Independent Property Group Reviews

I 'd like to thank Kate Hallam for her very much appreciated help, after our rental property was left in a mess. Kate was able to coordinate efficiently what was needed to restore the property so it could be put back on the rental market. Thank you again Kate.

Beware of IPM Canberra and their services. I have had nothing but trouble with them. They haven t paid the dues on my rental properties on time for over 12 months. This resulted in repeated penalties, debt notices and left me out of pocket as I had to put in my own funds. They kept deducting all the penalties from the rent without even informing me till I looked at the monthly invoices. They still owe me money and the response I get is the accounts department will confirm. They deduct every cent of their property management fees on time without delay. Complete scammers and avoid them at all costs. There are plenty of genuine property management firms out there that will be willing to take your business.

I've had the pleasure of having Emily Varga as the property manager of my investment for the last couple of years. Emily has been thouroughly outstanding in her management of the property. Professionalism, expertise, communication, responsiveness and attention to detail are outstanding qualities in any property manager and Emily has them all in spades.
Any issues have been dealt with in a prompt and efficient manner, and Emily has always available to take a call and answer any queries or matters I have needed addressed. Emily's procedural knowledge and expertise is second to none and I have held full confidence in her ability from the commencement of our relationship.
I cannot recommend her highly enough.

I have been a tenant through Independent Property for a number of years, and have always been so impressed by the professionalism, comprehensiveness, and genuine interactions that I ve had with Independent realtors. Madison is my current property manager, and is incredibly responsive, helpful, and lovely to correspond with! Definitely the best estate agency I ve been involved with :)

Sofia Ligeros from Independant property group
has been outstanding in her role as property manager and has made a normally difficult and challenging Process relatively seamless, allowing myself and my children to move quickly
Into our rental property.
The communication and time frame delivered by Sofia was fantastic.
We are now in the property and very thankful for
Sofia s kind and considered approach to our needs.
Scott Reid

Mela Tonga,
Show me through the house and was able to answer all my questions. Also when I tried to log onto the appy portal I had so much trouble. I contacted Mela after hours and on a weekend she had no trouble helping. I would recommend her anytime.

Leticia

The flyer said "want a sold sign for your home?".

Thanks but no.

But do you know what I do want?

That you actually notice the "no junk mail" sign and don't fill my letterbox with your trash

If you're unable to follow through on through on such a simple instruction how could you possibly be expected to get all the details right in selling a house?

Excellent experience with the help of Renee! Would happily recommend her to anyone!

I think most positive reviews are written by IPG staff.

But don't be midleaded. They provide appalling service from A to Z. Never rent your property through this irresponsible unprofessional firm. They don't care about landlord's nor tenants. Lazy and ignorant staff with no interest or will to help their customers.

Have tried contacting multiple times with no response, including phone calls.
Every single inspection they have "access issues" and can't get into my apartment.

I reside overseas. Two years ago I made the decision to buy an off the plan apartment in Canberra marketed by the Independent Property Group (IPG) to use as an Australian base for part of the year and Settled end of 2019.

The coronavirus outbreak and subsequent worldwide lockdown threw my plans into total disarray. At that point I decided to lease out the apartment and entrusted the management of my property to IPG Property Management.

On a short pre-settlement visit to Canberra I met with Hayley Scerri, IPG Property Management when we discussed different leasing options and associated costs and based on her helpful advice I was able to decide on the best leasing option to take. Later prior to Hayley going on leave she introduced me online to Liz Harvie, IPG Property Management who would help me get my apartment ready for leasing.

Liz provided delivery access for the furniture, household goods and the services of an interior decorator which I had ordered and purchased online. She also provided access for building rectification work and minor maintenance work undertaken in the apartment. I have nothing but praise for the way Liz took care of the deliveries, the maintenance work and how she resolved issues which arose at times over the several months it took to furnish and fit-out the apartment. I was at all times kept clearly informed on the progress of events.

With the work on the apartment completed Melaia Tonga, IPG Property Management set into action the advertising campaign and her good work together with the superb photo and video presentation produced by IPG paid off quickly when a suitable tenant was approved shortly afterwards.

I have total confidence in the IPG Property Management Team and look forward to a successful working relationship with the property managers in the future.

Absolutely horrible service!!! Water bills have been always sent over after it was overdue! In 18mths NO inspection was done. After multiple reports and phone calls, nothing was fixed! Had UNsecured premises for 12mths with no working back door! Moreover in final report hail damaged roof was included - they want me to fix the whole roof! Replant bushes that have been dead for years! And surprise, surprise they want me to install the new back door. Everything was included in entry report, however they decided that I have to refurbish the whole house for them! Including wear and tear! The final report is 60 pages and 400photos! Would NOT recommend this real estate agency and especially Ms Nicki Xiao!

