Property Manager Pushing to Use a 3rd Party Payment Method to Pay Rent ALIO Vs SNIPP Vs Debit

SInce I have signed up for my lease agreement, I have been paying rent initially via debit and since I found out about snipp this has been my primary method of paying to rack some frequent flyer points through AMEX.

With my payments it's been charging me an extra $5.00 but since they want me to do the payments weekly it was more of convenience on my end. Little to my knowledge, the local Ray White has passed the payment portfolio onto their Ray White HQ in Brisbane and since then has been harassing me with a barrage of emails from Ailo indicating my application has now been "approved" to make rent payments through them. I called RW in Brisbane and after a rished conversation with a certain PM I was not given a full explanation of the transfer. There has been no communication from my property manager either prior to this as well.

I tried looking up on RTA about changes in the payment method and I could not find anything regarding this. The payment I signed up for in the agreement (or what I was presented with) was through bank debit. Could they enforce this change legally in Qld?

I am now having to deal with emails from "Ailo" and apparently I am xx days overdue. My current payment method remains working and it is definitely the reason why it does not reflect the change on the new app.

Comments

  • +6

    The Act sets out approved ways for paying rent, including cash, cheque, EFTPOS, deposit to a financial institution, credit card, deduction from your wages or benefit, or another way agreed by you and the lessor, agent or provider.

    You may be asked to use a rent payment method that is not an approved way of paying rent. If this happens you must be given a written notice with a choice of at least two other approved ways of paying rent and must be notified of costs to use each rent payment method, which you may not otherwise be aware of.

    From https://tenantsqld.org.au/factsheets/rent-and-other-charges/

    Fun part is Ailo is run by the White family, so it's just nepotism at its finest.

    https://ailo.io/ben-white
    https://eliteagent.com/how-the-ray-white-business-continues-…

    • Thank you - I may have no choice but to do it, just really pissed off how they just shove everything to tenants without any prior communication just because they have the authority to do it. Any thoughts of retaliation may just backfire ie my current ledger may just show rent in arrears and may not be ideal when I move out and look for a new lease

  • +4

    Been discussed on Reddit also
    https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/1811aj9/ray_whit…

    and on 7 News
    https://7news.com.au/business/housing/ray-white-agencies-for…

    When contacted, Ray White provided a comment directly — along with comment from Ben White.

    “No tenant is forced to use the Ailo app and, of course, they can still direct deposit into the trust account which is fee-free,” Ray White said.

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