Park trent properties group

Thanks for sharing the info with us…..

Hi Administrator

I kind of see what you are saying.  I am a lawyer myself.  It just seems like that in the last six months or so, anything goes on this forum.  You can advertise whatever you want; you can push whatever barrow you want; you can abuse whatever forumite you want.  The forum never used to be like this.  To quote Regurgitator "I like your old stuff better than your new stuff".

I have been a member of this site for about four years now and your "report abuse link" is the first time I have ever heard of it.  Perhaps a "stickit" at the top of each section reminding forumites of their ability to have the increasingly blatant advertising removed immediately should be put up.

At the moment your selective censorship looks, to be quite honest, unprofessional.

Said with the best intentions

K

Thanks a lot for the feedback Linar. First thing Monday we'll make an effort to have the "report abuse" feature more prominently displayed in the forum. Letting as many members know about it as possible is extremely valuable to all of us. We need to be notified of defamatory content and inappropriate content before we can take action.

god_of_money.

We were actually directly contacted by representatives of Park Trent in regards to those posts. We agree that defamation is a tricky issue, as it has to be interpreted and where the burden of proof lies is not always clear. We did not believe that the statements were made carefully enough to warrant defending from potential legal action. A note was left behind on each post so that members would know what happened. I think if there truly was an interest being expressed in this company over our forum members, then the posts would be completely removed instead.

Whether a defamation case would hold up in court or not is a non-issue. The content was also deemed not constructive enough, and lacked evidence to back it's claims. We highly regard member opinion, but we also sympathise with businesses and their reputations. We know too little about Park Trent to make a judgment call.

In most cases the same message can be conveyed by simply wording a post more carefully, and by steering clear of offensive remarks.

Thanks for your honest comment dparkes..

I think company like Park Trent or IF etc.. will have some limit life span. Their mortgage backing finances are virtually near collapse or R.I.P. There is not such a cheap credit any more… Obviously banks will only lend 70-80% and LMI will also consider dodgy development.. Dust will settle in the next 1-2 years…. Long Life Investment property…

'Property value will double every 7 years'…just a memories in the past.

With Department of Trading, I don't think they bother as they are toothless and useless…..

Hi Coriander

it sounds as though you are settling on maybe the same studio apartment in Carlton that we are? We have had the same issues and have been trying to decide what to do for the past 6 months with no help from Easyplan it seems that they have been quite happy prolonging the process and yes we have had the run around since signing the dotted line similar to your self we have been hung up on etc from staff members  If you would like to contact me in regard to this further please email me on [email protected]

another unsatisfied customer

In my opinion, Park Trent (or any other similar group) have 2 products to market.
1.  The properties they want to sell.
2. Investment education.

Please note the order above!

If you want to buy an investment property, you can either buy one yourself, or buy one through a group which wants to sell you its merchandise. They set the buy price. They make a commission on your purchase. They make a commission on your rental. 
Or buy yourself, independently (check for the going prices in the area, first! Both sale, and rental, to get a reasonable return.) 

If you are unsure of what to buy and where, I recommend you pay for some education form  someone who does NOT have a ready-made product to sell. That way, you buy a property that does not already have a "retail mark-up".

quickchick  
Your choice. 

Our contract (which we only obtained a copy of when we specifically asked the solicitor) has a finance clause however it has been crossed out. I will have to check it again to see if we initialled this change, however I will not be suprised to find that we did initial it – alot of papers were put before us on that day and we signed alot of things that we didn't have time to fully absorb. If I had my time again I would walk away from that meeting without signing a thing – hind sight is a lovely isn't it?

Hi Blue
I am a victim of Silverwater Resort too.  Do you know if anything is being done about it or if anything can be done?  Would appreciate your comments.  My financial reserves are running out.
Elaine

While purporting to be the epitome of professionism and industry knowledge wisdom, ParkTrent and EasyPlan, in our case, accepted no responsibility for the many mistakes from the bank/solicitors etc but actually charged us over $4000 for setting up the loan (even though I've since been advised that they were also paid commission by the bank).  We don't believe this was ethical and were not aware of even signing documents to authorise this payment to them.  We will be taking this matter further.

The bank in question certainly did not have the best and cheapest rates, even making us change our home insurer to suit one to their preference.  EasyPlan also suggested we borrow extra to pay off existing loans from other properties.  This was also bad advice as we later discovered the only benefit was to EP who gained extra commission for having these loans transferred.  In effect it also limited our borrowings on other properties and so was detrimental advice.  The loan was also set up incorrectly as all the funds were released in one go and we were immediately up for interest payments with no return for a house not yet built.  When I advised both sets of solicitors (theirs and supposedly ours) of this mistake, their solicitor returned most of the money to the bank who then issued new contracts (initially with new fees etc).  Some of the money however was sent to our solicitor who didn’t know what to do with it and left it sitting on the floor of her office for a month, until I enquired where the money was.  When this matter was eventually resolved, ParkTrent/EasyPlan took credit for finding the money; for advising the bank of the mistake and for negotiating that no additional fees were to be paid.  I in fact did all this.   This is only a small part of the 'NIghtmare' that we’ve been subjected to and I’m happy to provide greater detail if anyone is interested.  I also wonder why so many people apparently having a problem with ParkTrent and EasyPlan are accepting being silenced?  Are we scared to let others know what is happening out there?   My partner and I recently went to the ParkTrent Gala Dinner and when the MC introduced “the man of the moment – Ron Cross” hardly anyone applauded.  It was then that I realised that we were not alone in our feelings of disapproval for this man and his organisation.    

Thanks ColB

for your honesty I too have been rubbing my head as to how this company has got away with what I feel could be somewhat questionable ethical  behaviour? I also wondered if others are just scared. I have tried many avenues such as ACCC, Office of Fair Trading both QLD,NSW and the Australian Securities Commission and all seem to pass the buck onto each other and somehow Parktrent slips under the radar and avoids any review. It is only now that I have started commenting on this forum that I realise I am not the only one in this situation.
We left a fixed interest rate loan and comfortable mortgage to go with EasyPlan who gave the impression that it was in our best interest which then hit us up with exuberant fees and costs as well as poor customer service along the way.

Please understand It is not that we were ill prepared we had  other investors look at the figures provided by EasyPlan and Parktrent which in the end proved to be false and misleading? My wife is also an accountant so figure that out? Unfortunately trusting this company was our downfall here and we too soon had a loan for a house that had not even been built yet? I cannot even remember them showing me and signing the $30,000 commission document made from these sales ( they are good) my property accountant nearly fell over.

I think the more unhappy customers that make a complaint to ACCC  and the office of fair trading that they may finally take action

My gripe now is the unethical behaviour of this company praying on other unwary investor s and hopefully this forum has helped out. As you are aware from my previous comments that we stupidly invested in two properties with Parktrent and are at risk of-loosing a $23,000 deposit paid to Parktrent  due to Easy-plans poor financial advice and questionable behaviour and we cannot on-sell due to a clause that has been written in the contract. It is not that we do not have the equity it is that they have sold us a high risk development?  We boycotted the Gala dinner to at least get $200 bucks back from my investment. Feel free to email me on the following email and discuss further [email protected]