jensteve

This is a cracking idea I came up with before our rental came to an end.
Go in with about 3 months left on the contract, ask about their rental management fees etc, appearing to be thinking about buying an investment property and using them to manage it (because they do such a good job)

Our real estate guys fell over trying to be nice and we got all our bond back with no negatives ono the forms. Just goes to show they are all money grabbing and if its for themselves they will do almost anything.

Give it a go and see what happens, a few comments here and there work wonders.

Jenny

julesandco

iPom, the bond is held by the Estate Agents - no third party. They are notoriously bad; no one has a good word to say for them once they have dealt with them

They have treated us like dirt from day one.....

They miscalcuated our rent; it was $250 per week and we wanted to pay monthly via direct debit. I phoned them from the bank to find out the exact amount they wanted deposited. The Rental Manager was really arsey and said 'well, it'll be $1000, won't it?' Er - no love, but she wouldn't have it she was wrong! So we set it up for $1000 a month; all was fine until June when they finally noticed the discrepancy (we took on the lease in December ).

We wrote to them and explained the problem, they ignored it... month after month after month. They just refused to address the problem. They sent us FOUR eviction notices over the course of the year. We've met with their Director and she did nothing (apart from being very rude 'what do you want ME to do ab out it?'; didn't even answer a letter.

We had a rental inspection booked for 21st December and we wrote and changed the date as Mum was over from the UK and with 3 kids, the week before Xmas is a little manic to say the least! She turned up on the doorstep at 3.30pm - well, I'm here now - can I do it anyway? Er, No! Denied all knowledge of the letter, even though it was hand delivered to her receptionist, then accused me of throwing something 'hand written' at a lady in her office. Not at all - I printed her a copy there and then and she left with a flea in her ear.

So yesterday, after receiving this crappy letter about the blue tac dots, I formulated a response and dropped it personally into their office. I asked for an acknowledgment of the letter and she forbade her receptionist to give me one 'I've been told not to receive it'. That's when I lost it and started shouting like a fishwife in the Agents office.

Eventually, the receptionist came out - '*** will meet you at 4.30pm to discuss it' (it was about 3.10pm at this time and we had all three kids in the office. Not 'are you able to make 4.30? Would it be convenient?' We kindly refused and left them to reply to our PO box!

They are the rudest bunch of con artists I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. I just hope that the Karma they give out comes back to reward them with what they so richly deserve in the future.

Vent over - thanks!

Jules x

julesandco

Yep - we've had these too, although somehow, we've managed to trash the house with velcro dots and blue tac in the last 3 months

Jules

julesandco

I know - we had Ovenclean do the oven and had the carpets cleaned professional (for which they have the receipts), and they are still complaining that the carpets need cleaning and the oven isn't up to scratch!

If the professionals can't mean their standards, what hope is there for us 'normal' people?

Jules x

julesandco

.................. you'll find out...........

There aren't that many to choose from - it's the one with two offices in SH. I just really hope you're not with them!

Jules x

julesandco

I have got photos to back everything up. It was a tip when we moved in and the landlord is taking a week off work now to paint (we were promised we would have it painted when we moved in ) and fit an air con unit

We've knocked on the door and spoken with him and handed him a HUGE file of letters we've sent to the Agent and given him a little taster of how they've treated us. I don't think he's too impressed as they've lied to him about the rent too.

Fingers crossed that one day the horrible Agents will cross the wrong person. What goes around.......

Jules x

julesandco

Cor, never done that many posts in one go - EVER.

Must be very stressed. Off for a coffee and a hobnob to calm me down.

Thanks for all the advice. I only hope that we'll come out of it better in the end as we've bought a house now; we were that fed up with the abuse.

Guess what agent we WON'T be using when we come to sell?

Have a great day guys.

Jules x

Dom the Pom

Jules, the only way you'll really hurt these people is through bad press - both to their regulatory body and of course the public.

