sadsmile23 Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Absolutely fuming so need to get this off my chest. We have lived in our rental property for 18 months since arriving in Oz - was brand new when we moved in. Have paid rent regularly, never missed, had excellent 3 monthly inspections. We recently bought our own home, so handed in our notice and gave the keys back on 3 June. The real estate agent, Remax, came out to do the final inspection on 8 June and pointed out a few marks on the walls, either where we had wiped marks away or had touched the paint up slightly to cover a chip here and there. They told us that they required a painter to come and quote for the work - he quoted $1300!!! On top of this, they then tried to tell us that we were behind with one weeks rent - this has since been "found" on their computer system. We told Remax we were not prepared to accept this quote and went and bought the paint ourselves, and spent the good part of 2 days repainting the walls that they had pointed out needed re-painting. The rental manager came and checked the walls, asked us to do a few more walls on top of the ones we had already done. All this while the poor new tenants were moving all their belongings into the property. I called into their office first thing this morning to give them back the keys (again) and the receptionist went into the back office to talk to the rental manager, we confirmed that everything was over and, other than a small amount owing for water useage, the bond paperwork could now be processed. I then received a phone call from the rental manager at 4.50pm to say that the painting we had done was still not acceptable and they would be asking a painter to come in and give a quote to "rectify" the issues. They acknowledge that we have kept the property in an immaculate condition, that the rent has always been paid on time etc etc, but we have to return the house to the condition it was in when we moved in - brand new?!?! I cannot believe that this can be normal practice - does this seem unreasonable to anyone else? Does anyone have any experience of this, either with Remax or any other agent? They have said to us, "if you dont like it, you can go to court"......does anyone have any experience of this procedure - is it worth digging your heels in from principle or do we just give in to their demands?? Please, someone, can you give us some legal or hands-on advice on this???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windswept Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Oh dear. From what you've said, it sounds completely unreasonable. The place to go for assistance is the WA Dept of Commerce. Here's the link to their tenancy section: Info for Tenants The 'court' that they are referring to is the Bond Administrator. This is a state govt organisation which is a neutral third party in disputes over bond disposal. It's a situation where you represent yourselves, no solicitors present. Essentially you need to provide evidence that what you are claiming is reasonable (in your case, all/the majority of the bond back). If you can get back into your property and take photos of the walls etc that would be good. Also if you have any written records from previous inspections throughout the tenancy, these could be presented as evidence. It all sounds very very dodgy. Basically from here what you need to do to dispute the bond withholding charges is contained here: Can't agree or having other problems - Consumer Protection - Department of Commerce I know it seems difficult, but it isn't really, just stressful. I can't believe Remax want to charge $1300 for what you've described, it sounds like highway robbery!! Best of luck with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockola57 Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 We had the same shiyut with LJ Hooker in Adelaide last year.Dont worry,this is normal practice here.It is the unwritten code that the agent will try to extort every last penny from you on leaving.What you do is go to the local rental tribunal and put your case across.,they listen to both sides,and you end up paying a lesser amount than demanded.This is OZ,odd but the norm here!:goofy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozsurfie Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 agree with whats been said - try and make a time line of whats has been done and said and also keep your receipts for any work you have done and also if you have photos it will help you. Most people get scared, think ooh court and back off and pay the rental agent which is probably what they are banking on. Most will try it on - call thier bluff and say see you in court then and if you have to go produce all the stuff above and you will probably fins yourslef ok providing what you wrote about keeping it clean and tidy is true : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 We rent out our property in SA it was new when rented for first time, we also rented a brand new property from the same agent we now use to let our house. We were told that reasonable wear and tear was allowed in both cases. After all no matter how you scrub an oven isn't going to ever be like brand new again! A landlord should expect to re-decorate every few years - and claim it back against the rental. Having seen it from both sides I do think that they are being unreasonable - I wonder if the agent or the landlord is to blame. I must admit we chose to go with our agent as she was really nice to deal with as a