A real estate agent who asked a tenant to pay rent in advance over the Christmas holiday period has sparked outrage among Australians.
An anonymous tenant shared a screenshot of the agent’s email asking them to “plan ahead for downtime over Christmas” on social media on Saturday.
The email said the estate agency would be closed from December 20 until the new year and suggested it would be a “good idea” to pay the period’s rent in advance to “avoid arrears”.
“If you can, consider making an additional payment to ensure your account stays current over the holidays,” it said.
‘If you have any questions or need help, please contact us before our office closes.
‘Thank you for your attention and we wish you a wonderful holiday!’
The tenant said the prospect of being behind on rent for not paying a larger sum sooner during an expensive time of year caused him to “panic” and he turned to Facebook for advice.
‘Is this even allowed?’ they asked.
An Australian tenant went into “panic” after his estate agent demanded he pay rent in advance. In the photo is the email.
The email left many Australians shocked.
Some told the tenant that they shouldn’t have to pay so far in advance if they weren’t going to have their office open.
‘Yes, because we all get paid in advance. What a joke,” one wrote.
Another suggested the tenant “just pay as usual, they can balance the books and bill payments when they get back.”
A third wrote: ‘If they are so worried they should keep the office open to handle payments.
A fourth suggested: ‘Pay rent when due, as always, don’t make extra payments to accommodate your office closure. That’s not your problem.
The Australians told the tenant that they should not have to pay rent in advance if the real estate company was not going to have its office open (file image)
Another tenant said he never paid enough in advance to cover the entire Christmas period nor received a default notice as a result.
“If you were to go into default in their system because there was no human available to process it, it would simply be more work for them to default on all of your tenants for the arrears when they returned,” they wrote.
“This doesn’t even make sense,” another user wrote, adding, “just because they haven’t received the receipt doesn’t mean you’re in default.”
But some dissenting users saw the email as a “courtesy” rather than a threat to pay early.
A real estate agency was outraged by ordering tenants to pay rent in advance over Christmas. In the photo, possible tenants.
“I’m sure they probably get dozens of late rent payments over Christmas for various reasons and I think this is more so you don’t fall into default while they are out of the office and can’t chase you,” one wrote.
Another said it “wouldn’t be fair to the landlord or even them as a business” if a tenant was behind on rent for a week before closing for two weeks over the holidays.
“Imagine you are behind on payments when they close and they can’t follow up for over a week,” they wrote.
“Then you’re two or more weeks behind before they even get back to you.”