15th August 2016

Garden Maintenance

GARDEN MAINTENANCE

The issue of garden maintenance can lead to issues between landlord, tenant and agent. What exactly are the tenant garden maintenance responsibilities and what are the landlord's responsibilities?

Unfortunately the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 NSW does not provide exact guidance.

Unless the residential tenancy agreement says otherwise, the tenant is generally responsible for "general maintenance", which is basically defined as mowing, watering, weeding and pruning/trimming.

The tenant is ultimately responsible for ensuring the garden is maintained to a standard set at the beginning of the tenancy. This will be detailed in the ingoing and outgoing inspection report and with photographs.

The landlord is generally responsible for things such as providing hoses and sprinklers, maintaining any water system, tree lopping and cleaning gutters.

While a landlord is responsible for maintaining gutters, tenants have a responsibility to report any issues such as blockages or breaks. Maintenance of gutters is an important aspect of protecting your building as broken or blocked gutters can quickly lead to roof and wall damage.

This may at first seem straight forward. However, what is the difference between pruning and lopping? Who pays the excess water usage if it is a hot summer and extra watering is required? If larger shrubs mature over years and are not lopped how can a tenant potentially maintain a lawn that has increased shading? Lopping of large trees and shrubs can be seen as outside of general maintenance and would be part of the Owners responsibility to maintain. Cale Property have learned through experience that taking photos at routine inspections and providing Owners the opportunity to see their gardens greatly assists us in ensuring tenants attend to the basic maintenance and Owners attend to the maintenance such as lopping trees and cleaning gutters.

If you have a garden at your investment property you are particular attached to, we recommend including a garden maintenance contract. You cannot make a tenant pay these costs but having regular garden maintenance does have benefits. For gardens with plants which require special attention and regular watering, fitting an irrigation system which runs on a timer and not charging water usage or paying a portion towards the tenant's water usage will ensure continuous watering and a lush green garden.

At Cale Property Agents our aim is to ensure all parties clearly understand their responsibilities, and with the help of a comprehensive Property Condition Report and regular inspections, ensure these responsibilities are understood and met.