tenant and now as a landlord. She is fair to both sides and very professional - vital when we are in the UK still!! Maybe I am too soft with the tenants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Carron Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 We own several rental properties and expect fair wear and tear. I think your property manager is being unreasonable. I have a friend who rents a lovely property but isn't allowed to put any hooks in the wall, so all his art work is propped up against the wall! I want people that rent our places to feel at home and wouldn't dream of not allowing them to put their art work/pictures up. Don't let them bully you and get some advice from the rental tribunial in your state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deb8181 Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 We own several rental properties and expect fair wear and tear. I think your property manager is being unreasonable. I have a friend who rents a lovely property but isn't allowed to put any hooks in the wall, so all his art work is propped up against the wall! I want people that rent our places to feel at home and wouldn't dream of not allowing them to put their art work/pictures up. Don't let them bully you and get some advice from the rental tribunial in your state. Hi we have been in a rental in Perth for 3 months now and we asked if we could put hooks up for our oil paintings. We havent had an answer to date and are sick of asking so we have gone out and bought some tenant friendly hooks and hung the pictures up now. The dishwasher is useless and we are sick of asking them about that. At the end of the day if you are paying your rent on time they are not interested in anything else, you might as well be talking to yourself. I wont be renting again and will be house hunting towards the end of this year. :arghh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest famousfive Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 7yrs ago our rental got flooded,as did the whole street,in torrential rain.When we phoned the agent to ask what we should do,clean it ourselves?or do they arrange it?we were told they take care of it but may take a week.We had 3 kids under 3 at the time so we said would do a quick clean up to make it liveable until cleaners arrive.They agreed.Six days later cleaners arrived with agent in tow and the agent claimed we ruined the carpet and had to pay for it!!!After it being covered in a foot of sludge!!I was in shock. After a barrage of calls from the agent and threats of court I sent them a letter.It simply stated..."I am no longer dealing with any complaints concerning said rental property.Please address any further queries to my solicitor...on legal advice further rent will not be paid until this issue is resolved.Yours etc..." Worked a treat.Letter arrived to my so called solicitor[friend who was a stay at home dad-lol]within the week saying no further action would be taken. They are only trying it on,stand up to their bully tactics because it sounds as if you owe them nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadsmile23 Posted June 15, 2010 Author Share Posted June 15, 2010 thanks to all of you - definitely determined not to just sit back and take this from them. have spoken to Consumer Protection this morning who said to put it in writing again to them, stating that we feel they are being unreasonable (obviously the owner is able to claim for wear and tear on his rental property in his tax return) and that we are prepared to take the matter further. Magistrates Court costs only $30 so think it is definitely worth pursuing as a matter of principle now. We have all the paperwork from our 3 monthly inspections showing that every time they commented on how great the property was being kept, we had many maintenance issues with them over the course of our tenancy, photos as proof etc, so hopefully we will have a good case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gary12 Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 We had this just before Christmas, our landlord kept our bond, we took him to VCAT, the estate agent agreed that the bond would be repaid but fortunately for us we still went in and obtained a court order for return of said bond. I was so glad we did as they still didn't pay up and we had to threaten to take it higher but would charge interest, petrol, time that would run into thousands and gave them 48hrs to pay or else no further exchange would be made by us and they would next hear from court. bobs your uncle money into the account. Stand your ground on this, it sounds totally unfair, you have to allow for wear and tear in a property, I know the house we rent in the UK we fully expect to have to do some cosmetic work. best of luck Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadsmile23 Posted June 15, 2010 Author Share Posted June 15, 2010 yeah, i agree Michelle, it does seem totally unreasonable. makes you wonder what the deem "fair wear and tear" here, doesnt it? We were model tenants all the way through and this is how you are repaid. Even had the rental manager put the phone down on us this morning now, shes totally unapproachable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzy27 Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 We had the same probs with our first rental. Had to go to tribunal twice. First was because the dishwasher was broke for 16 weeks. She had to pay us $200!! The 2nd was because she tried to take our whole