suing a management agent

M

melanieb

Guest
I see on these threads that no-one holds management companies in very high esteem but I wondered has anyone considered suing to stop what really amounts to daylight robbery?

As you can probably guess I have recently been 'bitten' by my agent/management agent who never kept in touch with me (I am in Australia but they have my email address) never inspected & I had to tell them when my rent was late every month even when it was 2/3 weeks late they didn't seem to notice. after much nagging I managed to get them to inspect as I heard from the neighbours there was continuous partying in the house & the guards had been called on several occasions & the agent said it was 'a bit grubby, sure 4 lads live there' but otherwise fine, less than 2 weeks later, I was told (by a neighbour) there was over 40 refuse sacks outside as they never paid for bin tags & the flies were horrendous & a week after that, after throwing things over the wall & hitting another neighbour I had to nag the agent (up to7/8 phone calls a day insisting I didn't want rent I wanted them out) to evict them (they had been served 28 days notice 30+ days before for non payment of rent & anti-social behaviour) the agent then said the house was fine but they were keeping the deposit to pay for a handyman, a cleaner & a couple of other bits - it was just messy was their attitude. Luckily my neighbour has a key & reported a completely different story complete with photo's & the place had been destroyed - fireplace pulled off the wall, all the beds broken, all the toilets blocked with industrial hand towels, writing a splodges of different coloured paint all over the walls...I could go on...& on!! How could the agent have missed all this at an inspection?? even all the flooring was wrecked. Their excuse was - yes it's bad but it was worse & we made them clean....well surely I should have been told when I asked instead of lied to that all was well??
Is this not breech of contract?? It makes a mockery of paying an agent, they have lied to me continually since too, saying work was done that wasn't, I have some of this in writing by email. I am now scared to trust an agent & feel these theives should be brought to justice to stop other poor unsuspecting landlords paying them good money to 'manage' their properties. Only 1 poor lad in the agency will speak with me now, I have never been allowed to talk to anyone other than him - he can't avoid me because he answers the phone but no-one returns my calls - least of all the directors who promised me faithfully my house would be safe in their hands & since this incident have never had 'time' to take my calls or return them.
Can I sue??? Is it worth my while? Any ideas or advice would be much appreciated - this shouldn't be allowed.
 
Re: suing a management company

I think you are referring to a management agent rather than a management company..the term management company has a much more specific meaning these days.

In response to your query, the bottom line is what does your contract with them say their duties and responsibilities are? Were they only to find tenants or did they get paid extra to manage as well as let? I would presume they have indemnity clauses in the contract too?
 
You are right shesells, I have changed the post accordingly. Thanks. Yes I was paying them 6% of the monthly rent to 'manage' the property which was supposed to include bi-monthly or quarterly inspections!! I will have a good read of the contract but surely paying someone to 'manage' it would mean it was either kept in some sort of presentable order or I should be made aware of the problems? It just seems wrong that a company should be allowed to take money on false promises.
 
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