Hi All,

I've had a rather unfortunate episode with a property manager of a fairly large and well known fRancHise.
We put a lovely young girl, Nicole,  in charge of our management in July of last year where they were quite quick to find a tenant – mother, her son and his two kids, paying $50 higher than the average rents in the area which we were estactic with.  Let me tell you it all went downhill from there.

We weren't given copies of any documentation and the building inspections weren't signed off by us – which I've since been told is a big no-no.  6 months down the track the rent was in arrears so we rang them up to speak to Nicole.  "Nicole doesn't work here anymore she was asked to leave, I'm looking after your property now", we were told.  We were also told that there was only a man living there and he'd bring his mates in to crash over on the mattress in the living room.  My wife went to take a look at the place and was disgusted with the smell and the way the house was kept.  A tenant who couldn't look after our asset and who couldn't pay their rent on time wasn't our kind of tenant so we tried to get them out.  "I've sent a remedy to breach notice and they've got 2 weeks to pay and only if they don't pay can we kick them out"  Well they paid within the 2 weeks but before long he knew the game and was late with his rent on numerous occasions.  Well we put up with the situation hoping the tenant wouldn't stay.  In the month before the end of the lease I rang the agency to find out.  "Who is this?".  Another change of rental managers and a rude one at that.  Well the tenant was moving out much to our relief and they were advertising for the spot right away.  In this rental crisis it shouldn't be a problem to put someone in I thought.  Wrong!  Not if you've got Sandie Hope looking after the property (whoops).    Week 1 after the moving out of the tenants.  "haven't found anyone Robert so I think we need to decrease the rent by $50".  I thought she was mad.  Rent goes up – not down.  Having been unsatisfied with their service or lack thereof I spoke to a few property managers to discuss my options.  "It's easy" they all said "Normally they'd want 30 – 90 days payment in lieu of notice but they haven't rented it out so they would just give you back the key".  Great I thought.  Couldn't contact the manager so I faxed the cancellation letter through.  The day after we got a letter in the post saying that we were required to pay 90 days management fee to cancel.  My wife managed to get in touch with her and the manager was very adamant that she wouldn't budge as they had the 'rights'.  During this time we were being eaten alive by the repayments on the house.  With the reality that Sandie would purposely not put anyone in for 90 days.  We just wanted someone in there so we tried a different approach.  We agreed to give her the rights if she could find a tenant quicker than any other agent.  She agreed.  Within 2 days another agent we had sought help from had placed someone in the house at a higher rent than we received before PLUS they were paying the electricity and water.  BONUS.  My wife then had the task of getting the key from the property manager.  She went with her 'brother' (our new proactive agent).  The manager refused to give the key back, luckily the 'brother' agreed to leave if and only if the manager could sign a declaration why the key couldn't be given back to the owners.  Of course she refused to do that and started to co-operate.  Rental documents were then demanded of her which she photocopied and gave up with out resistance and reluctantly handed the key over.

I've never dealt with such a person in my life and am glad it is finally over.  I've been told by our new rental agent that there aren't many rental agents like that but you need to be very aware of who is looking after your property which you are working hard for.

We are now finding tradespeople to fix up the house in areas that were'nt reported to us.

Do not use this woman as your property manager, she put us through a lot of grief as did the company she worked for.  This episode has taught us alot about

1)screening property managers
2)staying on top of your 'employees'
3)seeking expert help from experts

Well that's my gripe.