bond!! Said walls needed painting etc., they quoted over $300 for weeding the pavers, but at tribunal the pics they showed of the weeds were like 6!! The mediator laughed and said you wong bs getting that!! They wouldn't even let us into the house to rectify the issued because she was angry about losing the first tribunal hearing. We ended up getting our whole bond back. Don't let agents bully you. Take photos of EVERYTHING!!! & when you do your inspection reports be sooooo thorough. They will try & screw you over if you let them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maisie Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 we are with remax as well and have the same crap off them. We are still renting and house was filthy when we moved in although we were promised it would be cleaned. We cleaned it ourselves and I have it immaculate and dont wear shoes in the house but house is up for sale and we have house opens now and just told in our last inspection that the grout is discoloured and that there are scrapes on the wall, there were always scrapes on the wall and there was always discoloured grout its not a brand new property, went over to see the idiot this morning in estate agents to be told that they are unwilling to change their report even though that these things were noted in the original inspection report so for anyone else it looks like we done it. hope your not with the same estate agents as us in the same area - I just know we are in for a nightmare, we are badly caught house is up for sale 6 weeks after we moved in and we cant get out of 12 month contract!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadsmile23 Posted June 15, 2010 Author Share Posted June 15, 2010 hi maisie, god he seems like this is a consistent problem - whereabouts are you? we are in mandurah, so its the branch there that we are dealing with. apparently they are all owned and managed independently so I have shot off a sharp email to the owner of the mandurah branch, not heard back as yet. seems they are now ignoring us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gary12 Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 This really is a lesson for those about to start renting. Don't assume that just because they are overly friendly that the agents are on your side, they are certainly not. As said, take photos if everything, no matter how small, I have photos of dirty airvents and paint splashes on raidiators to marks in countertops barely visable to the human eye, lol, back all your photos up with a written statement, who cares if it's ten sides of A4. I think you have about 3 days to get the agreement back to the agent so go through it and list everything thats wrong. I also advise against doing any repairs, I know as a landlord I would much rather pay someone to do it than have a standard I was unhappy with. The house we rented had a biocycle sewage system that had a filter that needed unblocking weekly as it would get full of mozzie eggs the people who are now in the house we rented called out engineers 7 times in 2 months, the owner going mad saying we had no trouble yet we reported it but just cleaned it ourself. We just happened to rent off someone who was in my opinon clinically deranged! so don't forget, document, document and document some more! Sadsmile, don't give up, document each call you make and the outcome and back things up by email and keep a copy. The VCAT bit once in motion doesn't take long to come through. Don't pussy foot around, we did and it took us 6 months to get our money back. regards Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadsmile23 Posted June 15, 2010 Author Share Posted June 15, 2010 yeah, definitely a lesson to be learned. has really worried friends of ours who are still renting. the bond should be stated as non-refundable right from the start if they have no intention of giving it back to you. agents just keep saying we have to put the property back to the condition it was when we moved in - the house is immaculate in every way, but it is impossible for it to be in a "brand new" condition ever again - its almost 2 years old. there seems a very grey area around the "fair wear and tear" allowance - and thats where we as tenants will all be tripped up unless we stand up for what we believe is right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest shambo Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 Having read all this with horror, I e-mailed our agents and asked for a copy of the report on the two inspections that we have had so far, they have e-mailed back and said that the report is paid for by the owners and only the owners get a copy of it. Does this mean that when the rental is up they can claim that we hadn't been looking after it from the start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gary12 Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 Having read all this with horror, I e-mailed our agents and asked for a copy of the report on the two inspections that we have had so far, they have e-mailed back and said that the report is paid for by the owners and only the owners get a copy of it. Does this mean that when the rental is up they can claim that we hadn't been looking after it from the start? I am sure we were given a copy of ours, we only had one in 10 months. They have to give you reasonable time to put right anything they consider to be below acceptable, you can't do that if you don't know. Our agent didn't even bother to turn up to the check out inspection