Thinking about renting a fully-furnished house? Think again.

We assisted a family with a recent Perth relocation.. The family leased a 6 bedroom home in the western suburbs of Perth. Following is an informative article outlining some of the hidden costs involved when leasing a fully furnished and equipped property.

We are a family of 4 “Covid refugees”, Canadians who were stranded in Perth at the beginning on the pandemic in March 2020. We had sold our home in Canada, and for various reasons decided to stay in Perth. This turned out to be a good (but lucky) decision as WA managed two years of the pandemic with virtually no community spread and no restrictions. However, having no furniture and with no visibility on how long we would be in WA, we rented three furnished homes sequentially for 5, 6 and 9 months. We learned a lot from our rental experiences and I have provided below some yellow flashing lights to incorporate into your decision to (1) rent a fully furnished and equipped house; and (2) important terms in the lease.  

Security Bond: The first rule is that there are many more opportunities for the landlord or property manager to make claims against the bond in a furnished rental, and these are more difficult to disprove unless you take preparatory steps. An unscrupulous landlord will try to use the bond money to make improvements to the property.

Property Condition Report (“PCR”) & Inventory: The opening PCR and inventory are crucial documents. If possible, go through both documents exhaustively to make sure you agree with them; you have 7 days to provide comments on both documents to the property manager. This is extremely time-consuming, but it will pay dividends at the time of the closing PCR and seriously reduce the opportunity for the landlord to make claims against the bond.

Photos: Compare the photos in the listing with the actual appearance of the items when you visit the property. In our case, the photos were taken years ago and at lot of the furniture had serious wear and tear. Remember that you are renting the property as is, not as per the photos.

Wear and Tear: Understand the expectations of the property manager on “wear and tear”. This concept is quite well understood in unfurnished properties, but we had disputes on stains/watermarks on sofa cushions and previously worn and damaged furniture. This property is tired and dated. It includes items that need replacing even so, you need to be aware that you will be asked to replace anything that is damaged or worn.

Clutter: Beware of homes that have too much clutter, especially in the kitchen and in the home entertainment spaces. The home should have the basics (eg. 8 sets of utensils and dishes), but too many other items prevent you from using the spaces as you like, especially if there is little storage space. If you do pack up the excess items, remember that the property manager may expect you to return the items to their exact location; in our case, the property manager threatened to charge us $100 per hour to return each item to its exact location. The home was so cluttered, we needed to store a lot of items in the garage so that we would have enough space to put our groceries in the pantry.

Gardening: The landlords may provide gardening services; however, in our situation, the gardener appeared more frequently than required and stayed all day, which was an invasion of our privacy. Also, against our directions, he used toxic chemicals and told us “Don’t let your kids play in the yard for 24 hours” – which is impossible with 4 year old boys. This gardening is not “free” and it is helpful to have the right to enforce reasonable rules on gardening activity. Also remember that you are responsible for 100% of the water costs, to keep the owners garden in good shape. Watering a large garden in Perth is very costly. Ask the property manager if you can sight the previous water bill before you accept to lease the property.

Pool maintenance: The landlords may provide pool maintenance services, but you are responsible to pay for the chemicals. For this particular house, the pool chemicals were $300 per month. When I asked the property manager if I could buy the chemicals myself, I was advised that only the pool service company could supply the materials, and if I tried to DIY, I would be responsible for additional service costs by the pool company. Pool chemicals are much less expensive from somewhere like Bunnings.

Home entertainment system: We have little kids and needed to dismantle the home entertainment system. We paid a handyman to set it up again and it was working when we left……but the property manager (who knew it had been dismantled from prior inspections)…demanded a fee for setting-up.

Cleaning expenses: The interior cleaning fee for an unfurnished 4 bedroom house for the closing PCR can be approximately $1000. However, for the same house furnished, the closing PCR cleaning fee was $3700 simply because cleaning is so detailed and time-consuming. All furniture and cushions need to be steam cleaned and windows need cleaning inside and out. This adds dramatically to the cost of an exit clean.

Break lease: If for some reason you need to break the lease, be aware that there are costs involved. You are responsible for all advertising and re-letting fees which can be up to $1000. The agents have a Break Lease form and will charge several different break lease fees even if the property manager does not find a new tenant prior to the lease ending; however, with our furnished house, the landlord suggested that we have the house cleaned as soon as we moved out and prior to the end of our lease. This meant that we would need to have a touch-up clean at the end of the lease meaning cleaning the property twice. We didn’t see any indication that the property manager showed the house to prospective tenants – If they had shown prospective tenants through before the lease ended, it may have reduced the amount of rent we had to pay at the end of the lease term. Be aware that furnished homes are more difficult to lease and you are less likely to be able to have another party take up part of the lease term.

The Bottom Line: Unless you really have to, I recommend avoiding renting a furnished house. There is obviously time and expense associated with furnishing a home, but if you consider the “extra expenses” associated with claims against the bond for inventory shortages and wear & tear; closing PCR cleaning costs; pool chemical expenses, and (possible) break lease expenses…….I suggest you strongly consider renting an unfurnished property.