To obtain a favourable result from the Tribunal requires not only a thorough working knowledge of the Residential Tenancy Act and also understand and interpret the various provisions of the Act. Our property Managers attend regular seminars on the implications and requirements of the Act for landlords, tenants and agents.

Rental Reviews

At Alex Scott & Staff we are constantly monitoring market trends and rent to ensure your income is maximized, we will review the rent at every lease renewal to make sure your property is always at market value, once you have approved a rent increase we will then notify the tenant by informing them that the rent will increase in 60 Days as per the requirements of the Act.

Landlord Insurance

We highly recommend that landlords cover their property with landlord protection. This type of insurance covers rent loss and malicious damage to the property.

Statements

After our initial meeting, a suitable tailored financial procedure shall be established, allowing us to develop a statement and disbursement report that you feel comfortable with.

Moving with the latest technology we are able to email rental statements to you, direct credit rental funds to your nominated account or sticking to conventional methods rental funds can be posted via cheque to you with a mailed, emailed or faxed statement to follow.