blackcab

I ask, because i am at the end of my tether with ours. I will not name them for obvious reasons, but i must admit, i am getting to the point where i feel like throwing the towel in and leaving Australia. It seems so one sided, their own performance is just terrible, they are plain lazy, but when you pick up on the fact that there are problems, they will pick at you. It's as if, they look at it like this. Let things go, don't bother us, and we will not be too picky. We had a fuse go this weekend, the light fitment is a cheap plug into the socket thing from the ceiling, with a fancy fitting hanging down by a cable. The bulb went bang, the blackened wire just fizzed out, and the weight of the ceramic shade and fitment came down and smashed on my head then to the floor, hopefully the wire only remained live until we switched the light switch off, but on the phone, the electrician could not be certain it would not be live after the switch was turned to off. If i had lifted my arms to shield my head and grabbed the wire, who know's. We had no lights for 24 hours as we had no fuse wire, it is the old type box with no switches. It just seems one thing after another. I am really starting to think maybe its not to be? Its not just us, we were in the office on our last visit, another renter was shouting about the state of entry to a unit, unclean etc. I just cannot believe its one rule for them and another for us renters, they really do take the p##ss. I know the UK is bad also, but we always rent private over there, here, well there are too many problems, i feel safer having an agent to have to sort it out, but i am starting to question my judgement now?

Zen10

My experience is negative. We have been lied to and lied about by our rental agent. We were stupid enough to make a minor amendment to the property after a verbal agreement with the agent, (putting a ceiling fan in) and when it was done we handed them the receipt as the agent had instructed us to do when the work was completed. She denied all knowledge of the conversation and we got left with the whole bill. We had a problem with our aircon in the hottest week of the year, at the same time out shower was being replaced, and we asked for an electrician to look at it ASAP and they said four days because they will only use the landlord's brother to look at DIY work and he wasn't available until then. Another thing that irritates us ar ethe degrading and totally unnecessary inspections every 12 weeks. I believe other states are limiting these inspections now, but SA still allows them.

They are unreasonable and rude and incompetent.

JoeBloggs80

Ours have been pretty good. If anything's gone wrong, they've had someone get in touch with us within 24 hours and we've dealt directly with the plumber/electrician/whoever and our problem has always been sorted straight away. An inspection once a year and thats it, they let us get on with it.

I'd imagine so many of them are useless because the demand for rentals is so great that there will be some other mug along in a minute wanting it so why should they care about their tenants?

Also, let face it, its a sh*t job and doesn't attract particularly clever or competent people. Noone grows up wanting to be a rental agent do they......

Kiwikaye

I agree with this partially. Our agent has also been great - we've only had one inspection since moving in last March and any issues we've had have been dealt with promptly. We've just agreed to extend our lease at the end of the current period for another 12 months.

I've worked in real estate, and I have to say you couldn't pay me enough to work in property management, so while they're not all bad, it doesn't necessarily attract the best and brightest.

carolinephillips

Sometimes it isn't th agents, it is the owners holding things up. Our agents were quite good at asking the owner to repair things, but the owner took ages to agree. Not the agent's fault if the owner thinks it is ok to have a leaky roof and windows that don't shut.

blackcab

That is a very good point, and i bet that is the case with our agent most of the time. He is a pom our previous owner, probably tight as f**k, you know what some Pom's are like with money?

SamSi

There are some very nice people who use this Forum who are Property Managers. Not only are they very good at their jobs they are also neither rude, thick or incompetent. Worth bearing in mind.

I would also add that in Melbourne, the average salary for a PM is $50k - and for that you need to work a long week plus at least 2 Saturdays a month. Given that an average portfolio is in excess of 150 properties - and a friend of mine (who is neither thick or rude) currently is trying to juggle 220 - they do the best they can. Real estate is not the environment where complaining about unrealistic workloads is taken seriously - property management is not taken seriously by Directors who only care about keeping landlords happy so that they can sell their properties in the future. Unless you have the skin of a rhino it is difficult not to be in tears at least once a week - trying to deal with tight and unreasonable landlords, unreliable tradies, lying tenants who don't pay rent and live in filth irrespective of whether they pay $500 or $2000 per week- the list is endless. It's not suprising there is such a high turnover of staff in the industry. And yes, there are some rubbish property managers out there as well as ones who have done it for so long they have become very hardened - but thats the same in any profession, you'll have good and bad.

blackcab

I can relate to that, a good post. But one thing i cannot stomach in life is lies, or the lack of the ability to remember when it is convienient? Spite..

