Norval Real Estate Services
HOME IS WHERE YOUR STORY BEGINS
We are a dedicated team of industry professionals with one main drive – people. We are passionate about helping, educating, guiding, and ensuring our clients receive the most from their investment and their property experience.
We understand what both our landlords and our tenants need, and with this we find the balance required to guarantee a fantastic investment.
With a proven recipe for success, we have the insider knowledge you need, and we like to share our success.
We aim to ease and enhearten our clients’ experience of real estate property management by nurturing a spirit and culture of relationship-building, reliability and revolution. This is our story of how we came to be, but there are many reasons why we are setting the benchmark for property agents.
We set out to inspire real estate investors to believe that a seamless and satisfying property buying, selling, and management experience is not only possible but achievable. Our team are committed to supporting clients by having their property overseen and following the growth of their investments.
Appraisals
An Appraisal in real estate is an estimation of the value of your property. When appraising your property, we will look at how much your property is doing at the point in time. Has your local property market fluctuated, have you renovated? This is evaluated by looking forward in time. This means, the direction of the market dictated – are prices going up or down. The appraisal is a great way to understand how much you could sell your property for in the current market.
Photography
When Selling or Renting your property, you want to present the property to its best potential.
Professional Quality images taken by skilled photographers using professional equipment and retouched by experts ensure the best photos when listing your property. We use local professional photographers, which prides themselves on Exceptional Service at Local prices.
Rent Arrears
Non-payment of rent
If the tenant does not pay rent by when it is due, they are in rent arrears; This is a breach of their tenancy agreement.
WHAT HAPPENS IF MY TENANT DOESN’T PAY?
While our Team has a ZERO tolerance on rent arrears, some tenants will encounter issues that will impact their ability to make rental payments on time. Therefore, we have a daily monitoring routine, notifying our Team of missed payments.
If a payment is missed or late, the tenant will be notified of the first late payment via phone calls, SMS and emails, promptly resolving the issues.
When the tenant breaches their agreement solely for rent arrears in rent arrears, the landlord/agent can give the tenant a non-payment termination notice. The rent must remain unpaid for 14 days or more before the Agent can offer you this notice.
When the tenant is in arrears of water or other utility charges, the landlord/agent can also give you a non-payment termination notice if they have not paid their water usage charges or additional utility charges. The water or utility charges must remain unpaid for 14 days or more before the Agent gives the tenant this notice.
We believe in open EARLY communications to the landlord and tenant, ensuring issues are resolved before escalating.
Tenant Selection
Selecting the most suitable tenants is of prime importance for the Property Investor, We are extremely particular in the choice of tenants we screen; therefore, we perform the tenant selection taking the following steps;
- Each applicants’ previous rental references are checked and confirmed, including their references and confirmation of their employment and income.
- After the Property Manager has processed all suitable applications, they are presented to the Property Investor and your Portfolio Manager recommendations.
- The selection of a suitable tenant is performed following Australian laws regarding discrimination and the Residential Tenancies and Privacy Acts.
Rent Collection
is an indispensable element to successfully managing a rental property and generating income through rent payments. While there are many ways to approach this step, it’s essential to know all the different components to collect rent to ensure you’re protected and receive payments on time.
“What gets measure gets managed (quote by Peter Drucker), We manage payments through our state of the are software programs, resulting in transparent payment schedule for you and your tenant.
REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE
Proposed changes to the rental industry presented by Queensland Government to ensure safety and fairness in the community.
One of the proposed changes are
- All rental properties must be weatherproof and structurally sound and must meet minimum standards for plumbing and drainage, security, fixtures and fittings, pests, vermin and infestation, ventilation, lighting, privacy and cooking and food preparation facilities
The property manager/owner is responsible for ensuring the property is fit to live in and in a good state of repair. The tenant must notify us of any repairs.
Example: If the tenant breaks a window by throwing a ball through it, they are responsible and must pay for repairs.
