When budgeting for the costs of holding a rental property, most investors factor in the regular, repeatable expenses such as council rates, water service charges, building and landlord insurance, property management fees and strata fees (where applicable). 

From time to time there are additional expenses every investor is likely to incur - the trick is that the timing and extent of these expenses tends to be unpredictable. Due to their unpredictability, they can be more difficult to budget for and are sometimes neglected completely. 

Following is not an exhaustive list by any means, however should help as a reminder to new and seasoned investors alike of the importance to allow for a savings buffer to ensure any untimely surprise expenses are little more than an inconvenience. 

Whenever we meet a new landlord, part of our conversation around preparing the property for the rental market includes a discussion of smoke alarm compliance and testing. Often, landlords may be unaware of their obligations, while others have a limited understanding of what appropriate smoke alarm testing and compliance entails. 

In this post we discuss the primary elements of smoke alarm law in NSW as it impacts landlords, and address the question of whether landlords should feel satisfied with testing smoke alarms themselves.

​We have written previously about the benefits for a landlord of having a tenant on a fixed term lease rather than a rolling or periodic arrangement. Several of the main advantages include:

• Security and stability of income
• Improved cash flow management
• Insurance benefits

As a landlord who has engaged a real estate agent to manage your rental property, you would expect that the property manager would monitor the lease terms for each property and begin certain processes when ever a lease was approaching expiry. ​Unfortunately this is not always the case. 

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has announced they will be doubling the number of audits scrutinising rental deductions for the 2018-19 financial year.

According to the ATO, in the 2017–18 financial year, more than $47 billion in deductions were made by over 2.2 million Australians. As a result, Assistant Commissioner Gavin Siebert has said that this year rental deductions will be a top priority for auditing. 

Quality tenant selection in the first instance and a professional property management approach will do much to avoid the need to even consider how to remove a tenant from your property. However, it is still possible that at some stage in your property investment journey you will be faced with the challenge of how to remove a difficult tenant. 

In this article we cover how a termination notice must be issued to a tenant, the amount of notice required to terminate the tenancy, and what happens if the tenant doesn't leave as ordered. 

​When an applicant is interested in securing a rental property and moving ahead with tenancy, the real estate agent will often request payment of a holding deposit. 

The holding deposit removes the ability for the landlord or agent to enter into a lease agreement for that property with any other person within 7 days of the holding deposit being paid (or for a further period as may be agreed with the tenant). 

However, there are some circumstances in which an applicant may have paid a holding deposit but after paying the deposit, finds that they are no longer able to or willing to proceed with tenancy. The applicant may have had a relationship breakdown with a potential co-tenant, an alternative property may have become available which is more preferable to them, etc. 

In these cases the question arises - is the rental holding deposit refundable?

We often hear stories from tenants who have had experiences in the past of unannounced or frequent visits from their agent or landlord. Unfortunately, especially when a landlord lives nearby to their investment property, the landlord can feel too comfortable simply "dropping past" the property to check on something, complete a minor repair, and so on. 

There are very clear notice periods required in order for a landlord, real estate agent or any other party acting on their behalf to enter a rental property.