The management agreement is a legally binding contract between the Property Management Agency and the Landlord. It outlines the agreed terms and conditions of the agreement between the parties and their individual rights and obligations to the agreement. It gives us authority to act on your behalf in the day to day management of your investment.

At M.E. Property we are members of the Real Estate Institute of South Australia to keep abreast of industry changes, particularly those relating to important legislative requirements.

We use REISA’s tried, tested and legally compliant agreements and forms for every aspect of our business.

On signing of the management agreement and in order for us to commence the marketing of the home we will require 3 full sets of keys to the premises and minimum 2 remotes if applicable. We will supply a maximum of 2 sets of keys to the tenant with the remaining set retained at our office to ensure we can access the property for routine inspections and any maintenance when required.

At the start of an agreement, a landlord must provide the tenant with manufacturers’ manuals or instructions of how to use appliances in the property (e.g. air conditioner). These appliances must be listed on the tenancy agreement.

A landlord is not entitled to claim costs to repair any damage to a domestic appliance unless the appliance is listed on the tenancy agreement and manuals or instructions were provided to the tenant.

This information is provided from the following website – click here.

Most appliance manuals can be sourced online. If the appliance manual is unavailable please ensure you provide written instructions. Please provide all manuals in their electronic form. We will maintain the electronic copy in our software for future use.

At M.E. Property we consider landlord insurance to be crucial to risk management. This small investment could save you thousands of dollars and ensure the risk to your investment is minimised.

We recommend you research landlord insurance policies in detail. There are a number of specialist landlord insurance policies available in the market place which tend to have better coverage, better excesses and are less expensive than general insurers.

Landlord insurance policies vary substantially. It is important your property representative is skilled on how to make a claim and familiar with various different types of cover available.

If the policy holder gives the tenant notice at the end of a lease and the tenant stops paying rent some policies will not cover you for loss of rent and don’t cover reletting fees. You will be relying on the bond to cover the loss of rent and any required cleaning of the property.

If the tenant is evicted from the property by way of a tribunal, or abandons a rental property most insurance policies will cover the rent arrears, reletting fees and readvertising of the property and other associated costs.

If the policies are separate, when making a claim you may need to claim some items through your landlord insurer e.g. rent arrears and other items through the building insurance policy.

Malicious damage in some cases is only covered through the building policy which may require a police report to be eligible to make a claim. Essentially you will be making 2 claims and possibly pay 2 excesses.

Most specialist landlord insurers offer a combined building/landlord insurance policy and it is certainly worth exploring.

Because of the variations in different policies your property representative will need to familiarise themselves with your policy before proceeding with making a claim. There will be some items not covered by the insurance policy that will need to be claimed from the bond.

Your property representative will do an assessment of your individual circumstances before proceeding with any works or claims. This will include presenting the calculations of all repairs, rent arrears, water arrears, cleaning, reletting costs and other associated costs. This will allow you the opportunity to make an educated decision on how to proceed.

At M.E. Property it is our company policy that we are provided with a smoke alarm compliance certificate at the beginning of the management agreement and that the smoke alarms are serviced on an annual basis. As part of our service we are happy to organise this service on your behalf.

Why? In a rental property smoke alarm compliance is the responsibility of the landlord/owner of the property. The landlord must ensure that there are working smoke alarms installed in the property that comply with South Australian laws.

Be aware that non-compliance can carry heavy fines and may affect any claims on your building insurance.

To ensure you have peace of mind that the occupants of your property and investment is protected we recommend you employ the specialist in the field Smoke Alarm Solutions – click here.

For under $100 per annum (which is usually tax deductable) your smoke alarms will be serviced annually and a compliance certificate provided.

The Platinum Annual Smoke Alarm Service covers unlimited smoke alarm inspections to your property within a year, as well as the free installation and replacement of smoke alarms required for compliance.

At M.E. Property we like to ensure you maximise the benefits of your investment property and show you ways in which you can offset the costs involved in owning a rental property.

Put simply a Tax Depreciation Schedule is a document that tells your accountant how much depreciation to claim on your investment property.

It helps to:

• Reduce the taxable income from your rental property
• Increase cash returns
• Save investors tax at tax time

Tax depreciation schedules are a specialist field, for more detailed information regarding how you can save money follow this link to our preferred supplier Real Property Matters – Click here.

At M.E. property we can organise this service on your behalf and are happy to share our general knowledge on the subject of tax depreciation.