Am I being unreasonable?

[Pushka]

OK, the property is managed by a large PM group in Adelaide. They email a Rental Advice payment on the last day of the Month and funds are supposed to be in the Bank on the first of the month - that is in the PM contract.

We duly received the advice of payment on the 30th (yesterday) and as we have a number of ins and outs on the First of each month, I take the rental advice into account when working out how much I need to transfer into that account. I also allow an extra $500 or so.

Well, today, no rental payments. I contact the office, my contact is 'out'. I leave a message and when it is returned she is rather blase and says, 'oh yeah, had a glitch, will be in tomorrow'. I commented I didnt think that was good enough and she replied 'well, it has only happened once'. Our contract is only 12 months old and given the fees they charge, once is too many times.

So, am I being unreasonable - she didnt even say sorry!

 

[lizzie]

actually - our rent didn't come thru last night either, but i trust that the pm will put it thru tonight. perhaps they thought there was 31 days this month and got caught out. i'm not worried as i know it will go in asap and one day doesn't worry me ... if it's not there tomorrow then she'll get a call.

unless there is a conspiricy ...

 

[twobobsworth]

Sometimes it's better the devil you know.

I've had it happen a couple of times over the last 12 months.

 

[Pushka]

Hm, they certainly knew it was due yesterday or we wouldnt have got the Rent advice. The problem we have is that it is a low interest account and we leave minimal in there, lots of payments come out on the first (health insurance, membership etc) but I guess now I know it happens, I wont trust them to do it on time again. And next time I want to do something that isnt in the contract I might remind them that they dont adhere to it all the time either!

 

[tubs]

Christmas/New Year is the worst. A lot of agencies shut up shop and dont do disbursements at all until the following month.

 

[Dazz]

OK, the property is managed by a large PM group in Adelaide.

So to them, you are 1 out of 400 or 500 ??

 

[Buddybee]

Send your PM an email detailing the fees your bank and/or Direct debitors charged you as a result of them failing to meet their contractual obligation. Request that they reimburse you for these costs.

Also ask them to confirm their payment strategy over Christmas/New Year period or any other holidays that may be affected.

Goodluck
Buddybee

 

[Pushka]

So to them, you are 1 out of 400 or 500 ??

Yep, but everyones payment got held up. They were expecting a lot of calls. So to this PM group, we are probably looking at maybe $100K in money they get to keep for another day?

Send your PM an email detailing the fees your bank and/or Direct debitors charged you as a result of them failing to meet their contractual obligation. Request that they reimburse you for these costs.
Also ask them to confirm their payment strategy over Christmas/New Year period or any other holidays that may be affected.

Good point - we weren't using them last Christmas! Or maybe didnt have a tenant!

 

[Ajax]

Similar thing happened to me.

No monies transferred for one property.

Another property monies transferred last Friday-missing out on rent payment made by tenants yesterday.

Another payment for another property is a lot smaller than usual ($333 vs $2k).

Usually $5k comes in, this time $1.5K.

Finding the uncertainty of what rent will be coming in each month difficult to budget for.

How would you handle 20+ properties unless interest payments came out of a large line of credit with lots of available funds.

 

[Propertygirl]

Maybe a little latitude...??

I have had this happen a few time over the last 5 years or so. I always ensure I have a buffer incase the payment is slightly delayed. If this is the first time they have messed up, I would give them some latitude...but if it is one of many "oversights" of the contract I would consider looking for another PM.

I have reported a couple of PM to the Real Estate Institute and been reimbursed for expenses that were not authorised....

propertygirl

 

[The Y-man]

- that is in the PM contract.

Check the small print - it probably says something along the lines of: this company can not be held responsible where the transfer of funds has been delayed by this, that, or the other thing, etc etc


Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[Petal]

Hi Pushka,

I think it was more the girls attitude than the payment being a day late that is annoying you.

