Very bad experience with a property managers

Hi All,

Many thanks for the kind words and support. Without them, I certainly won't be standing here , feeling relieved that the hard time had passed. Looking back, the whole thing does feel a bit surreal, like Monalissa mentioned - to what extent such people can go.


Norwester - I hope this thread will be allowed to stay online too, in the hope that it could spare others of the agros we went through.


cu@thetop - I didn't know that this thread shows up on the 1st page of google. Maybe that's the reason they contacted me last week!


Terry & cu@thetop - thanks for the information. I did notice the option of statutory demand, but I read that it's an expensive and complex process. I just don't think I have the time, energy or stomach for it.(http://www.lawassist.lawaccess.nsw....case/lawassist_enforcing_a_judgment_debt.html).

At this stage, I just want to move on and not have anything to do with them anymore. I'd be happy really to take whatever NCAT decides next week and continue with life. Thankfully the agros are passed now. On times when I feel annoyed again (like in this last week), I just remember that all Nathan's properties are managed by them and have a chuckle on that :D


DaveM - spot on! Looking back, I don't think I would even started this thread or went to DFT & NCAT had we could get a response from Nathan or the company re. issue with the Orange property. We did experienced issues with the other properties and moved on quietly to other agents. It's when we couldn't get any answer or reply to queries re. non-paying tenant in Orange for months that I took the issue to SS, and later on to DFT & NCAT.
 
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I know that I said earlier that you were being a bit too lenient with them, but I'll have to take that back now. Good on you for standing your ground and telling them to bugger off!

Spludgey - thanks for your kind words.


I know that some people might say in his defence that this wasn't him but one of his companies run by someone else, but I think that he's implicated or if he's not, he's incompetent.

Hope this thread is publically indexed by Google.


Interesting you mention that. Recently, I had a very interesting conversation with a friend, who is quite a successful businessman. I was telling him the story with this company and at one point said about Nathan: 'I don't understand, he's not a bad man!'.

My friend asked me if I agreed with him on 2 statements below:
1. It's from one's ACTIONS that we can see the true quality of a person
2. It's what one does in HARD situations that shows the true quality of a person

When I agreed to statements above, my friend asked me if I'd revise my opinion about Nathan. To my surprise, I did. Now my view is very similar to yours.
 
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Good on you Kristaje for sticking to you principles.

Have to say that your posts about this company is consistent with my experience of the BInvest group of companies in general.
 
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Interesting you mention that. Recently, I had a very interesting conversation with a friend, who is quite a successful businessman. I was telling him the story with this company and at one point said about Nathan: 'I don't understand, he's not a bad man!'.

My friend asked me if I agreed with him on 2 statements below:
1. It's from one's ACTIONS that we can see the true quality of a person
2. It's what one does in HARD situations that shows the true quality of a person

When I agreed to statements above, my friend asked me if I'd revise my opinion about Nathan. To my surprise, I did. Now my view is very similar to yours.

With that as well, there are people that are only nice in order to get something they want. Then afterwards you really see what their intentions are.

You don't have to be a business expert to rectify problems or at least attempt to. But clients are the life of the business so that is where the focus should be.
 
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Well, surprise surprise...dollar amount as per the NCAT order for Orange was deposited to my account today from them. Coincidence timing or something else?


Terry - many thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind for the future, though hopefully I won't ever need to do it.


Starter - many thanks for your kind words. I'm sorry that you had bad experience with the company / group of companies too. Hope all went well for you at the end.


You don't have to be a business expert to rectify problems or at least attempt to. But clients are the life of the business so that is where the focus should be.

Very true. It's shocking how they got it so wrong. Their attitude towards customer service is just unbelievable!


Hobo - agree 100% that they should read it and then IMPLEMENT the points. It's actually rather sickening seeing all these articles in property magazines where they give advise and claim as one of the good guys, but do exactly the opposite. I was actually thinking if I should at least alert the magazines that frequently profile them of their real performance (or lack thereof), but I'm not sure if this can be considered as defamation, even if all facts are true?


