My dad died last year and left my brother and I a tenanted investment property.
We have left the property in the name of the estate as we don't have the financial standing to take out another mortgage in our names.
The existing tenants had been there for a long time and had a good relationship with our dad, and he was managing the property himself.
The tenants have continued to deposit the previously agreed rent every fortnight, but have been living in the house with no lease agreement for almost a year.
We would like to get them onto a proper lease. I have copies of several previous leases and each time my dad has written "paid" with his signature in the section for the security bond, with no number amount.
I also have a print out of a screenshot of what looks like a program called "REST Professional", which includes a local real estate business's name in the header. This screenshot includes details and an amount of a bond for those tenants and that property.
My questions are:
- Can my brother and I lease the property to the tenants and put our names as the "Lessor", even though the house is in the name of the estate?
- My brother is the executor of the estate. If no to the above, can we put the lease in his name?
- Do real estate agencies organise the holding of bonds for private landlords? Is this screenshot I found evidence of a current bond held, or is this relating to a previous lease that was run by that real estate agent?
- If no to #3, is there any way to follow up about a possible bond? Like, with the Department of Commerce? I'm a little worried that maybe my dad just kept it in his bank account which I believe is not good.
- Would it be reasonable for us to start the new lease by conducting a current as-is property condition report, and using that for the future? We have found no evidence of an existing one.
Thank you for reading and sorry for asking so many questions!
Just as one last question: Who/where could we go to ask these types of questions? We don't want to go through a real estate agent.
Do you have a solicitor who is or was managing your dad's estate? They should be able to answer all of these questions or at least direct you to someone who can.
To be honest if you know nothing about renting properties you should probably just be engaging a property manager to do it (at least in the short term).
Some short answers:
1/2 - Should put the lease in brother's name as executor of the estate as he has the legal right to enter the lease as the executor. However renting out estate property can cause issues with CGT, land tax, estate income/tax returns, etc, so speak with your solicitor and/or accountant.
3 - Very unlikely. More likely the property was formerly managed by that property manager, and it is the details of the bond paid at that time. It should still be held with the rental bonds board though rather than the agent.
4 - Most states have a rental bonds board or similar who hold all of the bonds - you should be able to chase this up with them. Hopefully there is reference number or something on the printout which might help with this.
5 - Yes, would definitely have a new condition report prepared.