because it was raining! Maybe someone else can clarify? regards Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzy27 Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 I am sure we were given a copy of ours, we only had one in 10 months. They have to give you reasonable time to put right anything they consider to be below acceptable, you can't do that if you don't know. Our agent didn't even bother to turn up to the check out inspection because it was raining! Maybe someone else can clarify? regards Michelle they don't have to let you into the house to fix any issues. Most will, but some our asses like out agent & she had someone in the next day. Don't rely on them letting you in to fix the issues.. Take photos of everything, even if it seems minor. There are some awful property managers out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maisie Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 Hiya Sadsmile we are NOR but when we moved in the original inspection report had items listed on it even that werent in the property. We wrote out list upon list of faults and the agents went mad and said that couldnt be. ANyway she came around and we went through the property and pointed out everything that was wrong and what she had missed, we took photos when we moved in but renting is a pain in the absolute neck, your right you need a leeway to wear and tear but with them its impossible. its so sickening when you took good care of the property and they have no value on it so know exactly how you feel. I have a jumped up little boy of a estate agent (could think of a hundred different words to call him) who honestly must plan his clothes the night before to wear and spend an hour on his hair and the cheek of him - I told him straight today on the phone and he did back down but problem with us is we have another 6 months of the contract remaining and another god knows how many home opens before they actually sell so we have to stick it out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markandtraceyessex Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 we are with remax as well and have the same crap off them. We are still renting and house was filthy when we moved in although we were promised it would be cleaned. We cleaned it ourselves and I have it immaculate and dont wear shoes in the house but house is up for sale and we have house opens now and just told in our last inspection that the grout is discoloured and that there are scrapes on the wall, there were always scrapes on the wall and there was always discoloured grout its not a brand new property, went over to see the idiot this morning in estate agents to be told that they are unwilling to change their report even though that these things were noted in the original inspection report so for anyone else it looks like we done it. hope your not with the same estate agents as us in the same area - I just know we are in for a nightmare, we are badly caught house is up for sale 6 weeks after we moved in and we cant get out of 12 month contract!!!!! have i read this right? you guys signed a 12 month lease and 6 weeks into it the owner put it up for sale??? if that is the case is that not a breach of lease agreement on the owners end? we have rented a house because its NOT up for sale as we do not want open house days etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caramac Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 We had something similar in Sydney. We were told that all the walls needed repainting because there were some patches of paint which didn't match the rest and we must have been responsible. There were also a couple of sticky hooks left on the walls (the type which just peel off with no damage to the paint underneath which we'd had permission to use). We were quoted nearly $2000. Luckily, because we've rented before and know the tricks they try to pull, I'd photographed everything - dirty shower cubicles, grouting, filthy oven, marks on carpets, window ledges, weeds, the colour of the pool AND every patch of paint where the owners had covered old picture hooks. We sent all the photos - over 80 of them to the agents and had an email back saying they would 'waive' the repainting cost. Too bloody right they would! Don't phone agents with queries or complaints, email them and keep every email. Mostly they are completely unprincipled and will get away with whatever they can. Treat them with the contempt they show their tenants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Woodmill Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 These are incidents that I read about and I think stuff it, just walk away and leave the cleaning to them to sort out. We have an absolute cow of an agent and I just know, even before we go that we are going to have a battle with her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackboots Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 we rented our house out in the uk and our agent said to us you have to let them live ... seems they don't want to here , extortianate rents but no leeway or backup . The house we are in now has been a bit of a pain and im waiting for hassle at the end , with dread ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tony&dee Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 OMG cannot believe the problems people are having with rental companies, as we are due to land on the 29th June can anyone suggest any honest companies.:frown: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.