Dontrentme.com.au

That's what I was thinking, I've seen a couple of people who weren't ashamed of calling themselves slumlords.

 

Resolved according to who?

 

Fair point.

 

The person making the complaint I guess.
At the person running the website's discretion, plenty of that around.

 

Hello everyone, I hope you don't mind me joining the conversation?

My name is Anthony Ziebell and that makes me the founder of Don't Rent Me.

I thought I'd join the conversation here to discuss these matters with you. I value transparency and honesty above all and so figure it would be hypocritical of myself to ignore this forum. Plus, I do value your perspective.

Regarding a few comments...

Firstly, every review is screened to ensure it does not identify an individual and if it does, that detail is removed. The content of the review must also meet our language standards, so anything that is obvious slander is also removed.

That being said - opinion and experience is deeply honoured and we will defend a tenants right to that with all of our ability.

When it comes to removing a review if the issue is resolved, this is true. For that reason the number of active reviews on the site fluctuates over time. Sadly, the list of active reviews is growing steadily. Positively, however, more and more issues are resolving every day. But the numbers do keep growing. This is indicative of both our websites growth, the problem is real, and landlords are willing to work with tenants to resolve issues.

I hope someday there is no need for the website anymore. At this rate however, I can't see it going away any time soon.

Landlords have spoken loudly against lousy property managers and have explained their angst with little to no information flow back from the tenant, for that to then finally be made known on the website. Many landlords claim this is the first time they have heard of it. Tenants claim and can prove written correspondence.

There is a common denominator here. It's not always the case landlords are innocent. But it seems the majority of property managers are causing this problem.

So that being said, I've today released a new feature which I think will help good landlords combat this situation. I think tenants will also find this very positive and it will ultimately lead to fewer problems as tenants feel their landlord cares, and resolves issues without delay.

It's called Tenant Link and I invite your opinion on this: http://www.dontrentme.com/static/tenant-link

Lastly, I am happy to provide any other information you need, so please feel free to ask me anything you like. I'll try remain active on this thread for yours and my own benefit.

Regards
Anthony Ziebell

 

It's an interesting concept. I wonder what would happen in this situation: my last tenant made a number of complaints about faults with the property. When I sent tradespeople around to repair the faults, the tenant would not allow them access to the property to repair the faults. I found this very irritating. Some urgent faults eventually got repaired but I could repair some until the tenant had left.

 

Hi Anthony and thanks for contributing.

I've reviewed a few of the existing complaints on your site, which leads to a couple of questions
- How do you verify whether there's any honesty in the complaint?
- When tenants aren't familiar with legislation and certain actions are taken (completely correctly, in accordance with said legislation), they might feel hard done by, but does the owner/manager doesn't deserve to have negative feedback for doing the correct thing?
- Lodging items onto TICA and similar has a process involved and can be removed by tribunal orders. Would it be fair(er) if your system was similar?

 

The site also has a policy which allows a landlord / agent to submit documentation to discredit or prove falsehood. Falsehood is disallowed by the terms of the website. We allow the evidence to speak for itself.

 

1) We don't verify accuracy or honesty so to speak. We do however accept proof which discredits or proves falsehood of a review. If that is the case, the review will be removed. That being said - so far we've only ever had this happen once... and the landlord provides falsified documents. We were able to prove that the dates had been "white-outed" over the top of. Some Photoshop revealed the repairs happened after the tenancy. Which obviously proves the tenants point.

2) It depends on the content of the review. If the content is along the lines of "I don't think the landlord was considerate of my personal circumstances" - then that's their view and opinion. We'll simply uphold that. People are allowed to comment on the state of legislation and what they consider to be unfair. If the tenant says the "landlord illegally kicked us out" and it turns out they were ordered out by a tribunal, for example - the writ will simply prove that, and the review removed.

3) If we were to receive a court order to remove content, we can only assume this is because justice has prevailed. In that case, we will remove the content. The order needs to be final however, not interim, or issued by federal courts whereby jurisdiction is found (at the moment, that would be NSW and Australia).

 

Reviews are screened to ensure that it does not identify a individual? And yet, the whole concept of the site is to put up addresses. You do know how easy it is to look up the owner of the property right? Another 20 seconds on google whill generally give you the property manager (realestate.com.au rent advertisement is generally easy to find). Please tell me that this isn't new to you?

I personally always fix all tenants demands, and yet this site makes me nervous. The tenant who was evicted from a house through the tribunal doesn't like me (even though by the time the tribunal hearing comes about they've lived in my house for 2 months without paying rent). I understand that they dont like me - they've been kicked out of their home (just like I don't like them for not upkeeping their end of the bargain - paying rent). What is to stop them putting up a fake review & totally slandering my property?

The tenant databases that exist, they have very strong controls in place & specific steps that must be followed before a tenant can be listed. What controls do you have in place to validate peoples claims? Is there a mechanism so a landlord knows when a claim has been made against them?

If I buy a property off a crap landlord, fix all the issues & then try to rent it out only to find I can't get anyone because of your site - what recourse do I have? If you make it about a specific property, but then the owner changes how do you account for that?

Edit: I've just seen you have already replied that "We allow the evidence to speak for itself.". What evidence do you request from a tenant prior to listing their complaint? Is there a mechanism in place for landlords to review this evidence?

