Agents keep on doing unauthorised services

Sack the PM.
Not sure why you put up with that crap.

 

I agree with Wyllie here, simply change the authority dollar amount. Check your Form 6 - Management Agreement, some agents will have a default of a particular dollar amount eg equal to two weeks rent with out requiring authority. Of course this doesn't include emergency repairs.

 

Yes non emergency can be zero spend without prior concent.

 

We use the same trades the majority of the time, but my owners never get charged a bill that is excessive or that I wouldn't pay myself. What is the point of the investment property that continuously pays out for repairs, at the end of the day it is a business, and bottom line, needs to show a profit.

 

True, as a PM I have found trades will mark up, or seem to be higher priced then if I were having the same job done privately. If I find his I will always ask the question and if I suspect gouging they don't get the job and they get told why.

 

Sounds like you're being taken for a ride with all those expenses coming through unauthorised.

 

Hi

Were these costs for 1 property over a month or two or were these costs for many properties over several years? If it is for 10 properties over 3 years I would say it is not to bad. But as others have said the "termite treatment" needs to be dealt with further. if these costs are for 1 property in a 1 or 2 year gap I think you should consider changing property manager.

Either way you need to change the amount that you authorise the agent to spend on your behalf.

Best of luck.

Regards,

alicudi

 

I really don't understand why you haven't changed to another PM. From memory, all your properties are in regional areas - do you have the ability to choose another property manager or is there only one?

 

I think it is a donation to the local pest guy, who takes a few locals out every so often and shouts them, or get's free or very low cost jobs done on own property.

Country areas often try and look after the locals, you can be proud that your a small part of th e local economy.....or a major contributor if your not watching closely and have a few places.

 

Surely it can't be a coincidence that you have a significant disagreement pretty much monthly regarding the management of your properties, unless something significant changes then don't expect anything to change

 

Our family has been using the same plumber for three generations. Plumber generations that is. Started with grandpa. He retired. The son took over and now his son is doing his apprenticeship.

Last time he was over I had a chat with him about rentals (he doesn't do any of our rentals). He said the work is a PIA and he turns it down. Tenants not home when he turns up. Tenants want extra work done that is not authorised. Agents take forever to pay. etc etc.

 

you are notorious as the PC S h !t stirrer, so i take your posts with a grain of salt,

however, yes you do make a valid point,
like my tenant issues, they all seem to come in waves at the same time

 

Well, it is the same with most of the Property Managers. Mine gives me invoices of almost twice the cost which general tradies charge. On confronting, they say, the contractors have high quality work and they have insurance but even then cost shouldn't be twice of other tradies. But, frankly how far can you go with organising the repairs yourself, specially when dealing with multiple properties.
Anyhow, I am changing my Real Estate agency in Brisbane and making it a point to discuss on repairs being reasonable with the new agency. If someone here has a good PM, please share the details with me. Thanks!

 

I may not sugarcoat my posts as some would like but I genuinely am trying to help in a lot of my posts, including the above.

Ultimately I do feel it's something worth looking at and getting to the bottom of. I've used a lot of my key trades and contacts for many years (plumber close to 10 years, interior designer about 8, agent about 9/10, on varying types of projects and now they do work for some of the other members here including @Westminster and the positives of a good, longtsanding relationship are often underrated. In particular the trust built means that the commonly suspicious nature of the relationship doesn't exist and that alone is worth $$b IMO because things inevitably go wrong and unfortunately due to the number of idiots out there human nature automatically makes us all wonder if the other party really was blameless or just slack/lazy etc. It seems like that's potentially where u are with them, sometimes it can be fixed, sometimes it can't but IMO working out what's causing the higher % of disputes than normal is of more long term importance than fixing the immediate issues

By the way, I've got no issue with anyone disagreeing with anything I writw and if wrong factually am always happy to be proven so.

Don't mistake people throwing their toys out of the pram for victims, especially if some are hardly shrinking violets either. In that regard j will give Marc his due credit as hes no crybaby