Crap management by biggin&scott Laverton office(Victoria)

[ryan_mel]

I got a property in Altona meadows(victoria) which is managed by biggin&scott Laverton office, who just gave me a lot of headache in the past half year. I'm wondering what can I do to deal with my current situations.

The problems I'm facing as below:

1. The tenant only pays rental week by week instead of 4 weeks advance as usual, which makes biggin&scott transfers rental to me every week. However, each transaction costs me transaction/statement fee. I asked biggin&scott, but they told me they couldn't force the tenant to pay rental 4 weeks advance according to the law. Is it true?

2. The rental agreement was expired in Sept. So I rang the office early Sept. and ask if I can move in this property in Sep once the tenant moves out coz I noticed the property gets very dirty by the tenant, I want get it back to do some renovation. However they told me we can't without given 60 days notice. I didn't receive any reminding or querying call from the office to ask me if I want get back my property at all.

I'm wondering if the office has the responsibility to inform vendor to get vendor's instruction about what a vendor wants to do once the rental agreement expired?

Now I have to wait until Nov to move in coz I need give tenant 60 days notice

3. And by far, none route inspection is done since the leasing started although the agreement is originally expired in Sept.

Any advices? Appreciate it!

Ryan

 

[House_Keeper]

1. check rental agreement. What does it say about it?

2. not much you can do. This is the law. Should have warned you about end of lease. This is not a legal requirement though.

3. not unusual for many rental managers. This one seems a bit slack. Consider taking a different rental manager once you finish your renovations.

Cheers,

 

[Crystalleez]

I have to agree with the poor performance of this office. Infact I've left 2 voice messages with my property manager there in the past week and still no reply. They don't follow up, and the forget to pay me :S I had to ask why my tenant wasn't paying on time since I hadn't received and payment. She then checked on her computer and realised they did pay on time, it was the office that neglected to transfer the money over.

Unfortunally as you would probably well know, there isn't a lot of choice in the area. This is my second agency in 2 years as the first was even worse.

 

[badcliq]

1. NOrmally leases state rent is 1 month in advance on a standard template unless they uses their own.

2. Unless you informed them earlier of your intention, agents normally let it go on a periodic leases. Most will inform you about 3 montsh prior on whether you would like to increase the rent or not, which would alert you of the situation too.

3. Slack sums it all. At least once a year if not, once every 6 months.

By the way, which agency does most people use for Hoppers Crossing, Altona Maedows, Werribee areas? Any highly recommended ones? First Nationals? Elders?

I have a house to rent soon and B&S is definetely out of my list

 

[jaycee]

Inspections.... seems to not be as much as a priority to somePMs as they do to owners,...

My Pm used to pay th ernet monthly to me, depsite the tenant paying weekoy - the contract said the tenant should pay fortnightly.

I was happy to self manage when the new tenants moved in and have enoyed weekly rent payments in full since. I haven't inspected the property before the preivous tennjts were due to move out to check for strucutaral repairs etc .

This may / may not suit your situation.

 

[Xenia]

yes it is true they cannot legally force a tenant to pay monthly or fortnightly. They can only request it but how the tenant chooses to pay is up to them. They can pay per day and unless they are in arrears there is nothing that can be done about it.

You should have been warned of the expiry date of the lease 60 days prior and they should have seeked your instructions on what to do after expiry.

Routine inspections should be done every 3 months and ingoing/outgoing inspections should be done at begining and end of leases. Are you paying for these? Why have they not been done?

I agree service is slack but typical!

 

[jaycee]

yes it is true they cannot legally force a tenant to pay monthly or fortnightly. They can only request it but how the tenant chooses to pay is up to them. They can pay per day and unless they are in arrears there is nothing that can be done about it.

You should have been warned of the expiry date of the lease 60 days prior and they should have seeked your instructions on what to do after expiry.

Routine inspections should be done every 3 months and ingoing/outgoing inspections should be done at begining and end of leases. Are you paying for these? Why have they not been done?

I agree service is slack but typical!

My tenant pays weekly, but they paid up in advance when they moved in, so I get $300 each Friday instead of $600 every second Friday. I think this is good.

Regarding your next two points, I think you answered the reasons why in your last sentence !

 

[dragonlady309]

Sorry Xenia - in Victoria you cannot do more than 2 inspections in a 12 month period. As a PM we do one inspection 3 months after new tenant moves in, then another 6 months later. This gives landlord 3 months to decide whether or not they are happy for tenant to stay, or serve them notice of either increase in rent or lease not to be renewed on expiry.

Ryan - yes - you should have been informed the lease was due to expiire and whether or not you wanted to (a) renew lease and (b) increase rent.

Cheryl

 

[investwest]

Westwoods first national werribee

1. NOrmally leases state rent is 1 month in advance on a standard template unless they uses their own.

2. Unless you informed them earlier of your intention, agents normally let it go on a periodic leases. Most will inform you about 3 montsh prior on whether you would like to increase the rent or not, which would alert you of the situation too.

3. Slack sums it all. At least once a year if not, once every 6 months.

By the way, which agency does most people use for Hoppers Crossing, Altona Maedows, Werribee areas? Any highly recommended ones? First Nationals? Elders?

I have a house to rent soon and B&S is definetely out of my list

Westwoods in Werribee are excellent managers, to the point of being almost anal.

 

[investwest]

You can request to be paid monthly.

I got a property in Altona meadows(victoria) which is managed by biggin&scott Laverton office, who just gave me a lot of headache in the past half year. I'm wondering what can I do to deal with my current situations.

The problems I'm facing as below:

1. The tenant only pays rental week by week instead of 4 weeks advance as usual, which makes biggin&scott transfers rental to me every week. However, each transaction costs me transaction/statement fee. I asked biggin&scott, but they told me they couldn't force the tenant to pay rental 4 weeks advance according to the law. Is it true?

2. The rental agreement was expired in Sept. So I rang the office early Sept. and ask if I can move in this property in Sep once the tenant moves out coz I noticed the property gets very dirty by the tenant, I want get it back to do some renovation. However they told me we can't without given 60 days notice. I didn't receive any reminding or querying call from the office to ask me if I want get back my property at all.

I'm wondering if the office has the responsibility to inform vendor to get vendor's instruction about what a vendor wants to do once the rental agreement expired?

Now I have to wait until Nov to move in coz I need give tenant 60 days notice

3. And by far, none route inspection is done since the leasing started although the agreement is originally expired in Sept.

Any advices? Appreciate it!

Ryan

You don't have to be a paid weekly, just get the agent to pay you and invoice you monthly, easy, they should have given you this option. We have a tenant that pays fortnightly, but the agent credits our account monthly.

 

[man.goo]

no advice but i hope it all works out and congrats for naming the agents as i notice many others don't cos they are too pathetic/bland.

 

[Glucose]

I
1. The tenant only pays rental week by week instead of 4 weeks advance as usual, which makes biggin&scott transfers rental to me every week. However, each transaction costs me transaction/statement fee. I asked biggin&scott, but they told me they couldn't force the tenant to pay rental 4 weeks advance according to the law. Is it true?

Ryan

How big are these transaction costs? Perhaps you having the money in your account earlier, getting the interest, would offset these costs? Otherwise it's sitting in the agent's account earning them interest.

 

[charliey]

Please contact Sharon at John Kontek

John Kontek - Altona Meadows
Shop 22Central Avenue ALTONA MEADOWS
Ph: 03 9315 7888

They are managing a few properties for me in the area. They are very professional and I am very happy with them.

Thanks
Charliey