There are many reasons why a tenant decides to vacate a property. Sometimes, it’s due to being relocated for work. Sometimes, their family has grown and the property no longer suits their needs. Sometimes… we may have encouraged them to move along because they haven’t been upholding their end of the deal.
Over the last two years, we’ve seen a higher number than usual of people moving house which is probably not what you would expect to be happening during a pandemic. The experts tell us this is due to many people reassessing their lifestyles and deciding to not put off making a big shift – whether that be to a larger property so they can have a home office, or making the sea/tree change they’ve always dreamed of, or perhaps they just want to be closer to family members – we’ve seen loads of different reasons over the past few years.
And, as much as we would love good tenants to remain in their properties long term, the one thing we can generally rely on is that at some stage, an investment property is going to become vacant.
This process is actually one of the most stressful times for an investor, mainly because of the uncertainty of the situation. Is the property going to be left in good condition? Will the property manager notice any damage? How long before I get another tenant paying rent? Am I going to have to repaint? Will I get the same amount of rent? It’s only natural to be asking these types of questions (and more).
Here at Rightside, we have a very streamlined process when a tenant decides it’s time to move on and there are two main things we concentrate on –
- Ensuring the vacating tenant meets their obligations under the rental agreement
- Maximising the owner’s return, while minimising their risk
How we go about achieving these two objectives is actually quite a lengthy process. In fact, our Vacating Tenant checklist involves more than 100 steps and the process itself can be quite lengthy, depending upon the circumstances. Legislative requirements also feature quite heavily in this process which means we need to ensure we are definitely dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s.
For the most part, our vacating process runs smoothly and without hiccups but every now and then, we do come up against a particularly tricky situation or a personality type that resists playing by the rules. In these instances, finding a mutually agreeable solution is our priority so all parties can move forward.
If your tenant decides it is time for them to move on, we will be in touch and will be happy to take you through the process we follow to ensure your interests are well taken care of. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