Forget property managers, when you are not up to the task, you are not organised, you become a bad task manager. So someone loses out in some way. Mostly financial, so that is my critique. Whether they get paid 10 cents or $50k, is not the issue, too many people in this world like a free lunch at the expense of someone elses health. If you cannot do you role well, drop down the ladder, otherwise step up to the mark, organise, carry a notebook, but never ever forget a conversation, or accuse, or make statements which involve wrongly made or forgotten conversations. If you let one person down, he or she will tell ten people, who will tell ten more. You can quicky lose any reputation you once had.

SamSi

I totally agree - if you're not up to the job then it's time to leave it, and lying etc is totally unacceptable. I just think it's a shame that many PM's start out very good at their job, really care about things and trying to make sure everyone has a pleasant rental experience - but they just get ground down by f ***w*ts and unsupportive Directors so they end up leaving. And, by the time it's get to that stage their portfoloio has gone all to **** so the incoming PM inherits a pile of crap and is on the back foot from the beginning - so the cycle begins again. Nightmare - and could mostly be solved by PM's having manageble-sized portfolios i.e less than 100 properties.

The other problem is insane weather - things can be going along fine and then freak weather means every damm property is springing leaks which then takes weeks (sometimes months!) to sort them all out and deal with insurance claims etc - during which time the routine inspections go out the window which means unhappy landlords.....it's endless.

Zen10

The mortgage holder of our property is an arsehole too.

bra_boy

"the degrading and totally unnecessary inspections every 12 weeks"

That sounds like an agent who is desperate to show the owner that he is earning his money...probably he does not have much work if he can afford to go round to the property so often.

My landlord sacked our agent and went to another firm. The people at the previous one had no brains, and that is bad for both tenants and landlord.

blackcab

If you were not in Melbourne you could be my third PM in six months, my first was useless, the other two since have had to carry the can, they ain't all that bad, but it only takes one hey? lol....

h2oskineil

We rented for 5 years... so glad to be out of 'that game'.

My wife is VERY houseproud and the house is/was always spotless. One winter, when we hadn't used the dining room because the kitchen dining area was warmer..... a house inspection found - "1 or 2 floor boards under the dining table have a light covering of dust"...... Wifey went spare, glad the agents were closed when she read the report!

Another time, my company had a major glitch in the wages system (there is over 1200 employees) it meant half the staff were paid twice and the other half not at all (we were not at all). All our savings was in ANZ which would take a couple of days to transfer to the bank account of the agents. Knowing there was going to be a delay to get the rent money to the agents I called them to explain that I had the cash, just couldn't get at it due to the issue with my salary and the delays moving money. They had no sympathy at all, despite for the last 3 years NEVER missing or being late with a payment. They said I must draw the cash on my credit card or risk breaching the terms of the rental agreement.

Always felt like a second class citizen around them, at their mercy and felt they could determine my life.... hated it!

sr71

Just play hardball with them, make sure everything is in writing and there is a specific form you can use to demand any repairs get done, they have 14 days or whatever period it is to comply otherwise you can start doing all sorts of stuff to make them do it.

Ours were slack, then I got sick of it, researched and found this tenants form thing and once that was officially sent to them giving them notice to do the work they jumped into action very quickly.

Here are the details for Victoria, think all the states have similar.

http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housi...urgent-repairs

Give them 14 days to do the repairs, if they haven't done it within 60 then you can get an order taken out against them.

sr71

I would have ignored them, so what if it was in breach, there is a set process they have to follow anyway and you would have remedied the breach by the time the various time limits were up. And as for references you would have had the 3 years of your bank records showing the rent paid on time anyway.