I've never met any real estate agent (UK, Spain or here) that I would ever trust. 99% are just salesmen who would stab their Granny to get the commission.

julesandco

I think you're right; they are just particularly 'orrible people. I warned you about them when you were considering SH.

How are things 'up north' then? Enjoying things?

Thanks for the thought.

Jules x

SalSa

Didn't know one had got 2 offices down there ....We're with the blue coloured one!

Good luck in your new house Stick blue tack everywhere

stacey and jordan

We've had trouble with our estate agent in the first week of moving into our rental. On doing our check we noticed the outside tap was leaking and the oven and hob didn't work. My husband phoned them to be told he had to go down and put a maintenance report in, which my husband did. 4 days later no call from them, so my husband chased it up leaving messages after messages. He kept speaking to the head of maintenance and after a while they stopped being polite to each other. My husband phoned me up from work fuming, so i decided that i was going down in person. When arriving i asked for this person, the receptionist then came back to tell me that this person knew about the problem and had spoke to my husband. I calmly told her i still wanted to speak to her. When facing the woman you could tell straight away she was in no mood for me. She told me the cooker was being sorted and she didn't like my husbands tone of voice and that he had upset her. I told her our situation, how we had been treated, and the reason for my husband tone. She started to raise her voice at me. So i looked at her in the face and told her through my teeth to stop shouting at me (by the look on my face she could tell i wasn't happy and she $hit a brick) then she was nothing but apologizes. She admitted she was just as bad as my husband and we decided it was best to keep my husband out of all affairs with the rental and they were only to deal directly with me.

Now i'm thinking we're going to have big problems at the end of our term.

At first i thought it was because we were English that we were being treated this way. But stood in the reception office that morning i realized they spoke to most there clients this way.

Stacey

Forgot to add the cooker and hob got fixed the very next day

Vash the Stampede

Excellent advice.

The best way to cover yourself is to make a record of anything wrong with the property when you first move in, and leave the place in a better state than it was when you arrived. I got a handyman in to repair some damaged plaster (my fault) and some cracked tiles in the shower (not my fault; they were in a poor state when I arrived).

My rental contract had a clause which stated that I would be responsible for maintaining the garden (particularly the back lawn, which was relatively new). My lease spanned a particularly vicious summer, and despite all my efforts, it became obvious to me that there was no way I could keep the lawn alive until autumn.

I rang the agent and explained the situation, but also offered a compromise: I would let the lawn die, and re-sow it once the worst of the hot weather was over. The agent spoke to the owner, who agreed to my proposal.

I re-sowed the lawn by hand at the end of summer, after several days of back-breaking work with a rake. During the next few weeks, I nurtured that lawn like a newborn child - and by the time I left, it was looking great.

I think it can make a difference if you are able to meet the owner of the property before you move in; this gives you an opportunity to make a good impression. The owner of my rental lived in NSW, but he was in WA to arrange some things with the agent during the week that I chose the property, and I made a point of visiting for a pre-tenancy inspection on a day when I knew he would be there.

Dom the Pom

Yes thanks mate, things are going o.k.

Actively looking for somewhere to buy. Got home loan approval today, so shouldn't be long. Mrs Pom is getting very impatient though, and wants
everything done yesterday!!

Hope you get things sorted with these robbin bar stewards.

Wol

Never had a problem getting every cent back: have rented five times - six if you include the present one.

julesandco

[QUOTE=Vash the Stampede;4540977]The best way to cover yourself is to make a record of anything wrong with the property when you first move in, and leave the place in a better state than it was when you arrived. /QUOTE]

I'm sorry Vash - it's a rental - is that not what you pay rent for?

I'll be damned if I'm paying out rent to the landlord and carrying out repairs from my own pocket to increase the value of HIS property. The place needed a total re-paint, hence he is doing it now - should I go that far, just to get our deposit back?

Perhaps that's it - I just don't get this rental business, where you pay rent, get inspected on your cleanliness every three months AND have to maintain gardens and their property. Kind of win/win for the landlord really.

Glad I bought. I can let dust fester in my extractor fans now for as long as I like

Jules x