TMNT - good catch on the 'typo'! :)
 
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This thread is open for the public to see, so it's really no different from them finding the link or someone emailing it to them, then it's up to them if they want to do anything with it.
 
Thanks Nick.

I did previously consulted a lawyer who helped us with Orange re. sharing information in this forum, but not sure on the law on letting someone know about it. Thanks for clarifying.

Relating to posting in forum, the lawyer said that it wouldn't be a problem as long as I stick with the truth and have all written evidence to back things up if required (i.e. documents, emails, etc.). Also that information shared has a purpose for public interest, to avoid similar things happening to other people.

The lawyer also advised me to qualify my opinion with statements like 'in my opinion', 'I believe', 'I think' - so that they cannot mis-interpreted as libel. Looking back, seems like I learned a lot about many things during the process of solving the issue with this company.
 
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In reality, even the first post in this thread is actually no different to what you can find on a multitude of review sites, and even on social media.
The only thing is that it had to be detailed because of all the issues, which they had ample time to attempt to resolve beforehand.

That's the good thing about experiences that also involve learning where you gain a wider understanding of the world that changes the way you think.
 
Realistically, No small business is going to sue you (especially if you're essentially giving you're opinion). It's costly, a hassle and just brings more bad publicity.
 
Hobo - agree 100% that they should read it and then IMPLEMENT the points. It's actually rather sickening seeing all these articles in property magazines where they give advise and claim as one of the good guys, but do exactly the opposite. I was actually thinking if I should at least alert the magazines that frequently profile this company of their real performance (or lack thereof), but I'm not sure if this can be considered as defamation, even if all facts are true?

Sadly the magazines don't care, it's all paid advertising some how - they advertise with the magazines, magazine will go to them for articles.
 
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Nick & Starter - thanks for the info.

Simtr - that's no good. many investors get their info from these magazines and new investors sometimes see article sources as experts in the field!

Deltaberry - This company is a property management company owned by Nathan Birch. Based on our past dealings with them, I think staying away will be a wise decision.


As mentioned previously, we had now received the compensation from them for the NCAT order related to the Orange property / St Mary's office. I guess someone in the company must came to realise that they couldn't get away with not paying this, as the order is legally binding.

Unfortunately we haven't been so lucky with getting the property file for Orange back, despite the company promised 3 times to do this to me and DFT. I believe this was because on the last NCAT hearing, the Tribunal Member stated that they couldn't issue an order for a file. Luckily DFT helped me gain possession of all the files previously required for insurance claim. Between these docs and ones from the local agency (who manages property before and after them) we shouldn't missed much, which I'm thankful of.

Now, we just have one more hearing next week for Taree property and be done with them :)
 
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Glad to see this saga is coming to an end, and you can finally move on. Only if they resolved it ASAP, wouldn't have wasted so much of your time.
 
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Glad to see this saga is coming to an end, and you can finally move on. Only if they resolved it ASAP, wouldn't have wasted so much of your time.

Many thanks for your kind words, Monalisa :)

I attended the hearing this morning. Annoyingly, the company is still wasting my time again. They played hardball, offered ridiculously low amount for compensation for the mistakes they made. I said no to settling to that, so we will go to another hearing with evidence review etc. in July/August. I guess that's just another proof that the offer previously made for full amount requested was just a ploy to get this thread off SS. The email thread with full amount offer will be viewed at the hearing, so it'd be interesting to hear what spin they will put on that incident.

Anyways, life goes on....

DH & I had a chat yesterday and agreed that we'd like to put any compensation coming out of this into a good use, to end this experience in a good way. After all, we gained a lot from the experience: shedding bad company, meet many good people who so generously helped us (that includes you SS-ers :)), better knowledge on how to navigate the legal process. We also surprisingly learned a lot about ourselves. So when this all done, any compensation we received will go to Kiva lending and stay there perpetually, helping people realising their dreams.
 
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A bit later on, I received an email from him saying that the company is happy to offer compensation yada-yada-yada with the condition of non-disclosure and closing this thread in SS. Turns out that's what it's all about! The hyena doesn't change it's spots after all.

lol. Massive strategy fail here.

Good for you Kristaje, keep at em :)
 
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