Ah property inspections, we never know what we’re going to get and while we’re prepared for anything, even we’re left scratching our heads sometimes!
Property management is serious business – our PM experts are responsible for managing our clients’ greatest assets – whether residential or commercial they’ll do everything from advertising, collecting rent, screening tenants to organising maintenance and repairs.
But boy, are there also some hilarious times too - ones that leave us scratching our heads and wondering why people do the things they do.
Over the thousands of tenants Peard have had over the years, we’ve picked the Top 5 weird and wonderful requests and moments our PMs have encountered.
They shall remain anonymous for obvious reasons!
- ‘Turning up to a vacant property for a home open, to find a male appendage graffitied on the front door by the local squatters who thought they could live in the property, rent free. Needless to say, the home took weeks to lease out!’
- ‘Getting an SMS from a tenant on the day of their inspection, asking me to toot the car horn several times when I’m in the driveway for their routine inspection, so they knew to get out of bed.’
- ‘I have had a tenant’s partner hide under the bed covers whilst I was there doing a routine inspection because the tenant forgot I was coming and the partner felt hiding under the bed covers would be a better choice. The report comments to the landlord were the tenant presented their room differently for the inspection. The tenant later called and apologised, I tried to brush it off by telling the tenant I thought they hadn’t made their bed. Let’s say it was a very weird inspection for all!’
- ‘A landlord once attended with me at a routine inspection and the tenant was very tidy but not up to the landlord’s cleaning standard. The landlord took the tenant’s dish towels and sponge and started to clean the tenant’s floor in the corner. Let’s say the tenant wasn’t impressed that the owner used the items she cleans her dishes with on the floor – she moved out at the end of the lease. The owner was none the wiser that she offended the tenant.’
- ‘Many years go – in Magistrates court – I was with a little Irish tenant that I was evicting. As the hearing concludes, the Magistrate reads his order that vacant possession is to be given to me/owner and the tenant has to vacate. The tenant then turns to me and asks: “So can I renew my lease and stay?” The Magistrate and I look at each other totally perplexed. I shake my head and say: “No – you have been evicted!”.
So, the moral of the story would be that rental inspections, as inconvenient as they seem, need to be performed, as our Property Managers need to look out for both the tenants and their landlord’s investment. Also, alarm clocks are cheap enough or you could use your mobile device as an alarm clock – maybe set it to a ‘tooting’ sound just for fun!
If you would like a Rental Inspection checklist, contact our friendly Property Management team to grab a copy, so you’re well prepared.