$60 charge for Tribunal Application?

manny

manny

Howdy there,

we r in the process of going through an eviction & our PM just charged us $60 for a "Tribunal Application" fee... it did seem a little excessive as a couple of years ago I had paid $25 for a similar process (in Melb), has it gone up so much?

I will be speaking to the PM today, but was wondering what others have been charged for such an application...

Cheers,

MannyB.
 
When I had an Agent managing a property it was free.. I'm so sick of this increasing trend amongst agents to introduce Charges for additional work.. It's like the government... we have Income Tax then there's a levy for this, a levy for that etc.. Perhaps the Agents on the forum could detail their own Fee structure for the interest of the forumites..

Shop around for another Agent.. or if your property is local consider Managing it yourself.. its actually very easy, I've been doing it for around 18months now for all my properties.. I've been thru the tribunal process twice now.
 
Hi Duncan,

thanx for that...

I spoke to the PM & they said that they are "new fees", other fees she mentioned is $100 to represent us at the tribunal (which was free in the past), etc... I stated that I'm unhappy that I wasn't consulted with the charges & will need to speak to the director in the near future (when I get a chance)...

I asked, "isn't that part of the risk of your commission?", they didn't really have an answer, I left it at that for now to see how this process goes (whether we evict, etc...), but will review what the competition charges & take it from there...

Cheers,

MannyB.
 
Originally posted by manny
Hi Duncan,

thanx for that...

I spoke to the PM & they said that they are "new fees", other fees she mentioned is $100 to represent us at the tribunal (which was free in the past), etc... I stated that I'm unhappy that I wasn't consulted with the charges & will need to speak to the director in the near future (when I get a chance)...

I asked, "isn't that part of the risk of your commission?", they didn't really have an answer, I left it at that for now to see how this process goes (whether we evict, etc...), but will review what the competition charges & take it from there...

Cheers,

MannyB.
Click to expand...


Whooah! $100 to go the Tribunal.. I had assumed the $60 covered that.. So $160 to appear at the Tribunal.. that is truly disgusting.. It takes me one fax to get a Hearing at the tribunal..all of 20mins work to prepare the fax and 25c to send..

They choose a bad tenant, or mismanage an arrears situation and they get rewarded with $160 of additional fees..

What do the forums illustrious resident Property Managers charge their clients?
 
Hi,

In WA, it costs $26.70 to have a hearing at the small claims division of the local court. I' d assume other states to be similar. However, this cost is usually recovered from the tenant if found to be "wrong".

Therefore, the PM is billing you for this plus their time. If you self-manage you'd have to go in yourself: how do you value your own time? Tho I'll definately agree $160 sounds quite rediculous.

Over here, it has a breakdown of all the various fees on the "Authority to Manage" form. All of which are negotiatible. Dont you recall signing this section of the form? :p

-Regards

Dave
 
Hi Manny

What was on the original agreement that ou signd with the PM?

If it didn't have these fees in the original then how can they charge charging them now without giving adequate notice.

With any PM I see it as part of their risk in putting forward a bad tenant in the first place. The only charges forwarded to me are the statutory charges.

Cheers
 
Hi there,

thanx for all your wonderful responses... I went through my original "Exclusive Leasing &/or Managing Authority" form & there is no mention of these additional fees...

Another IP with this agent 3yrs ago had to go to tribunal & I only had to pay for the $25 application fee (price at the time) & nothing else... I'll definately dispute this with them as I had not agreed upon these additional fees, sounds like the government as Duncan mentioned...

Thanx for all your responses & I'd be curious to know if any of your PMs charge for such services? or even a fee structure from your PM if you have one?

Cheers,

MannyB.
 
Originally posted by duncan_m
When I had an Agent managing a property it was free.. I'm so sick of this increasing trend amongst agents to introduce Charges for additional work.. It's like the government... we have Income Tax then there's a levy for this, a levy for that etc.. Perhaps the Agents on the forum could detail their own Fee structure for the interest of the forumites..

Click to expand...

OK Duncan
I will stick my neck out as no one else has responded.

Our fees are clearly stated on the brochure we give all landlords. Our fee structure is also part of our Authority to Manage so that the situation that happened to Manny does not arise.

We do not want disgruntled landlords.

Our fees for Tribunal appearances are as follows:-
Application fee - $30
Appearance charge (our time) - $75
Sometimes your need :-
Registred post( for notices) - $2.80
A warrant of possession - $60

We have no control of the fees other than that for our time and this is done on the basis that an average tribunal appearance takes about 3 hours of a property manager's time.

The appearance itself may only take 10 minutes if the tenant does not turn up, but we need to send a senior property manager (would you trust your claim to a junior?) and they cost us about $25 per hour.