Example: if a window falls out of the frame, and breaks, due to ageing putty that may be fair wear and tear, the property manager/owner may have to pay
Lease Renewals & Vacates
When a fixed-term tenancy ends and the parties agree that the tenants can remain in the rental premises, the lessor/agent and tenant need to decide on the future tenancy arrangements.
There are three ways a fixed term tenancy can continue
- Extend the existing fixed-term agreement by agreeing on a new finishing date, or
- Enter into a new fixed-term agreement, or
- Do nothing and allow the agreement to revert to a periodic agreement
The meaning of a fixed rental agreement?
A fixed-term lease is a lease for a fixed period, so it has a definite start date and a definite end date. Allowing the tenant to have surety of tenure for the period stated in the agreement, even if the property is sold, they are allowed to reside there until the end of the lease or the end of the contract. The fixed-term lease gives the tenant and the owner security that there is a regular income during that period, and there’s no changing of tenants during that period.
Meaning of periodic agreement, whilst it does have a definite start date like a fixed-term tenancy, there’s no end date. There is no physical end-date written into the lease. The Periodic agreement gives flexibility to both the tenant and the owner. It allows the Agent to market the property more widely in the case of the owner wanting to sell the property.
The drawback of a periodic lease is that it can jeopardise the landlord’s insurance. The notice periods required from either party to end the tenancy differs. A tenant on a periodic lease only requires giving two weeks’ notice to the landlord/agent.
Extending the existing fixed-term agreement
To extend the current fixed term agreement but not change any other term, such as the amount of rent, the parties must agree in writing on a new finishing date before the original agreement ends.
This can be done in either of the following ways
- On all copies of the written tenancy agreement, cross out the current finishing date (Item 6 in the standard agreement) and write in the new finishing date. Both parties should then initial and date this change, or
- Both parties sign a separate written statement, such as a letter, that states the new fnishing date and alters their original tenancy agreement.
If the agreement is extended, rent can only be increased during the extended tenancy if the agreement already allows it, and the lessor/agent gives the tenant two months’ notice in writing of the rent increase. Otherwise, the lessor/agent will need to lawfully end the agreement before negotiating a new tenancy agreement with increased rent. However, rent cannot be increased unless at least six months since the current amount of rent became payable by the tenant.
Enter into a new agreement
If there is a change in any of the terms from the previous agreement (e.g. a rent increase), the lessor/agent must prepare a new General tenancy agreement (Form 18a) or Moveable dwelling tenancy agreement (Form 18b) to sign. The tenant must sign the agreement and return it to the lessor/agent responsible for making sure the tenant has a signed copy.
If the lessor/agent intends to use the expiry of the tenancy agreement as an opportunity to review the rent for a new agreement, and at least one of the previous tenants remains in the property, then limits apply. Rent can not be increased unless at least six months since the current amount of rent became payable by the tenant, even if it is between two separate agreements.
Do nothing, so the agreement becomes periodic
If you do not extend or sign a new fixed-term agreement, a periodic agreement automatically occurs. The periodic agreement continues under the same terms applied to the fixed term agreement except for the end date.
At any time, the tenant and lessor/agent can agree to end the periodic agreement and begin a new fixed-term agreement.
Under a periodic agreement, the lessor/agent may increase rent by giving the tenant two months’ notice in writing of the increase. However, rent cannot be increased unless at least six months since the current amount of rent became payable by the tenant.
The information provided by the RTA
Non Payment Termination
Non-Payment Termination
The non-payment termination notice must be in writing, signed by the landlord/agent and set out with.”
- The address of the premises
- The day by which the landlord/agent wants you to
- Vacate – the tenant must be given at least 14 days’ notice
- The ground for the notice: non-payment of rent, water usage charges or utility charges
The notification must also say that the tenant is not required to vacate the premises if they
- Pay all the rent, water usage charges or utility charges owing (this includes rent paid two weeks in advance), or
- Enter into and fully comply with a repayment plan agreed with the landlord.
The landlord/agent must properly send or deliver the notice to the tenant, in person, by post, by email (to an email address the tenant have specified for documents of that kind), or by hand in an addressed envelope to a mailbox at the tenants home or business address.
