Did PM try to make money from maintenance cost

[evisional]

I am in Melbourne and have a IP first managed by Coronis in Brisbane about 4 months ago. So far, I have only collected $900 as Coronis always asked me for maintenance cost i.e lawn, carpet cleaning, ants control, repairing door handle, new blinds, new disk washer. Maintenance cost went up to a few thousands dollars.

I doubt that PM tried to make money through maintenance work as I am remote distance from the IP. The rountine inspection should be done every 4 months (3 times /year) but she just performed a routine inspection less than 3 months and informed me the maintenance work required.

Did anyone experience this problem? Has anyone hire Coronis PM before?

 

[Mooze]

Why were you required to pay for lawn care or carpet cleaning? This should have been done by tenant or previous tenant.

I would be querying why it's required. As with any industry there are a few dodgy operaters in Brisbane in Property management including one I used (different agency).

Question query and ask for before and after photos.

 

[Peterw]

evisional, I agree, ask for for information/evidence. Yes, you may have had a bad run, but from what you say, does sound a bit over the top.

 

[skater]

You don't have to do stuff just because the tenant wants it. You have to maintain your property, but you certainly don't have to put in a dish washer or new blinds.

As for the lawn care, well the tenant should be maintaining the lawns, not you.

 

[kathryn d]

Evisional,
You need to add a word to your vocabulary when dealing with your Pm...NO.
I wouldn't be sending out a handyman to fix every little annoyance.Save them up and have them done all at once.(unless they are serious ones)This should cut down on your expenses.

 

[russellpeter]

how many quotes are they getting?

They should be giving you at least 3 if its a big thing like the dish washer.
if they ae getting kickbacks they have to inform you in the 20a that they are doing so.

 

[Andrew_A]

Most likely just a case of the path of being least resistance being the property manager keeping the tenant happy by agreeing to every little request and sending you the bills, without knowing more of the specifics. Unlikely they are getting a kickback. Definitely question these expenses, lawns, ants, carpets!? More information needed.

Door handle, Blinds and Dish washer, could this be a result of the condition of the property when you bought? I see a lot of properties that are for sale that need 5k or more spent on them to bring them up to standard, the type of property that more often than not has been a rental for a number of years and not maintained with love.

It's a challenge to find a good property manager.

 

[handyandy]

Immediately send the PM Agency a letter instructing them that they have no approval to spend ( zero - $0.00) any money without your prior approval.

In all likelihood you have signed a management agreement that stipulates that they can spend up to $xxxx at their discretion and that's whats happening.

Just take control and manage the situation.

As has already been mentioned the PM is taking the path of least resistance and just doing all request forwarded by the tenant. You need to become the path of resistance.

Cheers

 

[evand]

Sack them now. They are ripping you off and most likely skimming the cream.
Get someone else. Ask for referrals on here. Tho its almost impossible to find a really good PM.

 

[evisional]

Thanks for sharing your thought. PM acted strangely. PM sent me some blank email, then she sent me a final email to ask for actions about ants and door handle. It seemed that she inhetated to ask me for maintenance cost then finally email me a request for maintenance actions.

I asked her question about unussual routine inspection (without any notification) and she has not replied me yet.

I should ask her to tell tenant to buy insect killer to pray ants by themselves and fix the door handle (if the handle was in a good condiition when the house was handed to tenant).

 

[evisional]

I questioned PM about weird inspection without my acknowledge. 2 days laters, she replied me that the initial Routine Inspection was brought forward as the tenants had requested.

As a tenant, have you ever requested your agent to do an inspection after 2 months moving in?

This PM tried to avoid losing face by giving an unreasonale answer.

 

[skater]

Change PMs NOW.

