Tenant Selection and Ongoing Relationship Management

We’ve found that happy tenants are more likely to renew their tenancy, thereby helping avoid vacancies and advertising and re-letting costs.

Also… well-looked after and educated tenants are more likely to accept regular reasonable rent increases as well as being more likely to treat your property as if it were their own.

Once selected, we ensure our tenants are treated with respect, but clearly educate them on the expectations they should have of us and of you as their property owner.

This allows us to then hold them accountable to our expectations for rent to be paid in advance and the property to be respected.

This is just another way we maximise the returns on your property.

Here are some more details about how we go about this:

1. Enquiry and Inspection

Our tenant’s selection and qualification process begins with the very first contact.

We use the latest software to respond promptly to all enquiries on your property and book an early escorted inspection - we do not hand out keys directly to tenants.

This personal inspection allows us to meet your prospective tenant and begin to establish their suitability, even before receiving an application.

This is also an opportunity for us to begin to educate the prospect on our expectations and standards.

If deemed suitable, the tenant is offered an application to complete and return as soon as possible.

2. The application

To speed up the process of leasing your property, tenants can apply online. We requalify and further educate them on our expectations and standards.

While not foolproof, our experience shows it is best to filter unsuitable tenants before they move into your property, so we apply maximum effort at this stage to ensure only the best possible applicants are matched to your property.

As tenants often apply for multiple properties through several agents, we ensure all submitted applications are processed promptly. No application is considered or vetted until we have confirmed that the applicant or a trusted representative has physically inspected the property.

Time is money so we act fast!

When we find a suitable tenant, we act in accordance with your instructions, either seeking your approval and signing them up on your behalf.

3. The Sign-Up

Once the application is approved, we fast-track the process by getting an electronic copy of the lease to the tenant to sign and return to us together with their payment.

They then attend our office for a signup appointment at which time we continue our induction and education process:

• We reinforce our expectations and standards
• We educate the tenant with regards to things like rent arrears procedures, lease breaks, and vacating procedures and costs).
• We give them a tenant expectation handbook
• We explain maintenance procedures and how to lodge requests online
• We introduce the team and their nominated contact person.

4. Entry Condition Report

We always complete an Entry Condition

Report prior to your tenant moving in.

This is then given to the tenant at the start of their lease and they must inspect the property and countersign and return it to us to confirm it is a true and accurate account of the condition of the premises.

This Condition Report may become the most important piece of evidence if a dispute arises over the condition of the premises at the end of the tenancy. This report gives full details of the premises' condition, fully documenting any wear or tear already present at the start of a tenancy, noting the cleanliness, general condition, and working order of each applicable item on the report.

We also take numerous photos of the condition of your property and date these for future reference.

5. Routine Inspections

To ensure your tenant maintains your property, we undertake routine inspections.

The landlords are notified of when an upcoming routine inspection is booked.

We have a lot of landlords that plan trips around these inspections or their daily routine (if they live in the area) so that they can view the property and attend in person.

Once the inspections are carried out you will receive an email with a copy of the inspection report and photos, along with notes of small items that may require future action.

If there have been any major concerns you will be contacted by your property manager.

6. Ongoing management

Why do some good tenants become bad?

While most people start out as good tenants with the best of intentions, some are driven to aggravation by bad service, in particular lack of attention to their (reasonable) requests with regards to maintenance. That’s why we try hard to give our tenants the attention they deserve and we expect you to do the same and respond promptly to reasonable tenant requests.

Understandably, tenants can become difficult to deal with when no one seems to care enough to get maintenance done in any reasonable time frame. A neglected tenant who is frustrated with the lack of response to maintenance requests, gradually turns a blind eye to damaged or broken items and eventually stops reporting maintenance at all.

Most items, if not repaired can very quickly deteriorate and add up to some very costly repair bills as well as contribute to loss of capital value of your asset.

7. Rental Arrears

We believe our tenants are entitled to expect a well-managed and maintained property for them to enjoy. In return, you are entitled to expect your property to be well treated and your rent to be paid on time.

Our experience has shown the most effective way to deal with breaches is to take a firm zero-tolerance policy to any mistreatment of your property or unannounced rental default. This policy has been successful in minimising losses for our landlords.

Whilst we recommend you protect yourself with landlords’ insurance to cover the unexpected, the best insurance is one you never need to use.

8. Renewing your lease

We begin negotiations to renew your lease about 2 months before it expires. This will include a recommendation of what rental to charge, based on the prevailing market conditions and area results.

Unless you have given us instructions otherwise, we always try to renew your lease for another 12 months at the highest achievable rent.

We use strategic leases, timed to end in busy periods to help keep you firmly in control, but we cannot force your tenant to sign a new lease, and some chose to stay on a periodic lease tenancy.

9. Refresh, Refurb, and Renovate

To ensure your property appeals to the widest range of tenants we will make recommendations, where appropriate, to refresh your property or at times even refurbish or renovate your property to ensure you maximize your rents and minimize your vacancy periods.

10. Vacating

Unfortunately, all tenant relationships come to an end at some point.

While many agents don’t even consider what will happen at the end until confronted by an angry tenant who feels mistreated, at Metropole we begin planning for our separation right from the start by maintaining a great relationship with the tenant, spending time setting the right standards and then working to maintain a good relationship throughout the tenancy.

This helps ensure a better tenancy vacation, an outgoing tenant who is more cooperative allowing prospective tenants into the property and more likely to present the property well for any inspections.

This is another way we save you money by shortening your time between tenants and lowering your low vacancy rates.