Published on: 11 March 2021
Last Updated on: 21 December 2024
Most body corporates tend to be well managed. However, there are still numerous issues that come with such management. It is actually possible for different issues to arise in two buildings that have been built the same way. Here are the top five problems that are faced by many body corporate managers:
1. Financial Stability:
A body corporate is only as stable as its financial foundation. Like many legal entities, a body corporate requires strong financial stability if it is to run smoothly. There are credit contracts to be made, tax returns to be filed and bank accounts to be managed.
If the finances of the body corporate are not managed effectively, many problems start cropping up. Bankruptcy actually becomes a possibility when the entity’s finances are poorly managed. Most times, however, members often contribute funds to prevent the entity from sinking into debt. To avoid falling into this pitfall, take a good look at the body corporate’s finances before you invest in it. Look at the cash levels and debt ratios. This should give you a sound estimation of the entity’s financial stability.
2. Compliance with The Law:
Another common issue that many body corporate managers face includes compliance with regulatory requirements. Compliance with legislation means much more than simply complying with the BCCM Act. There are fire safety rules to comply with and pool safety regulations to be adhered to. Sure, complying with the law will increase your management costs, but it’s much cheaper than having to pay fines or to face the consequences that the law is trying to prevent.
3. Management Problems:
Poor management can be just as costly as non- compliance with legislation. Usually, the problem with management comes where the committee members are volunteers. This means that they have to squeeze in hours to do the management work in addition to their regular jobs and their family responsibilities. Poor management can be costly to any body corporate manager. Before you decide to venture into this investment, make sure that the properties are properly managed. Look at compliance with the law, fiscal strength and how well the management promotes harmonious living.
4. Dispute Resolution:
When people live together, disputes are inevitable. In strata management, disputes can also be very expensive. Whether the cause of the dispute is noise or failure to abide by the set rules, it can be a very stressful time. Sometimes, disputes end up in court or arbitration, and this is both time consuming and costly. In order to avoid unnecessary disputes, it is best to have clear rules that are enforced strongly.
5. Building Condition:
The state of the buildings can also be a cause of a headache for property management. New buildings are often riddled with many defects; and old ones require renovation and refurbishment. You might think, but there are insurance companies to take care of the defects, right? However, sometimes the insurance companies just won’t pay, and you are suddenly faced with the problem of having to improve the state of the buildings. This can be rather stressful and costly.
Conclusion:
Most of the above problems are related. Poor management will certainly lead to poor dispute resolution as well as financial instability. If there is no money available, renovating buildings and fixing problems will be impossible. Although most body corporates are properly managed, a fair share are riddled with issues. And sometimes, those issues can go unresolved for a long time.
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Kings Cross is located amid the boroughs of Islington and Camden in the heart of London city. It is one of the oldest districts and an important transport hub of the UK.
Kings Cross is well-linked with other parts of London and Europe that makes it a prominent region. Central London is a region which is in most demand despite the bustling streets and the crowded neighbourhoods. Learn about how to become a British Citizen by clicking here.
After numerous renovations in the last few years, the empty streets are now filled with a variety of households like studio apartments, modern flats, comfy penthouses, and more.
Many constructions emerged in Kings Cross with time, making it a potential place of business and commutation. The well-established line-up of markets, schools, shops and restaurants in this region makes it a perfect place to live.
Most of the residential households of Kings Cross are based on Victorian and Georgian architecture with thoughtfully built terraces.
Many people hunting for homes take the help of letting agents in Kings Cross, the local property experts. The demand for households in Kings Cross has always been high leading to the emergence of newly built chic flats and studio apartments.
Renting in Kings Cross is more feasible compared to buying a property in that region. However, being a significant industrial hub and the transport nerve centre in London, finding homes become a long and tiring process.
Convenience Of The Location:
Kings Cross remains crowded throughout the day and is noisy in most of the neighbourhoods. Amidst this, there are some quiet lanes with beautiful homes and constructions.