 

[Peterw]

We schedule, our 1st inspection, one month after the tenants have moved in. We call it the settling in inspection. It helps us pick up on maintenance, that we may have missed when we did the exit with the previous tenant. Incoming tenants are very exacting. It also allows us to view very early, the way the tenant chooses toi live. If it is below our expected standards, we let them know early, and on most occassions we gain immediate improvement. The next inspection, we call the renewal one. Not up to standard, we inform them that it is unlikly that we will renew. Again, we usually get an improvement. We are happy to have tenants present with inspections, and they then see how thorough the process is, and we can also show them ways to fix fiddly things them selves. Moving a date to accommodate is in it self not unusual. I gather that you seem concerned that the manner of response, is making you feel there is cover up. Must say, confidence in your PM is important.

 

[porp_e]

hi evisional

The last few rental properties I have lived in all have had inspoections after about 6 weeks. From a tenant perspective I hate it but from a landlord perspective probably good to suss out how the tenant is living in the property before they are there too long.
Having said that PM shouldnt be charging you for any maintenance that you didnt approve - I would be writing to them to tell them to refund you the money that you *didnt* authorise they spend and then maybe look for another PM.

 

[electroinvestor]

You don't have to do stuff just because the tenant wants it. You have to maintain your property, but you certainly don't have to put in a dish washer or new blinds.

As for the lawn care, well the tenant should be maintaining the lawns, not you.

It all depends what the lease agreement says. If the owner agreed to maintain the lawn (best way, just reflect the cost in rental) then it has to be done.
If you let a property with a build-in dishwasher or anything, the owner has to maintain it. Tenants must take care but owners must repair any breakages not caused by abuse.
After all, to let a property is a business (income AND expenses)

 

[skater]

It all depends what the lease agreement says. If the owner agreed to maintain the lawn (best way, just reflect the cost in rental) then it has to be done.
If you let a property with a build-in dishwasher or anything, the owner has to maintain it. Tenants must take care but owners must repair any breakages not caused by abuse.
After all, to let a property is a business (income AND expenses)

That goes without saying, however you will find that MOST agreements are that the tenant maintains the lawn, which is what my answer was aluding to. Same with the dishwasher! I believe the tenant was requesting a dishwasher where there was none.

If you read my post, you will see that I said that you have to maintain your property. You don't, however, have to do improvements. That is entirely at the owners discretion.

 

[davidh04]

I am in Melbourne and have a IP first managed by Coronis in Brisbane about 4 months ago. So far, I have only collected $900 as Coronis always asked me for maintenance cost i.e lawn, carpet cleaning, ants control, repairing door handle, new blinds, new disk washer. Maintenance cost went up to a few thousands dollars.

I doubt that PM tried to make money through maintenance work as I am remote distance from the IP. The rountine inspection should be done every 4 months (3 times /year) but she just performed a routine inspection less than 3 months and informed me the maintenance work required.

Did anyone experience this problem? Has anyone hire Coronis PM before?

Evisional
your post from 2007 about Coronis Brisbane, well Coronis Lutwyche in brisbane is now getting 10% of every tradie who does work on their investors properties; they tell them to add !0% to the bill then Coronis collects the money; dont think they tell the property owners!! surely its a secret commision?

 

[evisional]

PM reported that the door handle to the toilet is still broken and said it can be repaired by their tradie at round $100+ to fix the door handle. Actually, if I am there, I can fix it at couple $.

What do you do if PM requests repairing such little thing every month at unreasonable cost?

 

[dc_prs]

Remember that a large proportion of costs consist of call out charges. So a quote can seem expensive relative to the work involved. As suggested in an earlier post, you could consider waiting to have a few jobs done at the same time time which may save you some money (assuming all jobs can be completed by the same person).

If you are needing frequent repairs done you may need to question how the tenants are treating the place. A good PM should be on top of things there.

 

[evisional]

I have requested the tenant contact numbers so that I can confirm the problem but PM told me that the tenants have requested her do not give out their contact details and if I want to inspect, she will arrange . She knows that I am intertate and hardly to inspect the property. She gave me suspection about her integrity.

If the repair happens again next month, I will change PM.