We have a zero arears tolerance at Housingplus. To ensure our tenants are paying on time, we run a daily report to monitor this. The report will alert us as soon as they are as little as 1 day overdue. If a tenant does get into arrears, the system we have in place is as follows:

  • 1 day overdue: A text message is sent to give the tenant a friendly reminder that their rent payment has been missed. More times than not, the problem simply comes down to a banking issue at the tenant’s end which they themselves are unaware of so to ensure we keep up a good relationship, it is best practice to treat them kindly especially when it is a first-time occurrence!
  • 3 days overdue: If there has been no response from the tenant and/or payment hasn’t been made, we give the tenant a phone call and if we are unsuccessful at getting through, an email follow up. All of our texts, emails and letters are sent through our property management system Palace so there is written trail of evidence should we need it.
  • 5 days overdue: If there has still been no payment or communication, we issue a 14-day breach via post and email. With our breach letters, these contain all of the formalities but written in Housingplus’s kind language. We want to keep the tenants onside, so we find by having a more understanding but still factual approach, the better end outcome we get.
  • 7 days overdue: If the situation still hasn’t been resolved, an application to the Tenancy Tribunal is made.

In the best-case scenario, the tenant will pay the overdue rent promptly. If this can’t happen due to insufficient funds available at the tenant’s end, we suggest a payment plan without involving the Tenancy Tribunal. We often find this is in everyone’s favour as it means the tenants name is not tarnished, less time is spent preparing for a mediation/hearing and the outcome is higher that the owner will get their money.

It is however our recommendation to go through Tenancy Tribunal if the tenant gets beyond 7 days of arrears because once the rent is unpaid for 21 days, the landlord can apply for re-possession of the property under Section 55. We would then step in and promptly start finding the right replacement tenants for your property. We don’t recommend waiting 21 days until you apply for tenancy tribunal as the process of repossession will take longer.

As of July 2016, if the property has been abandoned, under Section 91AA we are able to regain possession within 10 working days.

Other practices we have in place to avoid chasing up late payments are as follows:

In our tenancy agreement, the very first general condition we have is the following:

1. Rent Payment
1.1 The Tenant/s agree to make rent payments fortnightly in advance with one automatic payment into the bank account provided on this Agreement.
1.2 The Tenant/s agree to maintain a record of all rent payments made. The Tenant/s agree to supply proof of payment upon request.

In our offer of tenancy letter, the tenants are reminded to send us a screenshot prior to commencement of their tenancy with us.

With these two practices in place we have managed to achieve problem free tenancies when it comes to receiving timely rent payments. Proof of this is that we have only ever had to apply to tenancy tribunal for rent arrears against tenants twice within the last four years!