Finding the right place includes having all the necessary facilities like health care centres, restaurants, tube stations and more. Most parts of Europe, the United Kingdom and London can be accessed easily from Kings Cross.
People commuting to other parts of London for work can reach effortlessly via buses and tube stations despite the crowded streets. Getting ready for work earlier than the usual time is required in a place like Kings Cross. Checking the safety of the neighbourhood is also an important criterion.
Rents And Deposits:
Central London is expensive and an in-demand region compared to the other areas of London. Therefore, every rental home will require a deposit amount before getting into it.
Chances of the seasonal increase in rents are possible in Kings Cross, which has to be understood by the tenants depending on the property market. The deposit amount differs with the size and type of the property in Kings Cross. Deposits will be charged from one month to six months’ rent of the property.
In some places, landlords do not ask for deposits which is an added perk for tenants. The tenant should acquire written details of the rental deposits and rents in an agreement
Total Charges:
Taking the help of local estate agents of Kings Cross is a common way of finding the right home during the process. The commission fee differs from one estate agent to another, which must be kept in mind before hiring one.
Enquiring all the costs while renting a home is crucial to arrange them and keep things under the buyer’s budget.
Expenses like the tenancy fees, initial deposit, renewal and exit fees, and other miscellaneous fees should be enquired beforehand to have them handy.
Considering all these expenses will prevent the buyer from getting into a tight spot. They can start planning and organise their payment plans without exceeding the deadlines.
Clause Specifics:
Reading the agreement thoroughly before signing it off is crucial because breaking any clauses will cause unnecessary issues.
There are some perks for the tenants, where they can discuss the terms that they are not happy with or disagree with their landlord before signing the agreement.
Tenants can also propose other additions to the existing contract such that it suits both the tenant and the owner, like the repairs, interior additions and other obligations.
When finding properties for rent through a free listing site, there are high chances of scams to occur like unusual pricing for the particular neighbourhood, fake pictures of the property, or any suspicious behaviour.
Satisfying All The Requirements:
Living in Kings Cross is nothing less of a rollercoaster ride- exciting yet exhilarating. Renting in Kings Cross is a wise option that is convenient and time-saving. The size of the property, its interiors, open spaces, furnishings and other necessary factors like living close to the workplace, parking slots, nearby parks, schools etc., are also important.
Getting a tempting chic flat but far away from all other vital regions would be a comprehensive loss for the renters. Apart from the basic requirements, the safety of the tenants in the neighbourhood, privacy is equally significant for balanced living.
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Although home swapping primarily means the exchange of residences, it is actually much more than that. Basically, you are inviting yourself to immerse yourself in a new culture and community.
In fact, you are helping to create global connectivity. This way, you will be able to live like locals, offering a unique travel perspective.
In addition to that, with the rise of platforms like Academic Home Rentals and Exchanges, the process has become more streamlined. Hence, you have a lot of options to explore diverse destinations without breaking the bank.
As a result, this unique travel solution is getting more popular with time. This is due to the financial benefits as well as the ability to get new experiences.
Important Points: You can experience authentic new destinations and live like locals with home swapping. Also, you can help create a strong global connectivity. Home swapping has a lot of financial benefits. This is because you are eliminating accommodation costs. Meanwhile, you are also promoting cultural exchange and local lifestyle. If you successfully exchange your home, you need to have clear communication and preparation. Also, you will need to set your expectations beforehand and share useful resources with your guests. When you are indulging in home swapping, you need to ensure trust and transparency. This way, you will be able to ensure that both parties are comfortable. Home swapping is also creating a more sustainable and culturally immersive travel experience. Basically, the focus is to create global connections and reduce reliance on traditional tourism infrastructure.
Why Home Swapping Is Getting More Popular?
Nowadays, the world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Hence, home swapping emerges as a modern means to bridge cultural gaps. Apart from that, it helps to invite curiosity and create memorable travel experiences.
