Tenant Packed and Left

My real estate agent called and told me that our tenant at Regalia suddenly left his keys and access cards with him, because his wife got food poisoning and they are returning to their home country.
And so after 10 months of rental, the tenancy ended abruptly and we never got to meet them at all as everything was done by the agent, and they were good paymasters and hardly complained about anything.
Now 2 weeks after being informed that they left, the agent told me that he got us another tenant.  I am so thankful because we had such a good tenant, who took care of the place well, and now we got another tenant almost immediately.  Hoping that this tenant will be good and easy too.

New Tenant In Domain

This is a post recording my gratitude that my old Japanese tenant moved out this morning, and a new tenant from moved in at night right away.
J and I went to the apartment to hand over the keys and collect the deposits and was flabbergasted to see the condition of the apartment.  It is so dirty!  The students don't clean up.  When my Thai tenant was there, it was so much better, because he acted as the housekeeper.

The apartment was messy like this

Even J, as a guy, couldn't stand the mess and dirt, he cleaned the toilet and mopped the floor. I threw out the trash, picked up the books and drawing tools from the floor, swept the floor and cleaned the kitchen sink.
It was amazing, that in the state that it was in yesterday when the prospective tenant came to view; he agreed to take the room.  Maybe, it was just the right timing and he had no other choice.
Whatever it is, after he settled in a bit, I am going to grant them a one-time maid service to thoroughly clean the apartment.  I think it is the least I can do to make the environment a little more bearable.

Photo used with permission from http://www.wiehanne.com/2009/03/05/talk-about-lazy-housemates/

Kitchen Utensils

While I am still on CNY leave today, I went to Ikea to get the necessary kitchen utensils for my new tenant. This list was discussed with the lady of the house.  These are the items:
Bonus cutlery set: 13.90 (this is cheaper than the Carrefour discount range, unbelievable)
Slipad knives set: 7.90
Rufsig wok utensils 2 pcs: 4.90
Akut kitchen utensils 3 pcs: 3.00
Vanlig glass 22cl 6 pcs: 9.90
Lugn flat plates 2 pcs: 5.80
Fundra dish drainer: 7.90 (I decided to buy plastic, vs wood or metal for long-lasting factor)
Smula tray: 9.90 (I added this to the dish drainer after some thought).
Total Ikea items: RM63.20

On top of that I already purchased:
Carrefour discount  4-pc pot/pan set: 28.80 (discounted from 45.90)
Carrefour whistling kettle:  29.90 (discounted from 39.90).

FOC items:
4pcs of new dinner plates (unused and taking up space in my kitchen cupboard)
2 mugs (courtesy of Affin bank last year)

Total spend: RM121.90! Overspent! Overspent! As I budgeted only about RM100.

But then I remember what Rohaniah Noor  mentioned in her blog, that tenants are also one of the VIPs in our investing life. I hope they are so touched that that they will stay long.

On top of that, I did have a lot of fun shopping with Baby Xin.

Tenants' Requirements

I just got back from signing the tenancy agreement with the new tenant today.  As informed by the negotiator, the tenant came back with a list of to-do items.
1. Call Gas Malaysia, gas seems to be disconnected already.
2. 2 bathroom WC pipes are leaking, needs to be fixed by plumber.
3. 2 bathroom doors need to be fixed with clothes hangers - this one I will ask hubby to do (the old tenant left behind some Ikea clothes hanger knobs that are new)
4. Replace the door-lock of the kitchen yard, it's broken.
On top of that, I agreed to furnish the kitchen utensils, so dishes, cutlery, glasses and a dish rack still need to be bought.

On the bright side, after the negotiator left, I sat talking with the couple for a while, and found that they are really friendly and decent.  They seem careful about my stuff and do not take things for granted.  I hope this tenancy works out for at least a year, or more.

Image from: http://www.abeachcottage.com/2010/04/beach-cottage-kitchen-mini-makeover.html

Tenant Out, Tenant In

A little good news to share, which I am very thankful about.  One of my tenants in SD Tiara is moving out end Dec 2011.  So I started to advertise about a week ago, and thankfully today a tenant came to view and paid a booking deposit on the room.  He works in an agency that is in Sri Damansara itself, so it is very convenient for him. We promised to meet again early January to sign the tenancy agreement and hand over the keys.
Meanwhile, I had a look at the apartment and nearly fainted.  Bachelors staying in the house do not know how to keep clean.  I will try to do them a favour by having a thorough cleanup at the end of this month.

