ALEXA Real Estate in Ashford | Estate agent

ALEXA Real Estate

Locality: Ashford

Phone: +61 8 8333 3743

Address: 505 South Rd Ashford 5035 Ashford, SA, Australia

Website: http://www.alexarealestate.com.au

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24.01.2022 What Investors need to know about the Covid-19 Pandemic and Rental Income The CoVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of changes to the economy and the real estate ...industry is by no means an exception. When it comes to paying rent, the general message on social media seems to be to simply ask your friendly property manager or landlord if you can just live in the house you are renting for free with no obligations because there is this corona virus and landlords are now giving away free accommodation. This is not only UNTRUE, but being misinformed can get tenants into a lot of financial trouble down the track. As property managers, our phone has been ringing constantly and emails flooded with requests and demands from tenants who want free rent. The messages range from funny to hostile and include messages such as in line with the new government rules/due to coVID 19, I will no longer be paying rent or because landlords do not have to pay bank loans we also will not be paying any more rent or just ringing to see if I qualify for free rent or I would like the landlord to reduce or eliminate my rent for 2 months due to covid-19 Some of the enquiries are genuine concerns from tenants whose job has been directly affected by the CoVID-19 pandemic closure of their work place and some are just people trying to take advantage. Then there is the confusion on social media with posts like: I talked to my property manager and they did not let me have free rent even though I lost my jobheartless so and so’s or if you want free rent you just talk to your landlord and discuss your situation and they will give it to you Or how about this one, even property managers are confused. I am a property manager and all my tenants are getting 2 weeks free rent- yes this was posted on facebook. And this one Landlords should be giving tenants free rent because they are not paying bank loans and we are encouraging them to provide free rent to tenants yes this was posted by a property manager. So everyone, landlords, tenants, property managers are all confused and property managers are forgetting who their clients are in all this confusion and chaos caused by the CoVID-19 pandemic. NOTHING IS EVER FREE In the world of finance and investment and the general economy, if a person receives something for free it means that someone else has paid for it. Everything is ultimately funded by tax papers (the larger pool of money controlled by the government) or by individuals (the smaller pool of money). When it comes to rent, it is funded by an individual. It may be helpful at this stage to define who landlords are: A landlord is an individual or family who own a rental property or properties for investment purposes, or a company/trust who own that property for the benefit of an individual or family. In other words rent is someone’s INCOME. That income can be used to pay a loan against that property or it may go directly to the beneficiaries as sole or additional income. Certainly there are a lot of self-funded retirees who have rental income as their only sole source of income. Even one single investment property can render an individual non eligible for an age pension and people who are self-funded in their old age are already worse off than those who receive an age pension, not only do self-funded elderly citizens pay full fees for public transport and medical care (they do not always qualify for discounts), but if there are maintenance issues on their property these individuals cannot pay their retirement or nursing home fees because they have no other income and no government support because they own investment properties. So whether the rental income goes to a self-funded aged person or a family or an individual or a trust/company for the benefit of any person or persons and whether there are associated loans or not, rent is someone’s income and no one is entitled to someone else’s personal income. Landlords are under no legal obligation to provide free rent to a tenant not at this stage. So now let’s look at what the responsibilities of a property manager are. We know property managers collect rent, deal with arrears and evictions and maintenance, source tenants and do all the legal stuff but what a property manager actually does is protect the income of the landlord and minimises any risks to that income, everything including maintaining the property, comes down to protecting the income of the landlord. Therefore when a tenant rings to say that they cannot pay rent because they have lost their job, a property manager should not automatically be directing that tenant towards the landlord’s income here take this instead but directing the tenant to various government resources where they can get help to keep paying their rent. So our friend on Facebook who is giving all her tenants free rent by taking it from her landlord’s personal income is in breach of her responsibility as a property manager who is an agent for the landlord. Property managers also should not be shaming landlords to giving up their own income so the tenant can have a rent free period however landlords should be given as much information as possible to make an informed financial decision that works for them. For example a landlord can decide to reduce rent by 50% for 6 weeks, even though they are under no obligation to do this, the decision could benefit them for some properties and some tenants. If a property is $400 a week and a landlords decides to reduce the rent to $200 per week, they will lose $1200 in a 6 week period and they may decide that paying $1200 is an adequate financial decision to keep a tenant in a property if compared to a 3 week vacancy if a tenant vacates, which would also cost $1200. Note however, depending on where the lease is up to, if the 3 week vacancy falls within a lease break scenario the $1200 can be recouped from a bond on insurance or a claim against the tenant whereas a 50% reduction for 6 weeks is not recoverable by any means it is a total loss, with the exception of tax in specific personal circumstances. The other risk to the landlord is also how insurance will treat this if the tenant decides to vacate within that 50% reduction period we are unsure whether insurance companies/magistrates court will discount any claims against a tenant if a reduction in rent was voluntarily offered by a landlord. In either case, landlords need to be aware of all the pros and cons and risks before offering free rent to a tenant. At this time of economic uncertainty, a landlord can also choose to suspend loan payments for a period of time. If they choose to suspend payments, interest will accumulate in that time and the term of the loan will likely increase by the amount of time the loan repayments were suspended. This is not a free loan period it is a deferred loan period. So to tenants commenting that they do not need to pay their rent because landlords don’t need to pay loan repayments what a landlord chooses to do with their financial end of things has nothing to do with tenants. Six Month Moratorium on evictions. A tenant can choose to make use of the six month moratorium on evictions that has been put in place by the government this week, they do not need to ask permission from a landlord or property manager to do this, they need to prove financial hardship as a result of CoVid-19 pandemic and most likely prove it at a magistrates court or SACAT hearing. The moratorium on evictions means that a property manager or landlord cannot evict a tenant in arrears for up to 6 months even if arrears have exceeded or drastically exceeded the bond amount. Under normal circumstances, an eviction order is granted to a landlord or property manager if arrears have exceeded the bond amount so that the financial risk to the landlord is minimised this has been removed exposing landlords to significant risk and property managers need to tread with caution. To protect the landlord’s interest, our property managers at ALEXA real estate will keep following the correct legal procedure for legal action and evictions as a result of rent arrears. A moratorium is likely to apply during a SACAT or magistrates court hearing where the tenant will be asked to prove hardship. We do not make the decision that a tenant just gets to live in a property for free there will be legal action and the decision will only be made by court order. Please note that this is the action that is being taken at the time of writing this on 1st April 2020 and new information is coming in daily which may force us to change this course of action. Any action we take however will be in favour of our landlord clients. The correct procedures need to be followed so that tenants that are just trying to take advantage are discovered and the eviction moratorium is only applied to tenants that are facing genuine hardships by an external, unrelated party. So little miss I’m don’t need to pay my rent due to the new government regulations will need to prove genuine hardship in court. It’s important to understand that an eviction moratorium does not eliminate the tenant’s obligation to pay rent, much like freezing bank accounts, it shifts the debt to be paid to a later date THERE IS NO RENT FREE PERIOD (at this stage). Potentially this could mean that a landlord may be forced to hold a property without receiving rent for up to 6 months. At this stage we understand that rent will accumulate to be paid back at a later date possibly through a payment plan enforced legally on the tenant. The government imposing an eviction moratorium on landlords poses a lot of unanswered questions. 1. What happens with self-funded retirees who were relying on the rental income to fund their living and retirement home? Will they now have additional funding available to them so that they can live and eat? 2. If the tenant absconds or abandons the property within the 6 months that the eviction moratorium applies or before paying off their accumulated arrears, how would this be dealt with? Normally rent loss is recouped through a claim on landlord insurance. Some insurance companies have restrictions on the maximum number of vacant weeks they will pay for rent defaults. This is because with proper legal action and prompt re-advertising, a property can be re-rented within 6 weeks and insurance will pay 6 weeks of vacancy loss to cover the landlord. However we are now facing a brand new scenario where a landlord is forced by a government ruling to accumulate 26 weeks of arrears despite legal action taken on the tenant by a property manager, if insurance does not fully cover that loss then can a landlord take legal action against the government? 3. New landlords are put at significant risk as most insurance companies are no longer taking on new clients. Landlord insurance has been put at significant risk as the responsibility to cover 6 months of accumulated rent loss falls on them. As a result insurance companies are no longer offering landlord insurance to new clients. No landlord insurance could mean a reduction in the amount of available rentals as investors may not purchase investment properties that are un-insurable. This combined with not being able to evict tenants for 6 months would mean a severe shortage of rentals and consequently an increase in rent. We have very interesting times ahead of us and a lot of unanswered questions as the responsibility has fallen on landlords to hold properties for up to 6 months as tenants are allowed to defer rent payments. Whether landlords offer additional rent free periods on top of this is up to the landlord but they are in no legal obligation to do so. We will keep you updated as new information becomes available or to inform you of real case scenarios of how rent arrears has been dealt with by SACAT or magistrate court members. If we can support you in any way during this time when the entire business world has slowed down or stopped please contact me [email protected] Xenia is the Principal and CEO of Alexa Real Estate and runs the property management side of the business. Xenia developed alexa real estate from concept 17 years ago starting with the management of her own investment properties and a handful of properties from other family members. Xenia is married to Angelo Mena and is a busy mum of 3 children Anthony (17), Emily (16) and Leonie (12). She has also enjoys motivational speaking internationally and in Australia and has been invited to a lot of speaking engagements on the subjects of leadership, business and motivation as well as a published author of 2 books and about 100 more coming up. Prior to discovering her gift in developing businesses Xenia was a medical research scientist obtaining a PhD from Flinders medical centre followed by a 3 year post doctoral fellowship at the university of Saskatchewan, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organisation in Canada. During her post doctoral years Xenia published 8 medical research papers in medical journals and travelled around Canada and the USA speaking at scientific conferences about her, now patented, vaccines and research. Something no one knows about Xenia she hates anything chocolate except chocolate.

