Management Agreements
Queensland Managing Appointments (Form 6) have no end dates as they are a considered continual until ended in writing be either party – a maximum of up to 30 days written notice is required.
Marketing / Advertising
The first step when seeking a new tenant is to maximise exposure for your advert to increase visits, enquiries, and then convert those to applicants and finally tenants. Simplly Rentals highly promotes the use of professional photography in our all online advertising – the days of a Property Manager using iphone photos are long gone or best suited to those non-progressive Agencies.
Simplly Rentals uses only “Premier Listings” listing advertisements on Realestate.com – meaning your listing is the both the largest available and also remains at the top of Page 1 for much longer. This premium exposure gives your rental property its best possible chance to be viewed by potential applicants.
It’s a question every property investor asks. It’s no surprise that price is one of the main drivers in a prospective tenant’s decision-making process, then it pays to get this right. Having dealt with thousands of property owners, we know how hard it is to reset price expectations. To establish the right price to advertise your property at, we always recommend property owners conduct an online search for properties with similar characteristics in your area, so you know your desired price is competitive. However, as the professionals, we too are happy to give you credible advice when price setting.
NOTE: In Queensland, it is law that any rental property being advertised “For Rent” – must have a defined price assigned E.g. $600 per week – Banned are pricing methods such as; Offers over $600 per week, Rent Range $600-650/week, For Rent, Refer Agent etc.
Inspections
We do traditional Open Homes at least twice a week, every week, until your property is leased. This is double the activity level of many Agencies. We are unaware of any other real estate agency consistently doing twice-weekly home opens. Further, if the property is vacant, you can expect that additional inspections can also be arranged via private one-off appointments. For those properties that are currently tenanted, private inspections are still possible, they just need to be arranged in consultation and with Notice to the tenant.
We hold Open Homes normally mid-week on a Wednesday and then again on a Saturday. The Saturday Open Homes are traditionally more popular than the Wednesday Open Homes as it is much easier for most persons to view properties on a Saturday.
Yes, if a scheduled Open Home is not suitable for a potential applicant, we will arrange for a private inspection to take place at the suitable time.
Applications
Applications are now mostly handled online to make it as easy for prospective tenants to access and complete and to allow much faster and more efficient processing times. Simplly Rentals will review and check every aspect of the application. If upon our processing it is deemed worthy and is of a high quality, it will be sent to the Owner for approval and discussions with your dedicated Asset Manager are encouraged at this point. Importantly, final approval of who rents your property is ultimately with you, the Owner.
Rent
The tenant pays rent weekly, fortnightly or monthly; depending on what is stated on the Lease Agreement. The most common is weekly. Sometimes tenants pay at uneven frequencies and amounts, which they are permitted to do so, as long as they are in advance at all times.
We offer a variety of payment methods to tenants, including Console Pay (direct debit) and in-office EFTPOS.
Arrears
Yes, some tenants will experience difficulty with rent payments at some stage during their tenancy. Simplly Rentals has both automated and personal systems in place to manage this situation. Anyone who tells you that there will be no problems with arrears is either untruthful or does not have much experience with residential tenancies. It is how the agency effectively manages this situation which is the most important factor.
Firstly, have trust and confidence in Simplly Rentals to manage and control the situation and expect regular communication of this. Secondly, if feasible, build up over time a cashflow buffer in your bank account. Try not to live and make loan repayments directly from your rent account. Ideally, have enough reserves that you can run your life for up to three months without any rent coming in.
Although we must follow Queensland legislation on this sensitive issue, we have a zero-tolerance policy for rent arrears and will enforce our policy. However, as all cases are different, it will also rely on the management of the situation by our experienced team to ultimately get the best result.
Our rent arrears procedures are as follows:
- We reconcile our Rental Trust Account daily by at least 10AM daily.
- Days 1, 2 & 3 that the tenant is behind in rent, we send them an SMS reminder that their payment is due.
- Day 4 – if not already done so, we verbally discuss the issue with the tenant.
- Day 8 – we issue a Notice to Remedy Breach – giving the tenants 7 days to pay all required rent.
- Day 15 – after consulting the Owner – we can issue a Notice to Leave to due unpaid rent. (terminate the lease)
Water Compliance/Bills
To enable water consumption charging to the tenant, a property is required to be water wise compliant. A plumber is traditionally engaged to inspect the property and certify. Although not legally mandatory, this certificate provides evidence that the property is compliant. If no certificate is present, it makes it more difficult to actually prove compliance, and tenants can argue that such water charges are therefore not permittable. This certificate protects the owner from any potential non-payment.
