Handling a tenant complaints letter the right way will save problems later on.
One long tenant complaints letter got delivered across town by courier. I am not sure if there have been some sort of new television program encouraging tenants to complain but in the last month, I have had three long letters demanding me do lots of extraordinary things to their flats. Each of the three writers were on invalids sickness benefits for mental health disorders and letters came with threats of making a claim to the tribunal if I did not attend to their imaginary issues.
One wanted me to clean her windows and another wanted fixed in place windows to be made to open and another wanted the spiders removed from her garage. So what should I do? I have been in tribunal many times with clearly deranged tenants. The courts seem to give an undo amount of attention to the ravings of lunatics.
I recall one old demented man wandering around the court room muttering about his urinary problem, another who attacked me in court and yet another one had to rush outside when confronted with evidence he was lying. In spite of such outrageous behaviour the Tenancy Adjudicators did not rule fully in my favour in any of these cases. I suspect that the courts over compensate in the tenants favour to avoid being accused of being biased, discriminatory and uncaring like we are often accused of.
So what is the plan to deal with these tenant complaints issues? I could ring the call centre and seek advice. I can just imagine what they would say. Issuing a termination notice is forbidden in the RTA. That is called retaliatory notice. I have been known when really incensed to increase the rent. Strangely there is no prohibition in the RTA of retaliatory rent increase. Well actually, generally I have found that it is best to do at least something that is not on the list. For the spider lady we found a problem with a minor leak under her kitchen sink and fixed it. Generally people like this go through life with everyone ignoring them all the time, so to show some interest in them is manna from heaven. Mind you though, not too much interest or it will turn rancid like the biblical stuff did.
Glenn Morris is the owner of Nelson property management company, “Glenn’s Vacancies”, managing residential and commercial investments. He is the current secretary of the Nelson Property Investors Association. He was active in the review of the RTA and is a well-known figure in the property investment community. He has a reputation for effectively managing difficult tenancies.”
