Managing From Overseas

Michael Murray Managing Director, Murray Property · 22+ years in property management across Sydney

A hot water system fails on a Thursday evening in Darlinghurst. The tenant has no hot water, which under NSW law is an urgent repair.
If you are in Singapore it is two hours earlier and you are probably still awake. If you are in London it is Thursday morning and you are at your desk. If you are in Dubai it is mid-afternoon. In every case, the question is the same: can your property manager act, or do they need to reach you first?

That single question, who can decide what, and how fast, is most of what separates smooth overseas ownership from expensive overseas ownership. Everything else is detail.

This page covers the arrangements worth putting in place before you leave, and the NSW rules that will run on Sydney time whether you are awake or not.

Five things to settle before you go

1. A spend limit that reflects reality. Most management agreements set a default maintenance authority around $300. For an owner in the same city that is fine, you will pick up the phone. For an owner nine hours away it means a $900 job waits overnight while a tenant sits without hot water and the tribunal risk quietly builds.

For overseas owners we usually recommend $1,000 to $1,500. It is not about spending more; it is about not spending a night deciding.

2. Named tradespeople in the lease. This one is underused and genuinely valuable. NSW tenancy agreements can nominate specific licensed tradespeople for urgent repairs. If a tenant cannot reach you or your agent and arranges a repair themselves, they are expected to try the nominated person first.

Without a nominated list, your tenant calls whoever answers at 9pm, usually at emergency call-out rates. With one, they call the plumber who already knows the building.

3. Someone who can decide in your absence. Anything above the spend limit needs a decision path that does not depend on you being conscious. Some owners nominate a family member or their accountant. Some want a call at any hour. Most want a WhatsApp message and a decision by their morning. The point is to agree it in writing before it is needed rather than during a burst pipe.

4. Written authority for the Tribunal. More on this below, but the short version: sort it out at handover, not when a hearing date arrives.

5. Insurance that knows you are overseas. Landlord policies vary in how they treat extended owner absence, overseas addresses and periods of vacancy. Some have disclosure conditions. Check before you leave, because the time to discover a policy exclusion is not while you are making a claim.

The $1,000 rule worth understanding

Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2010, if a repair is urgent and the tenant cannot reach you or your agent after reasonable attempts, they can arrange it themselves and claim reimbursement.

Three things people misread:

The cap is $1,000 per repair, not per year. A blocked toilet in March, a failed hot water system in June and a dangerous electrical fault in September are three separate events, each carrying its own entitlement.

You have 14 days to reimburse. Once the tenant gives you written notice and receipts, the clock starts. Miss it and they can apply to NCAT for a reimbursement order, and a landlord who refused a legitimate claim is in a considerably worse position than one who simply moved slowly.

Smoke alarms have their own tighter rules. A faulty smoke alarm is an urgent repair. If a hard-wired alarm is not repaired within two business days, the tenant can arrange a licensed electrician and must be reimbursed within seven. You are also required to check alarms annually and replace units within ten years of manufacture, and that obligation cannot be passed to the tenant.

Our guide to what landlords must fix and how fast covers the full repair framework.

For an overseas owner, the practical reading is this: the tenant self-help pathway exists precisely for the situation where the landlord cannot be reached. Being uncontactable is not a neutral state. It hands decisions to someone else.

Deadlines that run on Sydney time

NSW rental law changed substantially in 2025, and several of the new obligations are unforgiving of slow responses. These are the ones that bite hardest at distance:

None of these pause for time zones, annual leave or a bad wifi connection in an airport. Our guide to the no-grounds eviction ban covers the termination side, and staying compliant from overseas goes through the full obligation list.

If it reaches the Tribunal

Rent arrears, damage disputes and access refusals sometimes end up at NCAT. You cannot realistically fly back for a hearing about three weeks of unpaid rent.

You do not have to. A landlord may be represented at NCAT by their real estate agent, and presenting cases at the Tribunal is part of what agency licensing trains for.

The detail that matters for you: representation should be requested in writing, and the request needs to state that your representative has authority to make decisions on your behalf and in your absence. That last phrase is written for exactly your situation, but it only works if the authority exists. Put it in place at handover.