As people seek more personalized travel adventures, this method stands out as the perfect blend of exploration and cultural education. In addition to that, it offers a unique opportunity to bypass typical tourist experiences and engage deeply with local life.
Moreover, as the travel landscape evolves, home swapping provides a refreshing alternative to traditional accommodation options. Also, it is opening doors to authentic and immersive stays.
Here, you will be able to enjoy the rhythm of local life, whether in a bustling city or the quiet countryside. Also, you can offer the same to your hosts.
What Are The Benefits Of Home Swapping For Travelers?
The following are the major benefits of home swapping that you will benefit from as a traveler:
1. You Will Have An Economic Advantage
The economic advantage of home swapping is undeniable. Firstly, swapping homes will significantly reduce your overhead costs associated with traditional travel.
Also, you will be able to redirect funds towards local activities and culinary delights. Moreover, you will also not need to put up with accommodation expenses, enhancing their overall travel experience.
2. You Will Have Unique Experiences
The benefits of home swapping go beyond saving money. For instance, it will offer you an authentic slice of life. Also, you will be able to experience neighborhoods and surroundings as a local would.
In addition to offering budget-friendly travel, home swapping promotes cultural exchange, making it a rich educational tool. For instance, if you live in someone else's home, it will typically provide you with insights into their lifestyle and routines, creating opportunities for cultural comparisons and deeper understanding.
3. You Can Learn New Customs And Culture
Basically, the opportunity to live in a local home rather than a hotel can significantly enrich your understanding of daily life in a foreign culture.
It opens the door to learning customs, trying traditional foods, and engaging in activities that may not be accessible to tourists. These interactions create a more profound connection to the place visited, one that goes beyond what typical travel allows.
How Do You Find The Perfect Home Swap?
Finding a home swap that aligns with your expectations begins with selecting the right platform. For instance, when it comes to services like Academic Home Rentals and Exchanges, the process begins with setting up a comprehensive profile that highlights your home and preferences.
This becomes your primary tool for attracting suitable swap partners. Also, you will need to be detail-oriented. Here, you might need to include photos, descriptions, and any unique aspects of your home that might appeal to potential swappers.
Once you've searched and narrowed down your options, carefully evaluate potential swap offers. Look for compatibility in lifestyle and travel goals, and engage with partners to discuss the specifics of the swap. In fact, clarity upfront will help you make the difference between a good experience and a great one.
Taking the time to vet potential home swap partners ensures mutual understanding and helps avoid unpleasant surprises.
Always have open discussions about the expectations surrounding the stay, such as pets, cleaning duties, or use of personal belongings. Clear communication is essential to creating a comfortable and enjoyable experience for both parties involved.
How To Perform A Successful Home Exchange?
Successful exchanges hinge on thorough communication and preparation. It is essential to establish clear lines of communication with your swap partner to discuss house rules, amenities, and local tips.
In addition to that, offer a welcome guide with local recommendations, emergency contacts, and other essential information. This will ease the transition for your guests and make their stay more enjoyable.
When preparing your home, consider a deep clean and minor maintenance tasks to ensure your space is inviting. Thoughtful touches, such as leaving a welcome note or stocking the kitchen with basic supplies, can enhance the guest experience and foster goodwill.
These small but meaningful gestures help set the tone for a positive exchange. They show your guests that you've put thought and care into their stay. In return, the effort you put into preparing your home will likely inspire reciprocal kindness from your home swap partner.
Home Swapping Depends On Trust And Communication
Trust, paired with effective communication, is the backbone of a home swap. Open dialogue from the beginning ensures that both parties have aligned expectations, reducing misunderstandings.
Also, you will need to be transparent about your home's conditions and any guidelines your guests should follow. For instance, the Harvard Business Review highlights that trust improves communication, creates a smoother and more satisfactory exchange experience.
While unforeseen issues can occur, addressing them promptly and respectfully will maintain a positive relationship. Hence, it shows the importance of trust and honesty throughout the process.
