where do I stand

[Jen]

Can anyone offer advice on the following situation: I bought a house in '02 and had probably the crappiest PM out. She lost me hundreds of dollars in non-rental of the house before I changed to my current, competent PM. (The house has never been vacant since) I wrote her superiors a letter but never got any reply.
One of the incompetent things she did was to get the carpets professionally cleaned without my authority and then credit (rather than debit) my account for the $167.00 it cost. One year later, she wrote to my current PM requesting they debit my account for that amount. My PM replied that they were not authorised to do that.
Now, another year later I have received a letter telling me to pay up or face debt collection and legal charges. Now, in between this, I have done a tax return on which the $167 was put down as "other income" in their statement and my accountant said I had to declare it, even though I didn't want to.
I don't want to pay the money on principle. If I am forced to pay I want to at least take out 48.5% of it.
Also, I am currently renting and on the lease contract it is my responsibility as a tenant to get the carpets professionally cleaned, not the landlords. I did not give the crappy PM any authority to get the carpets cleaned in that house....phew, that's it Does anyone have any constructive advice??
Thanks to any people that answer.

 

[duncan_m]

Does anyone have any constructive advice??
Thanks to any people that answer.

Sure.

Reread your Agency Agreement. It defines the terms of your agreement with your PM.. If its like most Agency Agreements they can pretty much do whatever they want, or dont want, and not be in breach of it.

If the argument escalates their watertight Agency Agreement will trump your righteous indignation in every court in the land..

If it were me, I'd bluff them with some stern letters and threats of writing to the Franchise Head Office, the Real Estate Institute etc etc.. if it works thats great, if it doesnt, cough up the money and move on, they'll probably have you over a barrel.

 

[simonjulie]

Hi Jen
Your talking about $167 here not 167K. Put the whole episode down to bad luck and just move on. Is it really worth the stress? Guard your credit rating at all costs.
Kind regards
simon

 

[beech]

I agree with Simon.

Wil cost alot more if it ends up as bad debt against your name.

 

[likewow]

Then again theyd be silly to release the hounds (debt colection agency or whatever) on you for $167.

Personally i would try the bluff and tell them to jam it and you probably wont hear from them again. In fact ive done that before

 

[geoffw]

The situation stinks, and you should not have had to pay the difference.

However- the costs of collection may be too high to worry about,

I have a deposit of $2K which the vendor has kept despite legal threats. But following up with action will cost me more than $2K. It's probably not worth it.

Try the Duncan bluff.

Failing that, try to negotiate. It was their mistake, and you should not be liable.

But, at the end of the day- $167 is not a huge amount- especially as comapred to the growth you have probably had.

 

[Simon]

I would talk to the principle of the agency and explain that you didn't request nor authorise the cleaning.

I wouldn't be surprised if this couldn't be resolved with a bit of smooth talking.

Cheers,

 

[Bill.L]

Hi all,

Jen, my opinion is you owe $167.

If they credited your account instead of debiting, why did you not question it at the time??
All it seems they are asking for is the $167 that was incorrectly credited to your account. They may still be out the $167 that was actually spent on the carpet cleaning.
Don't be someone who is happy to benefit from other peoples mistakes, but put up a stink when they try to correct it.

bye

 

[Andrew_A]

Credit ratings

Your credit rating is worth a lot more than the money you owe. Why even risk a creditors court showdown?

Insted of a bluffing inidignant letter, why not write a letter explaining your situation and stating that you have paid tax on the amount owed. Offer to pay a certain amount as settlement, say 100$. This allows them an "out" and to be right (which we all love) at the same time. Also you save some money and protect your rating.

WaySolid.

 

[Aceyducey]

I recommend that you just settle & move on.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[Twitch]

I would talk to the principle of the agency and explain that you didn't request nor authorise the cleaning.

I wouldn't be surprised if this couldn't be resolved with a bit of smooth talking.

Cheers,

This is good advice, talking is more likely to bring a resolution than letters or email. If they push back offer to split the cost. If they still don't like it then just pay up and put it behind you.

 

[Sunfish]

As I read it, you are being asked to return $167 incorrectly paid to you. If you were being asked to pay the cleaner as well they would be asking for $334.

You have no case in refusing this demand. Tax will even itself out when you reduce your income by that amt this year.