24.01.2022 Adelaide Property meeting - How to budget and get started in property investing. Speaker: Xenia Ioannou - Alexa Real Estate. January 30 at La Scala - 169 Unley Rd Unley.

20.01.2022 Investor IQ seminar this Thursday at 6:30pm https://www.meetup.com/investorIQ/events/268385666/

15.01.2022 Adelaide investors, want to know how land tax will affect you? Investor IQ meeting Tuesday night 29th October at 6:30 pm. LaScala 169 unley rd Unley. See you there:

14.01.2022 Anyone needing a retail space? I have 2 available for rent: https://www.realcommercial.com.au//property-u1-and-2-118-b

12.01.2022 Our upcoming meeting - 30th January - How to begin your investing journey

09.01.2022 Covid-19 What's next for landlords. Please read and share. https://blog.alexarealestate.com.au/covid-19-whats-next-fo/

08.01.2022 Eco designed home Open this Sunday at 1pm: https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-sa-hove-426011 #adelaidepropertymanager #alexarealestate

06.01.2022 Investor IQ meetup - what an incredible wealth of knowledge by Angelo Mena, the Adelaide property market, investment strategies, the Adelaide 30 year plan, urba...n infill.... just wow. Great to see you there Prasad Athalye, Tom Armour, Nick Timms Robert Elftmann, and thanks for bringing guests along Looking forward to our next investor IQ meetup on Tuesday 26th November 6:30 pm at la Scala 169 Unley Rd Unley http://meetu.ps/e/Hn4My/kk8fT/a

02.01.2022 Great Chat with Nidal this morning