Good communication also means being available for your guests or hosts if questions or concerns arise. Staying responsive and approachable makes the entire experience smoother, enhancing the overall satisfaction of both parties. The willingness to navigate challenges together strengthens the bond of trust and leads to long-lasting friendships.
Common Misconceptions About Home Swapping
There are many concerns regarding security and privacy regarding home swapping. However, most platforms offer robust systems with verified user profiles, reviews, and secure messaging to ensure reliable exchanges.
Hence, trustworthy communication between parties can dispel most apprehensions and myths about this practice.
In addition to that, with personal boundaries respected and clear agreements outlined from the start, many of these misconceptions are quickly dispelled. This will promise a safe and enjoyable experience for all involved.
Setting clear expectations from the beginning is key to a positive and secure experience. Both parties can ensure their stay is as comfortable and worry-free as possible by agreeing on house rules, including pet care or home security measures. This shared understanding leads to a smoother and more enjoyable exchange overall.
How Home Swapping Is Shaping Modern Travel?
The evolution of travel is being significantly influenced by home swapping, offering a glimpse into the future of more sustainable, community-oriented, and authentic travel.
This approach allows for reduced reliance on hotels and resorts, thereby diminishing the environmental footprint vacationers leave behind.
As the trend continues to grow, home swapping satisfies a desire for economical and diverse travel experiences. Moreover, it helps to create a global community where trust and cultural sensitivity are at the forefront, redefining how we see and engage with the world.
In the future, home swapping may become a standard practice for travelers seeking genuine, sustainable, and enriching experiences.
Furthermore, as the world becomes more interconnected, this method could foster deeper cross-cultural understanding. Also, it will offer travelers the opportunity to create lasting, meaningful connections.
The Way Forward
Home swapping is an innovative and enriching way to travel that goes beyond just exchanging residences. Basically, it offers a unique opportunity to experience new cultures and connect with local communities.
For instance, eliminating accommodation costs and fostering cultural exchange provide travelers with more authentic, immersive, and budget-friendly experiences.
As home swapping continues to evolve, it encourages travelers to embrace sustainable, responsible tourism while building lasting relationships across the globe.
The key to a successful home swap lies in trust, clear communication, and thorough preparation. By setting expectations upfront, respecting boundaries, and maintaining open lines of dialogue, both hosts and guests can ensure a positive and enjoyable experience.
As this travel trend grows, home swapping is shaping the future of travel, promoting deeper cross-cultural understanding and creating a global community of engaged, responsible travelers.
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Even if your rental property isn’t the lifeblood of your income, it’s likely a big part of it. With that in mind, you need tenants who will take care of it, pay their rent on time, and report maintenance needs in a timely manner. But how can you be considerably certain that they meet these criteria?
In this article, we will provide a short guide for choosing the best tenants. Whether you’re a first-time landlord and just purchased your first apartment complex or you’ve been at this for a while, there are likely some aspects you haven’t thought of.
But first, Whats a tenant?
A tenant is a person or an entity who temporarily inhabits another person’s (known as the landlord) property in exchange for an agreed-upon sum of money (rent). There are different types of tenants, such as:
Residential Tenants: Individuals or families renting a home or apartment for living purposes.
Commercial Tenants: Businesses that lease office space, retail stores, or other commercial properties.
Industrial Tenants: Companies that rent warehouses, factories, or other industrial spaces.
Here are some other key points you should know about tenants.
Rental Agreement
Tenants typically enter into a rental agreement or lease with the landlord. The terms of use of the tenancy, including the duration of stay or possession, rent amount, and main responsibilities of both parties, are mentioned in this piece of document.
Security Deposit
Tenants often pay a security deposit at the start of the tenancy. The landlord keeps this deposit and uses it to pay for any damages to the rental or unpaid rent when the tenant moves out.
Lease Duration
Tenancies can be short-term (month-to-month) or long-term (typically one year or more). The lease duration is specified in the rental agreement.
Renewal and Termination
At the end of the lease term, the tenant and landlord can agree to renew the lease, or the tenant can choose to move out. Proper notice, as specified in the lease, is usually required for termination.