Hearings can also be attended by phone or video, so attending yourself is technically possible. Whether you want to be on a video call at 2am for a directions hearing is another question.

Seeing a property you cannot visit

The hardest part of owning from abroad is not the paperwork. It is not knowing what your property actually looks like.

Written condition reports are fine for a file and useless for reassurance. What works at distance:

• Photographic condition reports at entry and exit, we run to 500-plus images, room by room, so you can see the state of the property rather than read someone’s summary of it
• Video walkthroughs at routine inspections, which tell you in ninety seconds what three pages of notes will not
• Tenant applications with the reasoning attached, full referencing, income and employment verification, rental history, and a written recommendation explaining why. You are approving someone you will never meet, so you should see what we saw

Why self-management usually fails from abroad

Plenty of owners self-manage successfully while living in Sydney. Almost nobody does it well from another country, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of effort.

Self-management assumes you are reachable during Sydney business hours, can attend the property, can meet trades, can attend the Tribunal, and can respond to statutory deadlines inside their windows. Remove the first of those and the rest start to fail in sequence.

The failure mode is rarely dramatic. It is a pet request that approved itself, a rent increase notice served 45 days out instead of 60, a repair that waited four days and became a rent reduction claim. Each one small. Collectively, more than a management fee.

If you are already self-managing and it is not working, you can switch managers mid-lease in NSW with written notice.

What we do differently for owners abroad

The service is the same one we provide every landlord. What changes is which parts carry the weight.

We are licensed real estate agents, not tax agents. We will not advise you on your residency or tax position, see are you a foreign person? for why that distinction matters, but we will flag the dates and work alongside whoever does advise you.

Phone: 02 9371 5901

Email: home@murrayproperty.com.au

Office: 251 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Frequently asked questions

What maintenance limit should I set if I live overseas?

Higher than the standard $300. We generally suggest $1,000 to $1,500 for owners abroad, so urgent repairs can proceed without waiting on a time zone. Anything above the limit follows an agreed escalation path.

Can my property manager approve repairs without asking me?

Up to the limit in your management agreement, yes. That is what the limit is for. Above it, we come to you or to whoever you have nominated to decide in your absence.

What happens if my tenant cannot reach anyone about an urgent repair?

They can arrange a licensed tradesperson themselves and claim reimbursement up to $1,000 per repair, and you must reimburse within 14 days of receiving written notice and receipts. Naming preferred tradespeople in the lease means they call someone you have chosen.

Can my agent represent me at NCAT?

Yes. A landlord may be represented at the Tribunal by their real estate agent. The request should be made in writing and needs to confirm your representative has authority to act on your behalf and in your absence, so it is worth arranging at handover.

Do I need a power of attorney to have my property managed from overseas?

Not for ordinary management, a properly drawn management agreement covers it. A power of attorney becomes relevant if you are selling, since contracts and transfer documents need signing. That is covered in selling from overseas.

How often will I hear from you?

Monthly statements, quarterly condition reporting, and immediate contact only when something genuinely needs you. The aim is that you hear from us on a schedule you can plan around, not at random.

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Disclaimer

The data, figures, and market statistics referenced in this article were current at the time of publication and are sourced from third-party providers including CoreLogic/Cotality, Domain, realestate.com.au, HtAG Analytics, PropTrack, and NSW Fair Trading, among others. Property market data changes frequently, median prices, rental yields, vacancy rates, clearance rates, and days on market figures are updated regularly by their respective providers and may have changed since this article was published. Readers are encouraged to verify all figures directly with the cited sources before making any decisions.

This article is intended as general information only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or taxation advice. The information provided does not take into account your individual circumstances, objectives, financial situation, or needs. Before making any property investment, purchase, sale, or management decision, you should seek independent advice from a qualified financial adviser, solicitor, or property professional licensed in your state.

Murray Property is a licensed real estate agency operating in NSW. We are not financial advisers. References to rental yields, capital growth, or investment returns are based on publicly available market data and historical performance, which is not a reliable indicator of future results.

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