Thanks to everyone who got in contact to discuss the situation.  A follow up on the outcomes to date.  There is NO STATUTE LAW that specifies any duty of care for agents performing property management.The agreement that you sign with the agent for property management is the only document which the agents performance can be legally measured against.  In my instance this document had nothing specified in it other than the collection and remittace of rent.  Under Victorian civil and consumer affairs laws, there are no remedies available to investment property owners for anything other than failure to pay rent. by tenants  The law is geared towards only holding the tenant responsible and the remedy for tenant breaches is fundamentally being able to claim the bond with documented substantiation of costs incurred and doesnt allow you to claim rental income lost (you could take this action against the tenant or even the agent but you would need to pursue this privately eg to sue). 

In the end, the tenant forfeited the bond and I managed to do alot of the clean and repair work myself with the help of my partner which meant that the bond money ended up covering some of the rental income lost – though of course this assumes that my partner and I come for free….

End of the day, lesson is, make sure your property management agreement stipulates the role and responsibilities of the agent and if they are unwilling to contract to making regular inspections and following up on maintenance work to be done then I reccommend you shift property managers.  There are some good ones out there, they are just difficult to find.

The industry has so many problems, which wont be attended to until demand in the sector dies off,  then they will be forced to evolve or they will perish.  The forces of demand and supply will eventually lead to a change in the industry but that seems to be years off yet.

Cheers

Leharna