If it were me I wouldn't be too worried about it happening once (if that is all it happens) but would be most concerned with the PM's blase attitude, certainly NOT good customer service!!

 

[boomtown]

I keep a 4k - 6k float for precisely this reason. Means I dont have to check my accounts constantly - I can run it on autopilot and check once a month.

 

[lizzie]

but, as pushka says, everyone's was late so perhaps they were complainent number 369 and the girls was just "sooooo" over it.

sometimes they don't get the tapes to the bank in time for the nightly runs, or sometimes the bank just doesn't get time to run the tape - there are a multitude of reason a payment might be held up a day. if it's only been one in a year then i wouldn't be too worried.

i get my rent transferred fortnightly into my account at no extra expense, which is rather pleasing.

 

[Pushka]

but, as pushka says, everyone's was late so perhaps they were complainent number 369 and the girls was just "sooooo" over it.

i get my rent transferred fortnightly into my account at no extra expense, which is rather pleasing.

I think I was the first, perhaps she was dreading the day! Fortnightly payments, now there's a dream!

Hi Pushka,
I think it was more the girls attitude than the payment being a day late that is annoying you.
but would be most concerned with the PM's blase attitude, certainly NOT good customer service!!

Yes Petal, that is exactly right. She was acting like it was a bother to her having to deal with it, rather than recognising that it was the customer who had really been inconvenienced.

 

[Dazz]

She was acting like it was a bother to her having to deal with it, rather than recognising that it was the customer who had really been inconvenienced.

Pushka, sounds like you came up against a salaried staff member, not the business owner.

A salaried staff member gets paid the same, whether they have a fantastic slack day, or whether they sit on the phone fielding calls from upset customers giving them what for. I bet she didn't have the authority to actually change anything "within the system"....and therefore is quite useless to you.

She can placate your feelings and tell you nice things, or she can blow you off by being rude, but either way - the issue won't get resolved by her.

The Owners / bosses / IT knobs just don't give the staff the discretionary power to help customers with complaints about the system they've set up. It's bad for their business. Nothing to do with you as the customer. They always wish to herd all the customers in like cattle. If they get a constant rogue bull, they'd rather shoot it or let it go, rather than going through the painful process of changing the ring fence to accomodate it adequately.

If you threaten to walk and take your business elsewhere, that would or should concern an Owner, but it won't mean a jot to a staffer. Take yer property and bugger off she'd quickly tell you. She gets paid by the big company regardless.

It's almost impossible and quite fruitless complaining to a staffer, cos they neither have the power to fix the complaint, nor give a rats financially.....but then that is exactly the way the Owners of most businesses restrict their staff.

You mentioned in another thread you owned and ran a business. Do you give your staff the financial / IT authority to muck with your system setup.

 

[Aaron Sice]

AK47s fix everything when you're mad.

 

[Pushka]

You mentioned in another thread you owned and ran a business. Do you give your staff the financial / IT authority to muck with your system setup.

You raise some good points. And this business is very big so yes she was a staffer. Our business is ALL about customer service though, so if someone rang in with something we had stuffed up, then the first thing the staff would do would be to apologise, and then ask if there was something they could do to 'make good'. Even if it was just to say they would pass it higher up so it didnt happen again. But this person acted like she was peeved that her day had been wreaked by a customer and all the calls that would follow.

 

[letiha]

I get on the 15th & 30th of the month, well actually it gets to my account the day after, my interest comes out the last business day of the month, so i'm ahead enough so the 30th is the "first payment for the next month" and the one on the 15th is the second, gives me plenty of time to make sure the cash is there.

 

[kyliej]

The payment may have been delayed by the bank in which case it was out of the PMs control. I dont agree with how she handled your call though an apology should have been the first thing she said to you even if it wasnt their fault.
Our company offers mid and end of month payments at no extra charge.
Real estate agents run trust accounts that earn no interest so them holding all their owners funds for an additional day doesnt get them anything apart from a bad name.