Our agent phoned a few weeks back to advise the tenant had some issues with water leaking near the water meter. They had phoned the Brisbane City Council who had advised that the leak was coming from our property. It wasnt life threatening or causing issues with the tenant but I advised the agent to send out their plumber to investigate and to call me and advise of the problem and costs to fix. It is an older house on a large block that one day we will most likely develop so dont want to spend money on the property. Agent promised to call and advise before any works were to be completed. Spent the next week calling and emailing the agent to advise on the outcome then today received our monthly rental statement showing $240 invoice for pipeworks completed on the property!! This is not the first time our agent has not adhered to our request. We have also asked her to advise the tenant of rental increase in 2 months – as per new QLD requirements but again no reply. How do we replace the agent and move to a different agency? What are the costs and a landlords right for breach of duty by an agent. Thanks Jazamite
Hi Jaz
Most agency agreements would have an authority for the pm to act on your behalf for repairs. That does not excuse them knocking back a request for a follow up call to you.
I prefer my managers not to contact me at all, just manage the properties and do what they need to so that I can get on with other things.
X
Property managers do just that. They don't waste the the time of their contractors so they don't expect you to waste their time either. If you are so concerned about spending $200 odd on a minor repair without being advised of the final costs before the work was done, manage the property yourself so you will not be relying on your manager to do their job.
The agent is a defacto of the owner, unless you can prove gross negligence or that the agent was not acting in your best interests then you have no chance of success. Plenty of case law will back them up.
Thanks for the feedback. I recall that the landlord pays the PM and a simple phone call is not that hard – its called service! Our agreement was if any works required undertaking that she notifies me prior as this is the way I like to run my ship as some PM are more focused on the tenant rather than the bill payer. My other concern is that i dont know if she has advised the tenant of a pending rental increase come November. She just never gets back to me!!
If you are unsatisfied with the service of the PM, speak to the licensee of the agency – they control the agency and if they don't know that the staff are not following what you have agreed (usually with the licensee), then they can't take corrective action.
Remember, it takes one month's notice to get rid of a bad PM but two to get rid of a tenant.
I had an interesting experience changing property managers.
I felt the 1st property manager was doing a poor job (it was a while ago now so can not remember the details) so I approached a 2nd PM. Signed all the relevant paperwork and received written confirmation that the 2nd PM had taken over from the 1st and all was good.
Or so I thought.
The incompetent 1st PM kept taking rent from the tenant (as well as the 2nd PM) and placing it into my account. So for 2 months I received 4 months rent in total from the tenant. As soon as the 1st deposit from the 1st PM came through I rang to advise the PM and they said they would fix it. Not until the 2nd month also come through (from the 1st PM) and another call they said…… Oh we didn't know you had changed PM. Sigh… incompetence.
So the 1st PM refunded the tenant and I refunded the PM (maybe I should have kept the money
.) No wonder the tenant moved out 6 months later.And to top it off, the 1st PM sent me a yearly statement at tax time that included the 'extra rent'.
An very happy with the 2nd PM. Very proactive, on top of everything, would be happy to recommend (Vic – Melb SE).
Cheers
Karen
.) No wonder the tenant moved out 6 months later.You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