Property manaement is a service business and if you have a good PM you get what you pay for so i do not understand your comment that you are "sick of charges for additional work."

I understand why so many landlords are frustrated because you don't often get what you pay for..... Michael & I had so many problems when other agents looked after our properties. That is one of the reasons we set up Metropole Property Management.

We lost a few cases at the tribunal that I did not think we should have becuase they were handled by inexperienced PM's.

In one case we had a tenant who brought a dog into one of our brand new luxury townhouses, despite a clause in this lease that he signed and initialled saying no pets allowed.

We tried to get rid of the tenant becuase he was creating problems with the other tenants. Our PM used the dog as an excuse but lost.

Then when the tenant left and the new cedar venetians had been rain damaged because he left the windows open, we had trouble getting money back from his bond through the tribunal.

My point is you need experienced representation at the tribunal, and to quibble about the investment of $75 or so to protect your asset seems petty
 
Originally posted by Pamela Yardney
OK Duncan
I will stick my neck out as no one else has responded.
Click to expand...

Pamela..

Thanks for sticking your neck out! What's the percentage of the rent and letting fee that you charge?

Cheers, Duncan.
 
Originally posted by Pamela Yardney
Our fees are clearly stated on the brochure we give all landlords.
We do not want disgruntled landlords.
Click to expand...
Hi Pamela
Let me first say that I do not tarnish all PM's with the same brush that I would like to use on my last PM.

They clearly stated on their brochure "No Advertising Fees", but then, once I had signed up, they charged advertising fees!

Their reply was that the agreement I had signed said they could.

My lesson ? Do not believe what a PM tells you ? and of course check carefully what you sign, without trusting them when they say it is just confirming what has been discussed.

I am no longer one of their disgruntled landlords, I now do it myself.
 
Originally posted by duncan_m
Pamela..

Thanks for sticking your neck out! What's the percentage of the rent and letting fee that you charge?

Cheers, Duncan.
Click to expand...

Duncan

It is interesting that you should ask what our fees are rather than asking how we can help make your property a trouble free investment. How much is that worth to you?

In the last 2 weeks we signed tenants on an 18 month lease, another on a 3 year lease and another tenant on a 5 year lease. What is this worth to our landords?

We think like investors not PM's. We have a corporate office not a shop front. We don't sell properties, we concentrate on property management.

Most of our landlords don't pay advertising as we get most of our enquiries from the interent and we pay for the internet advertising.

There are lots of other ways we add value but I don't want this to sound like an ad.

So rather than asking your PM how much they charge, may I suggest 12 probing questions you could ask them, click here:-

http://www.metropole.com.au/reports/bonus_report2.htm

By the way our fees are not the cheapest but we don't pretend to be cheap. Usually you get what you pay for in life. Our ongoing managment fee is 7.7% of the rental and we charge 4% of the annual rental to lease your property, but if we lease it quickly to top tenants at a great rent why would you complain?
 
Originally posted by Pamela Yardney
Duncan

It is interesting that you should ask what our fees are rather than asking how we can help make your property a trouble free investment. How much is that worth to you?
annual rental to lease your property, but if we lease it quickly to top tenants at a great rent why would you complain?
Click to expand...

I'm not complaining! :) Your willingness to input to the forum and the content you add already puts you in a class of your own :)

I guess the proof is in the pudding.. anyone here use Pamela?

Thanks!
 
I agree with Duncan, agents charge for almost anything they can. I am an agent myself and there is no way I would ever charge one of my landlords for a tribunal hearing. It should never really get to that extent in the first place, and if it does that should be part of the service.

Jarrod
 
tribunal hearings

P.S. We charge our landlords "no advertising" and only 6.5% commission +$3 per month and there are absoultely no hidden fees, charges etc that is it. Service is everything in our industry and our reputation is based on it. Just because we charge less than most agents around does not mean we offer a lesser service. Just means we like to put more money in our landlors pockets.

Charging for tribunal hearings I believe is not on!
 
Re: tribunal hearings

Originally posted by liverpoolharryk
P.S. We charge our landlords "no advertising" and only 6.5% commission +$3 per month and there are absoultely no hidden fees, charges etc that is it. Service is everything in our industry and our reputation is based on it. Just because we charge less than most agents around does not mean we offer a lesser service. Just means we like to put more money in our landlors pockets.

Charging for tribunal hearings I believe is not on!
Click to expand...
Which REA are you ?

It may be worth putting it on your signature ?, or at least show your web site in your profile :)
 
Originally posted by duncan_m
I'm not complaining! :) Your willingness to input to the forum and the content you add already puts you in a class of your own :)

I guess the proof is in the pudding.. anyone here use Pamela?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use Pamela

Does that count? :D
 
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