Are PMs obliged to issue FY statements, QLD ?

Hi guys

asking your advice on behalf of a friend who has a few IPs in Brisbane, all these IPs were managed by an Agent ( property management agent) for approx 8 months ( he has moved these IP to a different agent due to the bad services). Now coming to FY, the Agent refuses to issue FY statements. and asking $30 for each statement. unfortunately he went back and read the management agreement, it does say $30 per FY statement. I don't think he read the Agreement thoroughly before signing them. Considering the really bad services from the Agent, my friend was quite angry about the request of $30 per statement. My past experience was that Agents are happy to issue statement even if clients have moved on.

just wondering whether there are any remedies about this?

thanks in advance.

 

FY statements are not compulsory to send at all.

We send them and dont charge for them.

If there was a charge on the agreement, they should pay it before they expect their statement. Otherwise they can add up their statements themselves, or get their accountant to help.

 

Mine was automatically sent by the old agent at the end of the year, this is in QLD as well.

 

yeah, he was a bit surprised to find out they charge a fee to send the FY statements.
so annoying.

 

I've been charged by an agent for a previous financial year statement - not the year just ended but the one before that (if that makes sense) also in QLD. This was in the days before emailed statements were common though. I think it's a bit rude to charge for a statement for a financial year that has just finished though.

 

I would try by asking to every statement issued by them.for period you were there. They may come to their senses and just send you eofy statement as it would be easier to do.

 

From what I understand, EOFY statements are only a snapshot of the year and accountants prefer monthly statements anyway. Depending on the management system they use, some are easy to un-archive and some are quite fiddly.
Can you client go back through emails and find the monthly statements?

Debbie

 

No, they are not compulsory & yes most of them ask for $$$ to send one

 

We always like to get EOFY Statements as it allows us to reconcile our books against those of our PMs.

Occasionally we find an error, typically data entry. Sometimes the error is on the PMs' side; other times, it is ours.

Best to do this before we send our books off to our accountant.

The PMs who charge the higher PM fee (say 8.8%) typically don't charge for the EOFY Statement; the ones with the lower PM fees (say, 6.6%) typically do.

 

I remember years ago an agent emailed me and said they were introducing a new eofy statement system. And the fee was an optional.

I emailed and said I don't wish to receive it

My reply "oh our system won't allow us to not send you the report. Have a nice day"

Grrrrr. Pms are becoming as bad as used car salesmen!

 

thanks guys.

it is just annoying that he had to pay $ for the FY statements, while received poor services.

 

I understand your frustration as you left due to poor service and they are still trying to charge fees.

If you are able add up your monthly statements these will give you the necessary information for your tax return.

We don't charge for EOFY statements either, every client current or not receives a statement and the end of June these are system generated and and take no time at all.

 

The 2 PMs I use don't charge and I'm grateful.

In the past some PMs have charged but they got the flick. I found they were always trying to squeeze a buck out of me.

 

Yeah, I think many of us will be happy to pay a small if we receive outstanding services. But my friend got poor service, and the agent still wants to charge a fee. It makes him angry.

 

I've changed PMs in the past and as a part of the wrap up, always ask for my FY statement to date as I'm leaving. It's often in the 'too hard basket' at a later date and they're hard to obtain.

At the end of the day, your friend was in a contract that he agreed to. If he agreed to pay for statements and didn't negotiate that fee out then the agent is within their rights to charge it. I wouldn't be too happy either but I would personally scrutinsed the fee structure a little better from the outset too. A cheap lesson learned for next time.

 

He agreed to the fees he either pays for it as was agreed, negotiate a special deal with the old PM (if he was looking at moving back it could be a bargaining chip but I think he doesn't have much to bargain with) or walk away.

He may not like it but he agreed to it, I actually don't like your friends attitude to the PM as the PM might have given poor service which he moved from and yes the PM is charging fees but this was all agreed before they started originally managing the property and now he wants to change it.

I would be very annoyed and would annoy a lot of people if we agreed to something then either I changed what it was or changed how much was going to be paid for it.

 

Ok so here's a question along the same lines that I've just had some "issues" with thanks to my current PM...

The story... Financial Year 2017
1 July 2016 - Payment made to myself as owner by PM... This payment is rent collected from mid June to 30 June, minus fees, minus some repairs... The "Payment" is made to myself on 1 July...

I received the FY17 statement, and noticed something odd... The FY statement actually says "From 2 July to 30 June" which seems odd!!! The Payment/Invoice issued to myself on 1 July 2016, has been excluded from the FY17 statement... A long story of which I don't understand, but it was somehow included in last years FY statement and I hadn't picked this up to do a million other things happening at the time, including our first born...

My question then is, if the payment is made to myself on the 1st of July 2016, surely this should be included in the FY17 statement, not the FY16?? You don't buy cars on 1st July... And as far as my finances are concerned, I received monies on the 1st of July...

My PM's pathetic response and explanation...
When the 2015/16 tax year closed off in our software, the next tax year started. All transactions for the 2016/17 tax year are on the EOFY statement provided to you.
I am sorry it doesn't match up with your spreadsheet/calculations. I cannot go back and change any of those transactions sorry.
The only thing I can do is change dissections if they are incorrect. ie; if an electrical repair was allocated to plumbing repair (I can change that) that is an example.

As you can see, I don't think my PM actually understand it...

Thoughts??? Can anybody clarify why? Is it associated with Trust Accounts??

 

Hi Eric,

Your friend should consider paying the $30 or adding up the income from 12 monthly statements in Excel to get the same result.

Your friend should also ask the managing agent if he/she wants to lose the account over $30, as "it's in the agreement" is all well and good until the customer (your friend) feels misled/treated as stupid, and gets p1ssed off. And the agent can just credit the $30 to your friend's account. It's not that hard, it only takes a minute in their accounting software.

Your friend probably should have read the agreement that he/she was signing, and if it was not understood, ask the appropriate questions, or get the appropriate advice.

You friend might also consider finding another agent, if the agreement is not amended in deleting that charge from the agreement.

Given that there's rarely just one cockroach in the kitchen, your friend might consider pulling out that agreement and going through it thoroughly, just to see what other gouging fees are included, for example, like those "Digital Storage" fees of about $25/month per building that a lot of strata managers use for storing correspondence on a PC's hard disk. And everyone can guess how much an external 1TB hard disk costs from the post office...

And, y'know, if any of this can't be resolved, give the agent the boot, just for good measure.

TV

 

thanks @Ted Varrick , very kind of you. my mate is not overly concerned about the $, it is more about the feeling of injustice. he has moved all his IPs to other agent. all good now.

Agree with you that the management agreements need to be read carefully, lesson learnt. He had awful experience during the past few years in finding good PMs. hopefully everything is getting better from here.

 

This really depends on the state and what the contract stated. Some agents provide for free, some will charge a fixed fee for Yearly Statement, but at the end of the day, if it was mentioned in the contract then what choice he has? How can someone sign, hire an agent, and not read the contract?
In one suburb in NSW it took me 3-4 agents and 3 weeks to go through the contracts, I even created spreadsheets trying to figure out the total cost, also crossed out and negotiated stuff.
These are contracts like buying a house, a car, a loan, etc... why wouldn't anyone look at them properly, if you don't understand don't sign, and ask to change things or even delete?