Property Management - Falsified/Non-approved maintenance invoices

I'm currently in a situation where I am owed a fair bit of money from a property manager as a result of their incompetence.

I was reviewing some end of month statements and noticed several very large expenses relating to "maintenance invoices". However, these invoices were never attached with the statements, and they were beyond the amount required for landlord approval as per the management agreement contract, which was never granted by myself. So far, the property manager has not been able to produce the questioned invoice documents.

I am currently in the process of pursuing the owed monies directly, but am hoping not to have to take it any further. Has anyone else been through this process?

(I have now sacked the property manager as well.)

 

Hi norwoodman,

Quite strange. Agencies must run a trust account which undergoes regular audits and is subject to very strict compliance. If and when amounts are deducted without appropriate reasoning then there are a few possibilities as to why, up to and including trust account fraud - which is a very serious crime carrying severe penalties (see here). I am not suggesting your agent has done this.

If you are unable to obtain a resolution within a time frame acceptable to you, which should be given in writing to the PM, then your next port of call is a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. They will be able to guide you further from there.

- Andrew

 

Some legal advice might also be in order...

 

That would be a heavy (and possibly costly) hand to play prior to establishing a record with the OFT who essentially preside over these sorts of matters initially. There is nothing stopping you obtaining legal advice, however it's more than likely the first thing they'll tell to you to do is exhaust options with the OFT.

If the legal advice is to sue for the money then yes you're able to, however the reality is that suing for small amounts isn't worth the cost of filing and the effort and stress involved. If it does turn out to be a criminal matter, the OFT will have to be involved anyway.

 

Soundsm like they have been siphoning money out of the trust account under the guise of maintenance requests and hoping nobody would question it. Has been a fair bit of this of late, that LJ Hooker debacle in Melbourne a few months ago, and some in Sydney... agents with gambling debts etc

 

I strongly encourage you to lodge a formal complaint with the Financial Investigations Unit - Office of Fair Trading. The conduct of the agent in question is potentially very serious.

Financial investigations
Contact us in any of the following ways to make a complaint about trust accounts.

Please note: we only regulate trust accounts for the property, motor and debt collection industries.

Phone
13 QGOV (13 74 68)
Email
[email protected] ( mailto:[email protected] )
Postal address
Financial Investigations Unit
Office of Fair Trading
GPO Box 3111
BRISBANE QLD 4001

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