Once we have received your water bill, we calculate the actual water consumption/usage and invoice the tenant accordingly. The tenant has up to 30 days to pay this water invoice.
We kindly ask that all owners supply our office with the water bill within 2 weeks of receipt. More information on water charging can be found on the RTA Water Fact Sheet in the New Landlord Information Kit section.
Payment to Owners
We pay our owners Bi-Monthly, meaning every 15th & 30th day of every month (or closest business day). As an alternative, if requested, we can make it just the one payment of the 30th (or closest business day).
We pay owners by electronic funds transfer direct into to your nominated bank account. Funds should be received the same day (bank dependent)
Withheld Funds
Sometimes we may retain a portion or all of the accrued funds as shown on your statement. By default, we want to transfer all your money to you, however, we also need to keep an eye on future budgeting. The main reason for withholding funds is where there is an account payable, e.g. maintenance expenses/invoice, Local Council Rates Notice. Body Corporate Levy. A further common reason for withholding funds is when we anticipate a large expenditure in the future and will need the current rent accrued to help pay for it. Some examples of a large, anticipated expenditure is where a new hot water system or Air-Conditioning unit has been ordered and installed, but the invoice is yet to arrive.
Statements
Yes, of course. Each time we disburse funds to you, we issue you a Owner Statement, normally by email.
Yes, if your statement allows for an expense other than that from Simplly Rentals such as the management fee, then a PDF of the paid invoice/bill will appear on the following pages of the statement. Please ensure you scroll over to pages 2, 3 etc on your statement to view all.
This is rent paid by a tenant that is less than 7 days. As it does not equate to a full week, our accounting software does not advance the rent paid to date as shown on your statement as it only works on blocks of 7 days. Instead, it creates a rent advance/part payment notation Eg. (Part Payment $70.00). The part payment rent is disbursed to the owner as per normal. If the tenant in the future pays additional funds to top up the part payment to now equate to a full week – this will adjust the rent paid to date 1 week accordingly.
Leases
The two most commonly requested lease terms are 6 or 12 months; however as the owner you can offer and agree to any lease term you like.
Yes it can, but with recent 2023 Qld legislation changes, a rent increase is not permitted within any 12 month leasing period.
Three (3) months out from the end of the lease, we contact you to obtain your leasing instructions. You can choose to renew the lease or ask the tenant to vacate. If the tenancy has been suitable, we normally recommend that you renew the lease to the same tenant. Once we have obtained your instructions, we then contact the tenant and see what they would like to do. Sometimes though, a changeover of tenant is also an option – if needed, your Asset Manager will discuss this with you.
Legally speaking, it is not a renewal, but in fact an entirely new lease agreement. Once we have received your Owner instructions, we shall present the new lease and at the same time also issue a Notice to end the current lease just in case the new lease is not signed (by law we must issue 60 days to end the current fixed term lease). This provides owner protection & security knowing in the fact that the current lease will end as per the last day OR the tenants sign the new lease being offered.
We commence advertising and work with the tenant to arrange inspections, by private appointment or by open homes. Having a good relationship with the tenants is paramount, as having these inspections prior to the tenant vacating helps to keep your vacancy period to a minimum and also gives us eyes in the property which helps to pre-warn us of any issues that will may need to be attended to at the upcoming EXIT condition inspection.
Bond
For most tenancies the answer is four week’s rent, however if the property is leased at over $700/week, an Owner does have the option to ask for more.
We collect and then remit the bond to the RTA. The RTA provides a record of lodgement to our agency and to the tenant. A full audit trail of the bond money is completed. Lodging bonds with the RTA is a legal requirement and provides strong independent security to the bond payment system. Of late, tenants can now lodge directly with the RTA, and our Agency receives notification of this direct payment from the RTA.
Routine Inspections
Although we are governed by legislation on this, legislation allows for a maximum of 4 per year. How many we conduct for you will depend upon your own individual agreement (Form 6) you have with us here at Simply Rentals.
Yes, you get a multi-page written report complete with colour photographs and in some cases interactive videos. We have recently invested in industry leading inspection software, allowing you to receive the highest quality reporting in an easy to understand and view format. We do not use ‘tick and flick sheets’ which are common in the industry, as they are far from ideal. The main intention of this report is to provide information about any property maintenance or foreseeable maintenance in combination with how the tenants are keeping the property overall.
Yes, you are welcome to come along to any inspection. If you are planning to attend, please notify us beforehand so we can manage our schedule to meet you at the property.