'Unwanted alarms' top list of property investor headaches during Schoolies
Year 12 students enjoying their Schoolies week often leaves investors with short-term rentals in their portfolio with a hefty clean-up bill. Here's some top tips for getting your property Schoolies safe.
Making sure short-term rental guests act appropriately is important not only for the safety of an investor’s rental property, for those who own strata properties, it can result in steep fines and an annoyed building manager.
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One point of contention is the purposeful activation of fire alarms, according to Archers the Strata Professionals partner Grant Mifsud.
“People setting off fire alarms can be a big problem, particularly as fire safety is such a major concern at all times and something we take very seriously,” Mr Mifsud said.
As an example, setting off fire alarms on purpose in Queensland can result in a fine of $1,298 if the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) have to attend a false alarm.
“Building management are able to recover the QFES charge once they identify the perpetrator. These charges are a big cost for a strata scheme and they have to be recovered from those responsible,” Mr Mifsud said.
“Unwanted alarm activations create a burden not only for the attending QFES crew but on the community. There can be building occupant complacency generated from exposure to excessive false alarms as well as the high financial cost of business interruption.”
If investors want school leavers to leave their property intact, Mr Mifsud recommended the following ‘house rules’ for the Schoolies period: