Ang Kalatas Volume V November 2014 Issue | Page 16
16
TENANT’S RIGHTS
- Access and Privacy
A
s a tenant you
have
rights
under the Residential Tenancies
Act
2010 and Regulation. There’s
a factsheet from NSW Fair
Trading that explains the law
about your rights to privacy
and the landlord’s rights to enter the premises.
YOUR RIGHTS
You are entitled to ‘reasonable peace, comfort and
privacy’ in your use of the
premises. The landlord/agent
must not interfere with, or
cause or permit anyone to interfere with, your peace, comfort and privacy.
LANDLORD’S RIGHT TO
ENTER THE PREMISES
Other than as outlined below, the landlord/agent, or another person authorised by the
landlord, must not enter the
premises.
If the landlord/agent gives
you the proper notice (if applicable) and they have a valid
purpose, you must allow them
to enter. This applies whether
or not you are at the premises
at the time.
ENTRY WITH CONSENT
The landlord/agent, or another person authorised by the
landlord, can enter the premises at any time with your consent.
ENTRY WITHOUT
CONSENT, WITHOUT
NOTICE
The landlord/agent, or another person authorised by the
landlord, can enter the premises without your consent and
without notice, only:
a. In an emergency, or
b. To do urgent repairs
(see Factsheet: Repairs and
maintenance), or
c. If the landlord thinks
that the premises have been
abandoned, or
d. In accordance with an
order of the Consumer, Trader
DOM
MELLA
[email protected]
ENTRY WITHOUT
CONSENT, WITH NOTICE
Th e landlord/agent, or another person authorised by the
landlord, can enter the premises without your consent for
certain purposes. See the Tenants Factsheet by Fair Trading, for number of times entry
is permitted and minimum notice periods.
Except as noted in the
factsheet, notice does not
have to be in writing. If notice
is posted to you, the landlord/
agent must allow an extra four
working days for delivery.
SHOWING THE
PREMISES TO
PROSPECTIVE TENANTS
– “reasonable” notice /
number of times
l The law does not say
what
‘reasonable’
means. A disagreement
about what is reasonable can be settled by
the CTT Tribunal.
l If you disagree with the
landlord/agent about
reasonable access, apply to the CTT Tribunal for an order to specify or limit the days
and times on which
Saving for a house
deposit JERONE
PROPERTY | FINANCE
REAL ESTATE MADE EASY
and Tenancy Tribunal (CTT
Tribunal), or Entry without
consent – permitted frequencies and
e. If they have serious concern about the health/safety of
a person on the premises (after
they have first tried to get your
consent to enter).
Except in the case of (e)
above, the ‘Limits to entry
without consent’ do not apply
(see Factsheet by Fair Trading).
THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 5 Number 2 | November 2014
PROPERTY MARKET
the landlord/agent can
show the premises.
l If you refuse access, the
landlord/agent can apply to the CTT Tribunal
for an order that authorises them or any other person to enter the
premises.
SHOWING THE
PREMISES TO
PROSPECTIVE BUYERS
– agreeing to days and
times
l The landlord/ agent
must try to come to an
agreement with you
about days and times of
inspections.
l You must not unreasonably refuse to agree
to days and times for
showing the premises.
However, you need not
agree to more than two
showings in any period
of a week.
l The landlord/agent may
apply to the CTT Tribunal for an order to specify the days and times
that you must let the
premises be shown.
You may contact Dom
Mella for free advice or for
more information on 8887
5400 or 0403 226 169. Email:
[email protected]
Reference:
NSW Fair Trading
Dom Mella is the Principal/
Licensee of Ray White Rooty
Hill. He’s also a qualified
accountant with background
in Finance & Investments.
He’s been in real estate
business since 1999.
W
ith tod a y ’s
increas i n g
cost of
living, it is becoming very
hard to save. I have written
this article for those people
hoping to save up for a deposit on their first home.
Sometimes, saving money can seem nearly impossible. If you’re on a tight budget, putting money away can
feel like a luxury you just
can’t afford.
The good news is you
don’t have to be wealthy to
be able to save money. There
are plenty of ways you can
start building up your savings even if you don’t have
a lot to spare. And every little bit you put aside now will
make a major difference later.
PAY YOURSELF FIRST
If you wait till all your
other expenses are paid before you decide if you have
anything ‘left’ to save,
you will never have anything left, that’s just human nature. Life has a way
of throwing unexpected expenses our way like sudden
car repairs.
Set yourself up for success by paying yourself first.
Every time you get paid,
take a certain amount and
put it straight into savings
account.
If an unexpected expense comes up, chances
are you can find a creative
way to take care of it. If you
don’t give yourself the option to spend that money,
you won’t.
AUTOMATE IT
Make things even easier by creating automatic
deductions from your daily transactional account to
your savings account. If
your employer offers the facility have a fraction of your
pay automatically paid into
yours savings account.
BALAGTAS
[email protected]
Don’t even give yourself
the option to decide whether
that money will go into savings or not—set it and forget
it! The easiest way to stay
on track is to not even give
yourself the option.
BANK ANY CASH
WINDFALLS
Every now and then, we
find ourselves coming into
extra money. It may be a rebate for that new appliance,
a tax refund from the ATO
or a $200 cash gift from your
grandparents. Anytime you
find yourself with money
that wasn’t planned for in
your budget, bank it.
It can be all too easy
to see sudden money as a
chance to splurge or treat
ourselves, but if you put that
money straight into savings,
it can pay you even more
down the line thanks to compounding interest.
MAXIMISE YOUR
SAVINGS
If you’re just putting
your money into the savings
account that came as a package deal when you opened
your checking account,
chances are you’re missing
out.
Make sure you’re really putting your hard-earned
money to work for you by
opening a high-interest savings account or managed
funds or on a term deposit. If
you decide to invest some of
your money, make sure you
understand your investment
options and keep an eye on
the performance of your
funds.
HOW MUCH DEPOSIT
DO I NEED?
If you are looking into
buying a $500,000 home
then you will need at least
5% deposit, being $25,000.
The bank will fund/lend
$475,000 and you will need
to cover the rest to complete
the transaction.
The next major cost that
needs to be accounted for is
the cost of Stamp Duty, this
is a state government tax
payable by the purchaser of
a property. The amount of
stamp duty depends on the
purchase price of the property. Recent changes to the
first home buyers stamp
duty concession has made
it a bit harder for people as
they now have to pay for
stamp duty (unless they are
constructing a new property). People can access the
rulings and stamp duty calculator by visiting the Office
of State Revenue website.
As an example, stamp duty
for a $500,000 home will be
$18,311.
So back to answering
the question, “how much
do you need to buy your
own home”? If you wanted to purchase a property for
$500,000 then what you approximately need is:
Deposit
$25,000
Stamp Duty
$18,311
$43,311
At minimum you will
need $43,311 to buy a property of $500,000. You will
also need funds to cover Lenders Mortgage Insurance as most banks will only
allow to capitalise this insurance to a maximum of 97%.
Jerone Balagtas is a
local successful Filipino
mortgage broker part of
the One Solutions group,
he has 12years experience
in the accounting/finance/
banking industry. He walks
the talk as he is a successful
avid property investor.
Jerone encourages anyone
to contact him regarding
questions pertaining to
finance on 0439 594 899.