Please bare with me this is long.
After I got divorced I recieve a settlement of around $100,000 I really wanted to put this money to good use, I worked hard for the house with my ex husband, so I decided I would buy another house, not only for security but to have something my kids would benefit from when I pass, I came from a single pensioner family growing up so having all the benefits of a house made sense to me. After court fees and everything I had around $80,000 deposit, that was all good except the banks wouldn't give me enough to get a house where I have been living for the past 17 years (in Victoria), being a single mum with two in my full time care it was kinda a down fall when looking for a mortgage apparently. I did look at buying further away but it just wasn't viable for me and my 2 children, we are close to family, supports for my kids and my work is here.
I spoke to my parents and came up with a plan that I would gift them the deposit and they would buy a house for me. We would set up an account I had full access to and a mortgage I could redraw on if I needed to. The conditions were the mortgage was to be an investment loan and they would be able to claim tax on the house, I would need insurance and I would need to pay for everything to maintain that house myself which I agreed to, they put their name on the line for trusting me and earn a few extra on the side.
When we were looking for a house nothing really met the criteria, it was either too expensive to meet the mortgage payments with everything else including, I also factored in if the interest rates went up. Because of this we decided to look a little bit further out from the city which I did find a house, although it wasn't in the area I wanted but still wasn't hours away from the city, its in a growing neighbourhood, close to schools and transport. Instead of living in it I wanted to set and forget about it until I gained enough equity to buy a different house where I wanted to maybe 5-10 years later plus having a small mortgage was an advantage for me. I rent the house out for enough to cover the mortgage, rates, insurance, water usage fees and realestate fees so im not earning any income from it, everything that comes in, goes out. I found a tenant who paid rent on time every time and it was all going extremely well! I've never had to pay anything towards the house or even had an issue, which I'm so thankful for. I try to do my upmost to make sure the house is always safe for my tenants and all is in working order I make sure the heater/air-conditioning is serviced, gas testing is done, alarms tests an so on, so I try to be a good landlord.
4 months ago my tenant moved out and in with his girlfriend, no priblems there at all! I found another renter, this one is a 30 yr old single mum of two, she asked for the rent to be decreased $10 a week, I thought to myself "I know how hard it is to find a rental let alone finding one as a single mum with kids, I have done it myself, I'll give her a go" plus she was the best out of everyone who applied for my house anyway so I thought it be okay. I was wrong! For the entire time she's been living in my house, minus the first months rent and bond she was required to pay to move int, she hasn't made the full months rent on time for my mortgage to come out. At first it was $100-$200 which I have topped up myself out of my own money just to ensure that the money was there in time for my mortgage to come out but this month it's $995 behind! My agent can't get in contact with her, she's not returning her calls at all and at this point she's 12 days behind but I'm stressing out!! I need to pay rent and bills myself!! It's like she is making up for the months shes missed and set herself back so far that now it's this high but now im thinking, what is it going to be next month?
I have set up the rental due date of my property so I recieve the money 14 days before my mortgage comes out so that if something happened and my tenant didn't pay I could make up for it myself out of my own money but this isn't the point! The point is she signed a contract she has to uphold monthly but never dose and its effecting me this time!! I paid the $995 but I have to let my kids down and give up going to the snow this weekend and my sons birthday party will be a little bare as I'll have to cut back alot. I know it seems like im being materialistic but I work 2 jobs, my weekly job I am a manager and my weekend job im the weekend manager but I've worked up to those positions and its taken a while.
My affordability/wage is there now but equity isn't, so selling at this point would be silly and I'd feel horrible to have to kick out a single mum with two kids. I guess Im just upset because I work so hard!! and now when i take my 4 days off ( i do this every month to go and enjoy it with my kids ) I actually have to cancel plans and work just to meet my obligations because she couldn't uphold hers.
Please no negative comments only positive advice.
12 Replies
Your agent should be onto it and sending her breaches, I would tell them to. If you can't afford to be charitable then don't, first thing for any single parent right now should be paying for the roof over their head.
Can you start the process of evicting her?
The laws are so tight in Victoria around evictions thanks to covid. She needs to be atleast 14 days behind to start the process and it will need to go to the courts to be approved before being able to evict which could take a while due to back log
Something I learnt the hard way is, people who ask for a discount are more trouble than they are worth.
If it’s not viable to evict them, don’t renew there lease.
Don’t set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm! You can’t help another family while hurting your own.
Look at what your insurance covers regarding rent non payment or arrears.
She also definitely can’t afford the rent so start the process of moving her out and getting someone in that isn’t a stress on you
Her rent should be coming straight from her centrelink and your agent needs to find you some new tenants. Next time do a Google and Facebook search on your new tenants and check them over thoroughly, which your agent should do. Rent payment history will be shown and if any one is over a few days to a week late, that’s ok with us as long as it’s not regular but any over due rent past that if it’s not a one off. We won’t renew their lease or take them in the first place.
There really isn’t much owners can do, it’s pretty much sit and wait until they can breach her. Don’t feel bad for her having to leave. Your kids are yourself are missing out. Your credit rating is at risk. She doesn’t care about you. Yes it’s shit her kids will be out but you aren’t their mother, she is and she is the one who should be feeling shit! Screen your tenants next time throughly based on their rental payment history and employment first and agent reference.
Just wanting your tenant to pay their rent on time is far from materialistic - that's your livelihood!
As a tenant myself this makes me so angry. People like her are the exact reason landlords don't want to rent to single mums or lower income families. I've always been an exemplary tenant but I still struggle to find rentals because I fall into the aforementioned category.
My advice would be to start legal proceedings once it gets to 14 days or if that's going to be too lengthy and costly, wait out her lease and tell her you won't be renewing.
Another option, make a payment arrangement for what she currently owes if you're in the position to. That may give her the opportunity to catch back up and be able to pay on time in future. Of course your agent needs to be able to get hold of her first.
I hope you get a resolution soon.
I sold mine for this exact rwason. Ended up stuck with them as I couldn't evict over covid. By the time I was able to do an inspection again due to covid I had more than enough breaches to get them out. $5000 in cleaning and fixing later I ended up selling. I won't ever rent again. People are too entitled and disrespectful. It's absolute rubbish. (Side note, my house was my divorce settlement also and I was a single mum paying off a house in an area close to family). It's stressful and heartbreaking.
I sold mine for this exact reason. Ended up stuck with them as I couldn't evict over covid. By the time I was able to do an inspection again due to covid I had more than enough breaches to get them out. $5000 in cleaning and fixing later I ended up selling. I won't ever rent again. People are too entitled and disrespectful. It's absolute rubbish. (Side note, my house was my divorce settlement also and I was a single mum paying off a house in an area close to family). It's stressful and heartbreaking
Start the eviction as soon as you can, breach her. Being a single mum does not give her an excuse to not pay her rent, plenty of other single mothers out there that do the right thing. I'm a single mum to 4, I work my bum off to pay my rent each week, never been late and always 2 weeks ahead. It is ALWAYS the first bill that gets paid.
Single Mum or not you need to start the proceedings to remove them. If she doesn’t or can’t pay her bills that is not your issue. Talk to your real estate agent about how you can proceed to removal if they continue to not pay rent on time.