G'day Ozbargain!
I've found myself in a pretty sticky situation between our old property manager and the Queensland RTA. I'll keep the PM censored as I don't think it is fair to out them given my frustrations.
In May of 2020 myself and 2 others signed lease and completed the nessecary steps to lodge the bond. This included a Form 2 bond lodgement and a payment of 1/3 the total bond amount to the Real Estate Agency via. Bpay per person.
However.. come conclusion of the lease I found that I was not lodged on the bond to begin with. I only found this out when I called the RTA seeking to lodge my bank details and they wouldn't talk to me! Thinking I was going crazy, I checked my sent inbox for the bond lodgement forms. Nope… they were all there!
So I reached out to the real estate agent who responded to my email with "The bond were lodged under XX & YY's names only, this is how it was initially filed with the RTA and nothing to do with us." I thought I was going crazy again… but no I had definitely forwarded the correct forms to the agency. I checked this with them and was then told "All recipients should have received an email confirming the bond lodgements and they were given 14 days to respond and dispute if incorrect."
So I should have looked out for a bond confirmation email on a bond I was never actually lodged on… so I could dispute the fact that I wasn't lodged on the bond.
This is where my patience began being tested as I made the mistake of trying to reach out via mobile to clarify… only to get voicemail… again… again… and again. Fed up with this… I called on my work phone only to get voicemail. Phew - it wasn't just me. The relief was sort lived as that phone got a call-back 5 minutes later. It certainly took the poor property manager by surprise. I empathise with it because they are having to clean up another PM's mess.
After checking with his office manager and getting back to me that afternoon… they insist that the documents were all lodged correctly. Because of this… there was nothing they could do! I was told the documents are printed and posted and there is no possible way there could have been an error in this process. Well… there somehow has been. Since my bond monies were lodged against someone else's name… and subsequently paid out to them too!
Begin rant
This is only one of countless issues experienced as a tenant. The most tiresome of which was when our smoke alarms were marked non-compliant and no action was taken by the agency until a number of months later! Not to mention the constant churning of property managers and maintenance requests going on deaf ears… only to have tradespeople show up weeks later out of nowhere!
Now maybe my expectations are too high. I'm an investment property owner myself… and whenever there is a fault lodged on the tenants portal it is repaired within days and I'm billed by the end of the week. I rave about my own PM because they make things so easy for the tenant and keep them happy! The maintenance has to be done… why delay it?!
End Rant
Are my standards too high? unfortunately the money is currently un-recoverable through the other tenants… which leaves me in this questionable state of limbo trying to undo a mistake I never knew existed!
I feel as though having paid the money to the real estate agency directly and sent them the bond form… there is a certain level of responsibility they have to lodge it correctly? Dodging my calls and trying everything to wash their hands of it just screams that something is not right. The icing on the cake is that the RTA simply won't talk to me as it all has to be done through the agent…
What would you do?
Threaten to take them to xcat, you have proof you sent the form, and sent money. How much money are we talking?
Why can't you get it back from the other tenants?