NSW Annual Statement Fee

My agent has charged me an annual statement fee of $20. I presume this is the printout summary of all the monies collected and paid in the financial year. Really? This is all computer generated, how come a fee? There is no mention of this on my agency agreement - there isn't even an item for it, can they just charge without it being agreed to in the agency agreement.

 

Its a lot less than what your accountant would charge you to compile all the information. It does need to be in your agency agreement - perhaps check with the agency and they can point out if / where it might be.

I've seen agencies charge anywhere from $0 to $55

 

Thanks DT, which section is it typically noted on. I see section 4 being where the commission is noted and the fee for lease prep. No admin fees and other fees in that section

 

I charge $0, the software does it effortlessly and it's just another cash grab by bigger established firms, "because they can".

The base 'admin fee' or similar, 'postage & petties' type fixed monthly or once of yearly fee should cover all these sorts of things, and yet so many big agencies get away with billing practices like the above and Landlords keep lining up at their doors..

 

If you are not willing to pay $20, just add up the previous 12 months statements.
No doubt the software will generate the results, but someone needs to pay for the software, get it to run, generate the report, email to you, and possibly answer your queries, all for a hefty sum of $20.

We send out our Consolidated Statements for free, as per our Contract. Would suggest you check your Contract...

 

Ok thanks. I’ll check with the agent, I can’t find anything on my contract.

 

Its so frustrating when agents charge a fee for a service that basically doesn't take much effort on their behalf but saves the client time and money. Obviously I charge $0 for my EOFY statements.

Ask the agent to point out where in your management agreement the fee is stipulated, they may just be hoping to get away with it, and hopefully you can negotiate not to have to pay it.

 

Negotiate? If it's not in a contract or agreement I wouldn't be paying it regardless. That's dirty behaviour and I'd probably just threaten to or actually leave if they argue the fact..

 

Clarify: Negotiate if it is in the agreement, definately not pay it if its not.

 

thats the cost of doing business,
I would be furious if I got charged a "secretary/rent/office/new computer fee"

 

Thanks all got it sorted. Was a “mistake”

 

Only a mistake when the customer points it out. Wouldn't expect an automatic refund unless you tell them..

Pretty low imho.

 

Our agent puts a note on the May statement every year to tell us the statement will be generated & we will be charged unless we opt out by 15 June ... every single year we have to 'opt out'. It is annoying! I would have to pull out the original agency agreement to find the charge, but thought it was $60+

 

They probably get away with i say over 70% of the clients they charge who don't look at their statement or bother to check. $20 for say 900 under their portfolio (i have no idea how many really but read somewhere previously its about 300 prop per PM) - (20*900*0.7) thats almost $13K in extra income..... for a click of a button.

 

No one has 300 per pm lol. Maybe 100. So if they have 9 PMs at 50k each thats 450k pa. 13k doesnt fo far.

 

Doesn't really matter though does it? It's still poor on their part and they come off money hungry...

Like TMNT said, it's the cost of business having that software in place, the reason you buy software is to make a mundane &t intensive task for an employee easy or just plain automated.

Let's say 100 props per pm
1 admin averaging 25 invoices a day 8hrs
That's 4 days total
4 X average wage @ 20 = 640

You get this gist..

They're making money elsewhere, that person is either jobless or working on things that are more critical to the business.

 

Really? I think my last agent who I am no longer with had that agent property ratio 1:300. Perhaps that’s why they were totally incompetent being overloaded and never return calls and were non responsive!
Don’t know.

 

Imagine the pressure of dealing with 300 tenants (usually with more than one tenant per property), maybe 250 owners to remember, 1000 bills every quarter for payment, maybe 100 maintenance requests/compliance to manage at a time, 30 vacancies....

 

Obviously OP's question has been answered - but yes they cannot charge it if not in the agreement and IMO a money grab too.

I know a heck of a lot of PM's here managing 200+ by themselves. I'd say average is about 175 which means the $3,500 for that month would more or less pay that PM's wage for that month, and $20 is on the lower end of what I've seen. Madness. 175 is still too much IMO too.

 

A lot of businesses do well by overloading their agents, which gives a great profit margin despite losing all the properties which need to have time and effort spent on them.
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As far as the fee (assuming it wasn't a mistake like it is in this thread), ultimately you're paying a total amount for a total service regardless of what the individual fees are. For example, if your paying a lower percentage but they charge you $50 for a statement fee, would you still be upset? Like most of the people here, I don't charge a statement fee- that's not because it can't be justified, but I've just made a business choice to streamline my fees in line with my clients expectations.