Landlord John Reece says he is sick and tired of hearing his tenants complain about their annual rent increase, given it’s not exactly a walk in the park for him either.
“Paying an extra $150 a week for place with a mouldy shower and a broken oven may not be exactly what they wanted. But then having to fill out six pages of documentation to initiate a rent increase is not exactly what I wanted on a Sunday afternoon either,” he said.
“They’re constantly complaining about the size of the rent, or the fact that the door to the bathroom is off its hinges. But you don’t hear me complaining about the three quarters of an hour I had to spend to put a $650-a-month rent raise request through. They never consider that side of it. They think it’s easy doing this, but it’s hardly a passive investment”.
He said tenants only ever thought about themselves. “They think it’s all just about them and their gas leak or whatever their latest whinge is. I have to explain to them that they’re not the only investment property I have to think about – I have three other properties, each of them requiring a rent rise every year. Think about the paperwork involved in that. Walk a day in my shoes for goodness sake”.
