Contacting a tenant after they’ve moved

Contacting a tenant after they’ve moved

Quite often there needs to be communication with a tenant after they have vacated. Sometimes, this communication may be less than pleasant if a matter connected with the bond has to be resolved.

If the matters are minor, and if the tenant is agreeable, communication by email and phone may suffice.  But some matters must or should be dealt with by traditional correspondence. Documents relating to Tribunal or a tenancy database for example.

The forwarding address

The onus is on the tenant to provide their forwarding address if they are requested to do so, unless there is a reasonable excuse not to provide it. A matter relating to domestic violence and the safety of the tenant is an example of such an exception.

If the tenant has not provided a forwarding address, it is acceptable to forward correspondence to their last known address. If this happens to be your rental property they have just vacated, then so be it.

As a landlord, your only obligation is to formally request a forwarding address. There is no responsibility for you to investigate a tenant’s whereabouts if this information has not been provided.

Diane Bukowski
cloud@eezirent.com.au

When I first started my company eezirent I wrote a small online newsletter for private landlords in Australia. It explored the common problems landlords encounter when self-managing. This simple publication has now grown into Honest Broker.

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