Tenancy Agreement - Early Termination

Here's my first experience of dealing with "expat" Iranian family tenants.  After renting my condominium unit for 1 month, and paying the 1st rental (because the earlier rental was given as agent's commission), they suddenly tell me that they would like to move out.  By then, the agreement was stamped with a tight clause, that early termination means forfeiture of 2 months' deposit.

The family keep on bugging me to let them off the hook, I had so much problems because now I would have to engage the agent to get another tenant and lose another months' rental in commissions.   Actually, they were a very nice family of 2 couple and 2 children in their early 20's (studying in Malaysia) and I could not understand why they suddenly want to do that.  Then I found out that the Dad had a heart attack, and was admitted to hospital, and wanted to be transferred back to Iran for the medical follow up.
So, I had to let them go, but we were still negotiating the deposit return terms.
Thankfully, everything worked out well.  It turns out that they had a cousin from Iran who was coming to Malaysia under the MM2H program.  So the cousin and his wife, just took over the whole tenancy from them, and I get to keep my deposits (they just paid the deposit to the 1st family).  So no loss of rental, no loss of another month's agent commission.  Just to cancel the first agreement and do up a new agreement with new stamping.
Sometimes, things all fall into place.  Again, I am grateful for the ups and downs as a landlady.

Extra Guest in the House Part 2

Image from http://www.easyvectors.com/browse/human/travelling-vector-30

Continuing from my immediate previous post, after I sent the email to evict the extra guest in the house, I got an immediate reply.  He explained that the guest was his little brother, and that the brother was on short-term training in KL.  As a big brother, he allowed his brother to stay with him.  His tone was none too happy, he claimed that if his brother was staying for long term, he would have moved out to rent another place together.
Anyway, just the day before, the training ended and his brother had left for overseas work after the training.
So the problem was settled instantaneously. Even if I was too late informing him, it is good I establish some rules so that he is aware of it already.
Since the brother had left, I decided not to argue and be too harsh about the situation, and just thank my tenant for his kind understanding.  Phew! Case closed too.

Extra Guest in the House

Image from http://thelandlorddiaries.com/?p=86

Yesterday one of my tenants called me to complain about his house-mate who have had a guest staying in the apartment for over 3 months.  The guest is apparently my tenant's brother who is "squatting" in the apartment living room.  While they all do not mind the occasional guest or relative coming to stay over sometimes, a long term guest in the living room is not acceptable.
How to approach this problem?  I wrote an email to my tenant, asking for the guest to leave within 2 weeks.  If he does not reply within 2 days, I will give him a call to discuss.  He has been a good paymaster all this while and the tenancy is due for renewal in 2 months.
Anyone of you have any suggestions for me?
BTW if the squatter look like anything in the photo here, I will send the blogger/property investor/manager eun-yong to settle the problem for me, hahahaha!

Tenant who is not friendly to neighbours

While my tenant at the Kepong house moved out last December, another new tenant, D, moved in in January.
Today I got a call from one of the neighbours there, informing me about some of the things that they are unhappy about this new tenant.

Pic from www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110063969047070

1.  D, has a lot of people living in the house. Husband, wife, 2 kids, brother and brother's wife, and the dad of the husband. So altogether they have 5 cars.  The porch can only park 2 cars, which means the other 3 cars are parked outside the house, sometimes haphazardly, according to my neighbour.
2. The elderly father likes to puff cigarettes outside the house, in the carpark porch, which results in 2nd-hand smoke seeping into the neighbours' houses, and they usually close the sliding door in the evening.
3. During CNY, they played firecrackers loudly, disturbing the other neighbours, and don't bother to sweep off the paper remnants so that when the wind blows, bits of red colour paper flew into the neighbours' houses.

So my complaining neighbour asked me how long they are going to stay, and I said that the contract is for a year.  She seemed relieved and said they would bear with this tenant for 1 year.

So I really have a little dilemma here, which I would appreciate your comments on what you would do:
1. Should I tell the tenant gently about not parking the cars haphazardly?  What about the elderly father, tell him not to smoke outside the house?  And not to play firecrackers during CNY?
2.  It is very possible that this tenant would want to renew the tenancy for another year, because he indicated to me at the beginning.  While I have full intention to renew with him (good paymaster, hardly ever calls to complain about maintenance issues, and of course, if he agrees to a slight increase in rental), how do I manage the neighbours' expectations?  I don't expect to refuse renewal just to please my neighbours ( I can't run the risk of vacancy period, agent fees etc, while my neighbours would not compensate me, kan?)