In today’s leasing environment there are a raft of compliance issues that need to be addressed before entering into a lease agreement, some of which have not affected lease agreements before.
Every property investor needs to make sure that their property is smoke alarm and water usage compliant, together with window safety devices, blind cord and pool compliance before the property is leased!
Obviously there is a cost to the property investor to ensure compliance, however the risk of non-compliance far outweighs the cost of compliance.
By ensuring that your property is lease compliant, not only with Residential Tenancy legislation, but by compliance legislation (as detailed above), the property investor avoids the risk of having an invalid tenancy agreement, or facing heavy penalties and having any insurance claim denied in the event of a loss in the above events.
Worse still the non-compliant property investor could be liable at law in the event of a public liability claim as a result of a non-compliance loss. As an industry we have already seen this occur following house fires in rental properties where the property investor becomes personally liable should the property not be smoke alarm compliant.
Your Property Manager is faced with the unenviable task of informing you of these additional lease compliance costs, however the advice must be heeded to ensure that your property is compliant and so you minimise your risk of legal action and additional costs.
