VIC PM Delay in Dispensing the Bond?

A nasty tenant moved out end of last year and we found heaps of major damages in the property that will cost wayyyyy more than the bond itself. The PM told the vacated tenant that they are not getting their bond back.

Now 3 months later I still don't have the funds in my account and the PM keep saying to me 'yeah yeah the accounts department is transferring the bond back to you'.

It takes 3 minutes for an OSKO transfer, not 3 bloody months.

Where can I escalate the issue? I had enough with this PM.

 

The first port of call is the agency Licensee, to tell him or her that you will be contacting the government department for their regulation.

 

For me Owner / Licensee escalation first. They are usually on the ball. Cause it’s their business

 

Are they fixing the damage with the bond, are they waiting for NCat & is the property sitting vacant until it's fixed or resolved?

 

If they have claimed the bond back from xCAT, it should not be sitting in their trust account. In NSW any owner funds have to be disbursed at the end of each month. As mentioned, I would go to the licensee first. And if they haven't claimed the funds back then there should be a tribunal case, either way it should not take 3 months.

Do you have landlord insurance where you can claim the damage beyond the bond? It really sounds like you need new PMs.

 

Apparently I was told they are waiting for tenant to confirm. Whatever that means. I was thinking the tenant definitely won't confirm giving away their bond. Who would admit their own fault...

Landlord insurance is pending review as well, another one that's been sitting around for three months despite frequent calling in to follow up on them

 

The property has been vacant the whole time?

The bond gets claimed, then the tenant has 14 days to refute. Insurance timeframes are around 10 working days for TS (not sure who you're with) at the moment so I can't understand this 3 month delay.

I would get a new PM to take over immediately for you.

 

Yup, same.
I'm thinking of selling it hence why I haven't gotten a new PM in. This current PM is absolutely driving me nuts and she frequently won't pick up the calls too. Ringing the office seeking the director just leads me to 'they are away'.

I'm actually quite infuriated by the whole situation. This is just madness.

Outside the agency itself, any other government channels that I can lodge a complaint?

 

Fair Trading. Its a real estate agent licensing issue. Tell the PM you will be making a complaint regarding their conduct and see if the finger gets pulled out. Their inaction may mean the bond has already been paid.

Its possible the licenseee has "borrowed" from the trust account and they are full of BS.

 

Is that Consumer Affairs Victoria? I rang their contact number, followed the prompt and was redirected to RTBA. I spoke to a lady and asked about these questions, she said to seek legal advice because PM misconduct is out of CAV's jurisdiction.

Sounded like my PM ran away with my money...

 

Big call mate, do you see that often?

It would be suicide to touch trust funds given the amount of hoops we have to jump through to meet compliance.

 

Are you sure they have the bond (they sound like they have it but just checking)? Or is it sitting with the RTBA - if you have the bond number and the tenant's last name you can check this online. Unless the tenant has actually signed it over they won't have the bond and VCAT hasn't heard a bond and comp hearing since around March 2020.

If they don't have the signed over bond, I hope they've made a VCAT application - it will take forever to actually get a hearing and get the bond, but waiting 3 months to apply for the bond is well beyond the legislated time frame.

 

Some update after so long, I was able to pressure them to take action. I got the money back safely in my bank account now. Maybe they decided to reimburse out of their own pocket or maybe they did got it back from RTBA, regardless, everything's over now. Finally.