Not long after the tenants moved in Jane the owner called to explain both the owners of each side of the property had complained to her that a dog was barking. The tenants had not been approved for a dog. Jane also mentioned both the neighbours were scared for the lives of these tenants.

I used a 24 hours maintenance to gain entry to look into the concerns. I found no dog. I did notice 2 loud barking dogs in the property on the right and another dog barking behind.

I returned several times to the street and could never see any evidence of an unauthorised dog. I asked Jane if one of the neighbours could supply a photo or any other information so we could take additional action.

I also returned several times to speak with the concerned neighbours. I was only able to meet with the owners on the right, who seemed surprised about my concerns. She indicated she had no issues at all with the tenants. Jane suggested they may have told me that because of how scared they were.

Jane explained to me she wanted them out of the property. Which we were unable to do as they had not done anything the be able to enforce this.

During the tenancy, the tenants looked after the home and were very pleasant to us. We did notice in the family room 2 tanks that the tenant said were for their pet snakes. Jane the owner asked that we breach them for this. Which we did.

During the tenancy, I moved out of property management and Tiffany Rea took over the management of our properties.

At Jane's request, we gave the tenants 2 months' notice to leave as the tenancy was ending. The tenants asked if they could vacate sooner than the lease end date which Jane would not allow. Which was a surprise for us as by now it as clear Jane was very unhappy with them.

The tenants vacated prior to the lease end date & stopped paying rent. We moved quickly to do an exit report. We advised Jane that either we or her new agency should be advertising for new tenants immediately to protect her income on the property. As the sooner a new tenant was in place Jane would continue to receive an income. Jane chose not to do this and instead chose to leave the pro[perty empty.

The tenants agreed to release the entire bond to Jane, which paid for the rent due.
The property needed some additional cleaning. The property had wear and tear that could be considered more than usual. We organised our traced people to supply quotes. To have these issues resolved. Jane chose not to give them access to the property. We offered to complete the form 2 to submit to Qcat to help Jane recover the cleaning costs and the touch-up painting requires. However, we could not complete this form as Jane did not give access to our traced people to quote. So we left it in Jane's hands to decide if she wanted ot pursue this further.

In summary
-Neighbours complained about an unapproved dog
- We acted quickly to look into this
- We asked for proof. There was none.
- I returned to the property multiple times to investigate
- I was only able to speak to one neighbour, who denied saying this and also denied having issues with the tenants
- Tenants were always lovely to us
- Tenants did have 2 unapproved pet snakes, which we breached them for at the owner's request.
- Snakes rehomed.
- Tiffany Rea had taken over from Byron Miller as the property manager
- As the lease was ending we issued them 2 months' notice to leave
- We advised the owner to advertise around 5 weeks prior to the lease end date either with us or another agency.
- Tenants' request to leave early was declined by the owner.
- They vacated early and stopped paying rent
- Tiffany recommended the owner advise for a new tenant immediately to ensure she was receiving a rental income, either through us or another agency. She chose to leave the property empty instead.
- Tiffany's exit report showed the property needed additional cleaning & had extra wear and tear that needed attending to
- Tiffany organised bond was released to the owner in full which covered all the unpaid rent
- It made no sense to us the owner was not interested in placing a new tenant. The maths is $750 x 4 weeks = $3,000. This rental income could have assisted with rectifying the wear & tear.
-Tifany organised our tradespeople to attend and quote. But the owner would not give access.
- Tiffany offered to complete the Qcat lodgement but couldnt without quotes from tradespeople
- Tiffany Rea had taken over from Byron Miller. Tiffany handled the entire vacate process. Tiffany was the contact, not Byron for Jane to liaise with.
Byron was not involved or up to date with the tenants vacate. Tiffany was and she was Jane's contact as Tiffany now knew a lot more than Byron

Obviously, its not in our interest to have issues like this happen. We managed the situation the best we could within the legislation. If we were allowed to advertise for a tenant 5 weeks prior to the lease ending the owner would have had a tenant in the property paying rent. Or if they had advertised through a new agency. If the owner had allowed our tradespeople to quote, we could have commented and lodged the Qcat claim for the cost above the bond.

Unfortunately, we see fairly often when owners become involved with tenants things go soul and tension is created. This is certainly what's happened here. If we were allowed to finalise our exit process and file the Qcat claim that would have helped too.

If the complaining neighbours would have spoken to me about the unapproved dog and supplied proof we could have done something about that also.

Thanks
Byron Miller
Asset Agents