TCR Blog - Toowoomba City Realty

Mould – Cause and Solution

Mould is a common type of fungus that thrives in moist, warm conditions.

Although mould itself has no mobility, its hyphae can grow quite long. This is the primary mode used by the mould to spread. When you see a strawberry in a container that has been engulfed by mould, you can observe it spreading.

The four factors that are necessary for mould to thrive are moisture, food, correct temperature and spores.

Toowoomba … Read the full post »

What is Emergency Maintenance

Our office on average receives over 10 maintenance requests per day. These requests can vary from emergency repairs to basic home care. The response time for maintenance can also vary depending on the priority.

Emergency maintenance is often actioned within 24 hours, general maintenance within 72 hours and basic requests within 7days.

RTA legislation clearly states that all maintenance must be provided in writing. This can be done by completing a maintenance … Read the full post »

Lease Renewals

As there has been some confusion over the lese renewal process, we thought we would clarify some questions that many tenants may have.

RTA legislation states that as your rental agency we are required to give tenants two months notice to vacate, should the owner of the property want to sell, move into the property themselves or if tenants do not want to renew. For this reason we contact owners two … Read the full post »

Can I Charge Water Usage to Tenants?

Landlords are only able to pass on the full water consumption costs to tenants if:

the rental premises are individually metered (or water is delivered by vehicle), and
the rental premises are water efficient, with full plumbers report and
the tenancy agreement states the tenant must pay for all water consumption.

Otherwise tenants can only be charged for excess water (2nd tier consumption on your Toowoomba Regional Council rates notice – … Read the full post »

Insurance – The Fine Print

Quite recently we have witnessed many unfortunate financial losses due to inadequate “landlord” insurance. Standard home and contents insurance will not protect against many of the risks that landlord’s face, and many bank generated landlord insurance policies have high excesses and do not cover the wide range of accidental damage that can occur during and at the end of a tenancy.

Many policies will cover rent loss AFTER the bond and … Read the full post »

Maximising rental income

Boosting rental returns is currently a key issue for owners and managers of rental properties, particularly when vacancies are on the rise.

Recently we advised owner of the current high vacancy rates in the Toowoomba rental market which is threatening to increase rental vacancies further, however there are steps that can be taken to maximise returns on rental properties in tenant-driven markets.

According to Sharon Fox-Slater, Executive General Manager, RentCover, keeping properties … Read the full post »