I bought a TV and microwave last week and the salesman added the bill incorrectly and I paid $100 too little. He rang a little while later and explained, so I went back and paid the difference. I believe they would have told me if the error had been the other way.

T

 

[sbe]

Thommo - you beat me to it.

Pay the $167 and you break even.

Claim the expense and you get the tax back....

They haven't even figured out it should be double that.

In the end - it's cost you nothing anyway.

Cheerio

Simon.

 

[Jen]

Thanks for everone's different opinions. Just to clarify why I am so defiant on this issue: After buying the house, the tenants left after one week. It was then vacant for 6 weeks. I had to do all the chasing up to see what was happening with re-renting and the pm never returned any calls.When I did catch her, she had excuses such as "it's a bad area", "your rent is too high" (it wasn't) "no-one's looking for houses in that area" (another lie)etc. On two occasions I happened to be in the town where the house is and the letter box was chock-a-block full of advertising.... which advertises a vacant house. She denied the fact that no-one was checking the house and when I threatened to move to a new PM, she begged for a second chance. Then she kept coming up with excuses such as above. When I did change PMs, it was rented within days and has never been vacant since. She also made it difficult for my new PM to get the key from her, wasting another week.
I wrote a letter to her superiors outlining my issues at her management inabilities and stating that she had lost me about $1000 in rent. There was no response. She really got under my skin when she tried to get my current PM to take money out without my permission or knowledge ...and the fact that it has taken her two years to follow this up??!!!
This is not about the amount of money. That is irrelevant and if they had acted decently in the first place, I would have advised them ASAP. I didn't tell them because she has treated me with contempt on several occasions and so I am in no way going to help her out. (scorpios are very loyal friends but bitter enemies!)
This is about an apology from the office for her terrible management and attitude. I want her superiors to address the issues I raised in the letter and for her to be accountable for them. If they are serious about apologies, they'd advise me that compared to the stress I had in dealing with her, writing off the $167 is the least they can do and that they will send flowers as an apology as well. (just joking there for those of you who take things literally)
And yes, she is so stupid she hasn't realised it should be double - but that may be the next thing.

In reading your replies, I think that I will re-gather my facts and telephone her superiors to talk about it. So thanks for the advice.

 

[Bill.L]

Jen,

Does it matter how "bad" the other party is?? Should you not worry about doing the right thing??

bye

 

[likewow]

Jen,

Does it matter how "bad" the other party is?? Should you not worry about doing the right thing??

bye

While im all for doing the right thing, why should she be rewarded for her behaviour Bill. It will only encourage her to continue to treat landlords this way and they are paying her wages (or partly).

 

[Jen]

This is a tricky question because the answer can be extrapolated into all sorts of psychology concerning "how bad is bad" etc.
I don't think I am a nasty person and I feel strongly about doing the right thing in all situations... except when people have knowingly - and not by mistake - done the wrong thing by me or others. Perhaps it is a weakness of mine that I cannot stand people getting away with things like that.
I accept I owe them the money but it can also be argued that they owe me a lot of money too due to their conceited attitude and poor management. That is money that they have lost but are never accountable for.

 

[Jen]

While im all for doing the right thing, why should she be rewarded for her behaviour Bill. It will only encourage her to continue to treat landlords this way and they are paying her wages (or partly).

thank you likewow. If I just pay up and move on, she has learnt nothing and others will also be treated like I was. At the time I changed Pms, I was made aware of one other person who was treated in a similar way to me

 

[likewow]

thank you likewow. If I just pay up and move on, she has learnt nothing and others will also be treated like I was. At the time I changed Pms, I was made aware of one other person who was treated in a similar way to me

Ive had some absolute shocking PMs. I mean incompetent, liying, conniving. You name it - ive had it. One was taking kickbacks from every tradie she organised and from everywhere else she could possibly get. Driving a BMW to meet me at my property when everyone knew she was copping kickbacks to pay for it. She got the boot and rang her old landlords trying to get them to move to her new RE office. Unbelievable!

But id like to add that ive had some excellent ones as well.

 

[geoffw]

It sounds to me that there are many issues in which the old PM was clearly in the wrong.

If you take issue with this matter, you may spoil your success with other matters with which you have a much stronger argument.