Residential property in a tightening market
Category Weekly Advice
Residential property in a tightening market
It is essential to appoint residential property rental agents with real expertise.
Reports from the Cape’s residential property letting agents indicate that, although buy-to-let investors are becoming ever more prominent in the market, demand for rented accommodation has dropped off slightly in the last three months.
In the circumstances, says Rowan Alexander, Director of Alexander Swart Property (which has a fast-growing rental division run by Janine Swart), the choice of a rental agent becomes more important than ever.
“In a tightening market,” says Alexander, “there is the danger that the criteria by which applicants for rental property are judged will be relaxed. Faced with the prospect of having an empty property for two, three or more months, agents are sometimes inclined to take their chances with unsuitable tenants. However, this is all too often a case of from the frying pan into the fire, because the problems caused by a poor tenant can be serious and never-ending.”
A truly professional, conscientious rental agent, says Alexander, will always insist on checking
- the data provided by S.A.’s credit bureaux which operate countrywide and are proficient at picking up unpaid or late-paid accounts from a variety of sources such as credit cards, retailers and other landlords.
- the tenant’s salary slips and other evidence of income and a secure employment position.
- the tenant’s track record with previous landlords, and
- the tenant’s ability to pay the upfront two months’ rental deposit, these days always demanded before allowing him to move in.
If these steps are taken and the temptation to take a chance on the tenant with a chequered record is avoided, it is still almost always possible to find reliable tenants, says Alexander. He added that the problems caused by a defaulting tenant tend to escalate the longer he stays in the rented accommodation.
“The tenant who does not pay his rent in full and on time, is often also the one who damages the property and behaves in a way that upsets other tenants and antagonises the body corporate, who may then fine him- and such fines in the end usually have to be paid by the landlord.
“If matters then get so out of control that the tenant has to be evicted, experience shows that this can take months, during which time you can be pretty sure that no rent will be paid once an eviction order has been issued the unscrupulous tenant will have no motive to continue trying to pay his rent.”
The lesson to be learned from this, says Alexander, is that landlords must do all they can to ensure that they appoint an agent with a proven tenant selection record and one who is adept at pressurising and disciplining a defaulting tenant.
Author: Independent author