If the notice is posted, the landlord/agent must allow an extra seven working days for delivery
The landlord/agent can give the tenant a termination notice without asking the tenant to pay the arrears.
We believe in open EARLY communications to the landlord and tenant, ensuring issues are resolved before escalating.
We will look at how to collect your rent, how much to charge, how to keep track of rent payments, when to raise the rent, and how to handle rent disputes in separate articles. So keep on the lookout, or subscribe to our social media platforms for regular updates.
INSPECTIONS
Inspections conducted by us are
- Entry Inspections
- Exit Inspections
- Routine Inspections
Entry Inspection
What is an entry inspection?
A report is done at the beginning of a tenancy to accurately report the property’s condition a few days before the tenant takes possession of the property.
All our entry conditions reports are done on a software program accompanied by photos stored in the cloud and easily accessible for tenants and owners through their portals.
The tenant is asked to take photos that they feel are relevant and return the Entry Condition report to us within three (3) days.
Routine Inspection
How often are routine inspections conducted? We conduct our routine inspections every 16 weeks.
What do we want to accomplish with a routine inspection? For the interior inspection, we firstly look at the way the tenant is looking after the property with regular cleaning and noting any damage that may be there, taking into account fair wear and tear.
Interior Checklist
- Is the property is neat
- Marks or damage on the walls
- Ceiling showing signs of mould or water damage
- Fans and Air-Conditioning units clean
- Floors stained, or do they need vacuuming or mopping
- Kitchen tidiness, including the oven, hot plates, splashbacks and sinks
- Bathrooms – Are the showers, vanities and sinks clear of soap scum and mould
- Bedrooms, do the robe doors slide or open correctly
- Check all taps and toilets for leaks
We’re not looking at how they’re living, like if they’ve made their beds or left clothes on the floor. Instead, we’re looking at physical cleanings like kitchen benches and cooktops. Are things left to progress and don’t keep up the regular cleaning which can cause permanent damage.
Then, we’re looking at preventative maintenance. Are we noticing anything that wasn’t the tenants doing, like a tap that’s dripping? We’re also looking for possible health and safety issues for the tenant. Such as balustrades decaying over time. We will point out to the owner and maybe suggest we seek a third party for advice.
Part of the routine is looking for wear and tear on the property. If we see the carpets are starting to look their age and the paintwork’s looking a bit worse for wear, we will give the owners a heads up that maybe we will begin budgeting to conduct some upgrades for the next tenancy. That way, it isn’t a sudden expense at the end of the lease for the owner.
Part of the routine inspection is to look under the kitchen sink. Also, laundry and bathroom wet places ensure that everything functions correctly, ensuring that water damage is curved.
The exterior inspection we look at
- Are the gardens and lawns mowed and neat
- Are the gates and fences secure
- Is there any damage, holes in gutters, or water damage
- Does the house or paving need pressure cleaning?
Once we’ve completed the routine inspections report and advised the owner, we list any items to the tenant that may require attention before the next visit. Or, if need be, we will arrange a follow-up inspection within seven days to rectify any issues.
Q: My property is managed by an agent. Am I entitled to attend the routine inspection with the inspection and chat to the tenant if they are in attendance?
A: Yes, you can attend with the property manager. The Property Manager must give the tenant the appropriate notice that the inspection will take place, and the tenant can either be home for the inspection or give permission to the agent and owner to attend the property by themselves and yes, you the landlord can direct any question to the tenant if in attendance.
We always ask the owners to attend the routine inspection with the Property Manager; it gives the owner first-hand experience of his investment property.
Exit Inspection
The Exit Condition Report shows the condition of the property and any inclusions (e.g. furniture when the tenant leaves. The Exit Condition report is an essential part of the bond refund process. It is compared to the Entry Condition report to determine if the property is in the same condition as when the tenant moved in, apart from fair wear and tear.
Ideally, we ask the tenant to complete the report together; however, this is not always possible.
