Receiving My Rent Money

Posted on 5 January 2012

When do I get paid my rent?

We deposit your rental income into your bank twice every month, on the 1st and the 15th day of each month (or closest working day).

How do you collect the rent?

We always collect the rent by Automatic Payment 

What happens if my tenant does not pay the rent?

We have a ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy for rent arrears.  Rent payments are checked every day and if a tenant does get behind in their rent payments, this is the process we follow:

1 Day Behind – we send a text message or phone to tell the tenant their rent is overdue and request immediate payment.

4 Days Behind – we send a letter advising the tenants that they are in breach of their obligations under the tenancy agreement and further action will be taken if their rent is not received.

7 days behind – we complete an Application for Order of the Tenancy Tribunal under S54 of the Residential Tenancies Act and advise the tenant via phone or text that we are lodging a court application today.  We visit the property to check for abandonment if we have been unable to contact the tenants.

In most cases, either the first or the second course of action will cause an immediate response or payment from the tenant (many tenants have a genuine reason for the lapse and are quick to remedy the problem).  

If we do have to terminate a tenancy, the time taken to achieve termination varies depending on the length of time the Tribunal takes to arrange a hearing. This is out of our control, and can be up to three weeks in some cases.  

Housemart request four weeks rent as bond – this is the maximum amount we can request under the Residential Tenancy Act, so we can at least minimise any shortfall.