Eviction
If a tenant fails to comply with the lease terms, such as not paying rent or damaging the property, the landlord may initiate eviction proceedings. However, this process must follow legal procedures to protect the tenant’s rights.
How To Choose A Tenant For Your Rental?
Now that you know who is a tenant, let us take a look at some of some of the aspects you need to keep in mind while choosing a suitable tenant for your rental:
A Major Rule
Per The Fair Housing Act, you have to remember that when it comes to purchasing, selling, renting, or financing a home, it’s illegal to discriminate based on:
Nationality
Race
Skin color
Sex
Religion
However, you’re not prohibited from basing your decision on the results of a criminal background check.
The Listing
The first thing to remember is that a great rental listing will generally pique the interest of higher-quality applicants and garner more interest overall. To make a quality listing, everyone knows you must have a title that includes the price and the number of bedrooms/bathrooms. But you need to make it stand out with something a little more catchy by highlighting a great feature of the property. Try something along the lines of:
3 bedroom/1.5 bath home with a large backyard with brand new sod, close to schools and parks
In your description, you should use positive descriptors (spacious, cozy, beautiful) to highlight the best features (en suites, fireplace, swimming pool), give details about the area (near downtown, amenities), details about the rental (pets are/aren’t allowed, deposit required, no-smoking) and how potential renters should get in touch with you.
Criteria
If you want to lessen the chances of serving an eviction notice for non-payment, property damage, or other major issues, you need to set the right criteria from the start. Two of the strongest aspects you should consider are credit score and rental history.
While you don’t want to come across as a dreadful landlord, being strict and applying your criteria fairly will help ensure that your new tenant meets the standard you desire. A good place to start is somewhere along the lines of requiring at least a 650 credit score, not having any prior evictions, bankruptcies, or a felony record, and making at least 3x the rent.
Whether you have listed your rental on Zillow, Craigslist, or other listing services, you not only need to be strict in your criteria, but you also need to prescreen them before you even set a face-to-face interview date. You should also prepare pre-screening questionnaires to efficiently determine which leads are worthwhile and which should be put in the rejected folder. However, when making your criteria list, be sure to keep the Fair Housing Act and local tenant rights laws in mind.
Final Checks
Of course, the next logical step is the interviews of potential renters, but that doesn’t mean you will make the first applicant you interview sign a lease on the spot. Take the time to check references from previous landlords, as they can often give you insight that your tenant screening report couldn’t give you. For example, they may have had a lot of neighbor complaints, or they were constantly complaining about minor issues.
Another thing you should definitely do is a quick Google search of their name. Sometimes, you can find out more this way than with a tenant report. For example, on their application, they claim they’ve worked for sixteen years as an electrician, but the career history on their LinkedIn profile doesn’t match.
Don’t be afraid to do a little sleuthing!
Best Practices To Follow While Interviewing Potential Renters
Conducting face-to-face and thorough interviews and checking references are crucial steps and will help you choose the best tenants for your rental. Here are some tips you can follow to ensure that the interview process goes smoothly.
Verify Identity: Ask for a government-issued ID to confirm the applicant’s identity. This helps prevent fraud and ensures you are dealing with the correct person.
Discuss Financial Stability: Inquire about the applicant’s income, employment status, and any other sources of income. A general rule is that the rent should not exceed 30% of their monthly income.
Understand Rental History: Ask about their previous rental experiences, including how long they stayed at each place and their reasons for leaving. This can provide insights into their reliability and stability as a tenant.
Lifestyle and Habits: Discuss their lifestyle to ensure it aligns with your property’s rules. For example, ask about pets, smoking habits, and how they maintain their living space.
In closing, to find suitable tenants, you should have strict eligibility criteria that also meet the standard of The Fair Housing Act. After shortlisting a few possible tenants, conduct a thorough background check along with a bit of investigative work to choose the best tenant for your rental.Read More...
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