Steph Blair

Review of Elders Real Estate

Elders are excellent but I would like right of rep...

Elders are excellent but I would like right of reply to Alexander Dyson's comments below as I am the landlord of the property to which he refers to. To threaten to see me at SACAT in the next few weeks is offensive and not to be taken lightly considering the condition in which you left my property on vacating. I attended the outgoing inspection with my Property Manager on Tuesday. I was disappointed and upset from the minute I walked in the gate. The front yard had weeds as big as the plants which could have quickly and easily been removed. I do appreciate that you have left some succulent plants in the garden, they do look lovely and, unless you would like them back, I will keep them in the garden. If you do want them back, please let me know (Alex has my email address) and I will dig them up and have them available. I then entered the front door of the unit and the first thing that hit me was the smell of cigarette smoke - something that was strictly forbidden and detailed in the lease as such. The floors were dirty, the venetians throughout were dusty, the kitchen cupboards had not been wiped out and one even had a large pile of crumbs and dirt clearly visible. The oven tray is so badly stained from grease that it will have to be discarded and a new one purchased. The window sill in the laundry is damaged. There are chips and marks on the door frames, skirtings and doors which require repairing and repainting - I will admit there were some when you took possession of the property but there are considerably more now. The bathroom tiles above the bath and the inside of the bath were both very dirty. The bathroom cabinet below the sink was dirty and had rubbish left on the floor. The bathroom cabinet above the sink has a chip in the mirror frame. The carpets had not been vacuumed or steam cleaned - a condition of vacating. The rear yard had more weeds. I have since heard that you have been advised of the unsatisfactory condition of the property and have refused to take responsibility for it claiming that "you will take it to tribunal if you don't get your bond back". I have also been advised that there is unpaid rent and water charges owing. To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I have been more than fair and reasonable to you during your tenancy and am personally offended that you have treated me this way. You had an issue with Elders which you escalated to the extreme but we dealt with that (with considerable time taken by myself) and moved on but now you have made it personal to me by not respecting my property and you are in breach of your lease. To threaten to go to tribunal when you won't receive your full bond back is just making everybody's life stressful unnecessarily because lease breaches are just that and the tribunal will rule in favour of the lease. I have no wish to take anything to tribunal and will do my utmost to ensure that we work this out in an amicable way. I will need to now employ a cleaner to steam clean the carpets, clean the floors, kitchen and bathroom, a gardener to clear away the weeds left behind and, if the cigarette smoke smell remains after the cleaning has been done, will need to repaint the property to rid it from the horrible smell. I realise that I will be the one who is out of pocket but I have no intention of letting you treat Elders in this way when they have done nothing wrong and it is your bad behaviour and unrealistic assessment of the situation that is causing you both such anxiety. I believe the anxiety created back in April was because Alex had lost his job and you were strapped for money and wanted to break the lease without cost to yourselves but this has now become completely out of control. If you had just admitted what the problem was back then, we could have worked through it and everybody would have been a winner but you have gone about this all completely the wrong way and you continue to punish me and Elders for your bad decisions. For everybody's sake, can you please just accept your responsibilities, do the right thing and move on.