Edit 2: I just saw your tenant link program. Yes its a good idea to get feedback from the tenant on how we are going, however why would I link them to a site that encourages bad feedback. If I sign up to that and we have a misunderstanding down the track I can guarantee the tenant will lodge a complaint on the website - while on the other hand if I just got feedback independantly chances are the tenant wouldnt bother with your website. How about a more useful function - landlords can register their addresses so if a complaint is lodged, the landlord knows about it and can resolve it quickly (rather than just hoping they notice before their name/property is trashed. Remember alot of grievances are through misunderstandings, not deliberate malice or neglect.

I just saw Tenant Link costs money. HAHAHAHA

 

So I had a look at your website, the very first example was :

"the land lord is disrespectful sexist and can be abusive"

Looking through most of them, they seem to be general whinges rather than specific issues that would uphold in a tribunal (which given how rental tenancy & tribunals are very Pro-Tenant is saying something)

Another one:
"he real estate agent managing this property is Polis Properties and also gave a bad reference to another real estate after this episode when I was trying to find a new house."

Or

"Elders is a nightmare agent"

Doesn't seem like you've tried very hard to remove identifying information??

 

If a tenant has something happen to them and feels hard done by, but the landlord is working within the bounds of the law, what is the problem with the tenant sharing the situation publicly (providing they have given an honest description of events)?

Typically providing a service does, i.e. just like the many property managers, inspectors, buyers, brokers and all other RE types that post on this forum (not to mention the forum itself if you want the features that cost $).

 

Because that's not what the site is for nor encourages.

It's a free service for tenants to make up whatever they'd like though. I recommend you have a read of a few of the reviews on there to understand.

 

To be fair, I think Tenant Link is a valuable service which takes up real costs and time, as well as provides insight that it seems landlords are not getting today.

Addresses, company and trading names are available in the public domain. If someone wishes to distance themselves from an address or company name with a bad reputation, that's up to them. The website certainly does not identify individuals belonging to an organisation or the deed owner of a property. If it does, it's not our doing and will be removed.

The site enforces honest review and opinion. Every reviewer accepts these terms. They are leaving a warning for other tenants not to rent the house, for whatever reason. Just like any other review might do. It's up to the viewer to consider if that comment is applicable to their own situation.

 

On a related note if the situation is resolved, this is notated on the site. Here is an example: http://www.dontrentme.com/address/594991,57-Illuta-Avenue-Ferny-Hills-Queensland-Australia

 

Enforces how? Seems like the onus is on the owner or manager to rectify while tenants can write anything they want?

Let me copy and paste a few on the site from my local area (their words in italics):

This house was rented to me with medical conditions and was filthy. I have pics of the condition of the house. The real estate agreed to cancel our lease and return all monies paid but this house is not fit for humans to live in. The rent was 250 per week and was reported to the local council

So for the sake of enforcing honesty, you have a copy of the ingoing inspection report she signed (and presumably didn't dispute the condition)? And a copy of the report she provided Council? I still question why she signed up for the property if she didn't like it.

the land lord is disrespectful sexist and can be abusive lies even with photo evidence love to undermine young tenants and the guy doesn't even have an office was very sexist toward my partner worse neighbour hood as well he also has bad communication and accuses the tenant for that

There's no problems with not having an office, I don't have one yet either. They complain about communication but can't construct a sentence. Was any proof provided of disrespectful, sexist or abusive behaviour?If they knew it was the worst neighbourhood, why did they rent the property?

Bad agent

That's informative and useful

Rented through Elders Munno Parra. Most stressful time of my life. Absolutely do not recommend renting this home unless you like being harrased and you and your children being accused of anything and everything they can think of.

Any proof such as a police report about being harrased [sic]? Or are they referring to receiving notices and calls often about being in arrears? Isn't it libel to accuse an agency of such?

Renting this property was the worst 12 months of my life. I still feel sick when I think about my time there. I would highly suggest that you stay clear of this property and the agent looking after it. The block of units is full of young criminals and the agent couldn't care less.

Any police report filed with this one? A quick search on Google doesn't bring up any news articles relating to this address. A photo of the address suggests it's a pretty well kept residence which doesn't link with her story very well.

 

@D.T. that's interesting. My tenant in Melbourne complained about it being a bad area, police chases, hoons on the street at night and having to clean broken bottles smashed on the driveway every weekend etc. I spoke to both the neighbours and they told it was all B.S. I ended up staying there for a couple of weeks after the tenant left. It was quiet as and none of what the tenant claimed was true. Turned out they were just after some of the bond back after they left the house damaged.

 

So with the website you are guilty of something if the person has made something up until you can prove innocents. Do you attempt to make contact with the LL or PM before publishing live to respond to the person?

Otherwise I could go on there and start making reviews about how bad everyone is and don't need to provide any evidence and if I don't know a review has been done how can I respond?

Also what happens if someone buys a house that did have a review I would assume you would pull it down.

 

This is my point exactly

 

I don't always understand how people end up in the situation. That said, it is what it is, and the tenant is letting others know.

Perhaps they found out by living in the neighbourhood..

I think most would see that review for what it is. Just like the "Bad stay" reviews for hotels. Most people just keep scrolling past those ones.

Libel is a defamation against a person. Not a business or address. If it weren't for that law, we wouldn't be able to review our experiences about anything at all. So I am really thankful libel is at least limited to that.

Circumstantial evidence. I see freshly laid grass, too. So a photo from the days after construction or refurbishment doesn't tell us any more or less about the nature of the neighbours.

We are working on a new feature to allow landlords and agents to keep a track of their portfolio. Our system will then notify you of anything that needs your attention. We are just a few weeks away from that.

Send us a copy and assuming the agency wasn't causing a problem in the reviews or you've changed agency as well, and we'll mark the issues as resolved.