We were extremely happy in the way Sofia Ligeros helped us in showing us the property we liked , as well as communicating in an excellent manner with all our queries we had .I definitely recommend Sofia for her excellent customer engagement and service.

As this was my first time owning an investment property, James was very professional and helpful.
He always took time out to explain the process of renting out a property, and all the do's and don't. He was so incredibly patient and made the process of renting my property a breeze, despite the fact that I live in another state.
Would definitely recommend James to anyone

Josephine was absolutely lovely and very professional. Our entire experience from our initial enquiry, to the property inspection and submitting our application was very straightforward, fast and easy.

Liz is the best property manager to deal with. Efficient and very very friendly. Made everything a breeze and was so professional words cant even describe. Thanks Liz.

Thank you to Mela Tonga extremely happy with her service and attention to detail!

Mela has been wonderful!
Always smiling and happy.
She has been amazing :)

Sofia, has been one of the most responsive property agents I have ever come across. I was actively looking for an apartment and sent her a mail right after applying for a house. She responded to me within an hour by personally calling up , a gesture than made me feel comfortable and confident. She asked me questions without making assumptions and ensured she knew my application inside out. She kept me posted at each stage of the application and made me feel the presence of a person who wanted me to find the perfect house for myself.
When I received confirmation on my apartment , she sounded equally excited. I am excited to move into my apartment not only because it ll be my first home but also because of the positive energy she has set forth in that place. She is a wonderful agent with a great degree of professionalism!

Liz is the most helpful and friendly person ever. Nothing is ever a problem. She is a real assest to Independent Property. After dealing with so many others in this business, it was a delight to come across her. Thank you Liz for all your help

I ve had a wonderful experience with Caroline Phengrasmy as my agent. She is respectful, professional and extremely lovely to deal with. As a tenant this relationship is super important to me and I am lucky enough to have struck gold this time!

Good communication overall with tenants and make everything clear upfront. Kaylee Wang is excellent - she sorted several issues for me quickly and was just very good, timely and professional in communicating.

Despite having known Grace Beal as my property manager for only approximately 6 months, we have built a very good relationship between us as I found Grace is a very reliable and friendly person to work with. Highly recommended! I'm looking forward to continuing to work with her in the many more years to come.

Pleasure to do business with. We found our dream home through Sofia Ligeros and I must say she was prompt, responsive and enthusiastic. Got the keys to our place within a week of looking at properties. 10/10! Would rent again

I've been in touch with James Scott for a long time. James is always patient and helpful and always generously to share his professional suggestions and opinions with me. And these opinions really helped me a lot.

I also want to say thank you to the whole management team at Independent Property and my property manager Michael Wright. Highly recommended agency!

Liz Harvie is very helpful and did quick response about our enquiries. Highly appreciated her help.

The service I receive from Emily at Independent Property Group is always professional and efficient. Emily goes above and beyond and her interpersonal skills are second to none. I highly recommend Emily.

Horrid service, no one use this real estate ever!!!! The worst customer service I have ever received!

Mela has been really helpful and very professional. She is very personable and she has helped me out in the renting process through every step of the way. Highly recommend.

I have recently rented an apartment in Canberra and would like to acknowledge the exceptional customer service given by Sofia Ligaros. Sofia was knowledgeable, friendly and honest, making the whole experience a positive one. Thanks Sofia, I appreciate your professional and friendly approach.

I got the house when i needed it the most all thanks to Sofia Ligeros for reviewing my application in very less time.

I had to look at renting a property after owning my own home for 17 years. It was quite an emotional and daunting time for me. During my search I spoke with Sofia Ligeros and she was amazing. I believe she genuinely cared about helping me and working to get a positive result. It meant so much to me.
I did end up accepting a rental property with another agent, but will certainly call Sofia if I need to look for another rental property in the future. I have never received such personal and exceptional service as a renter before. Not this time around or 17 years ago prior to owning my own home.
Thank you Sofia.

Georgia went above and beyond to help me find a fabulous place. My situation was challenging due to relocating from Newcastle, however Georgia made my house hunting not only easy but also hit all my needs. Thank you Georgia, I really appreciated your work.

Independent worked tirelessly to get us into the property on time. Thanks for meeting our requests and deadlines.

Regards

Rhys

Numerous calls made for several days in relation to management of my property. No return call as advised by the contact of my last telephone call.

Kimberly Nugent was such a pleasure to deal with when we moved out. From inspections to ensuring we were up to date with all financial aspects, I can t recommend her enough. Thanks again for the 5 star service, and looking after our family during the process.

Emily has been a really good property manager, very reliable and responsive with emails and requests. Thank you for the excellent service.

Caleb and Emily are brilliant at their jobs. We were so happy with their professional service guiding us through the rental process. We cant recommend them highly enough. Very good that man

Mela was outstanding. Very efficient and a lovely person to deal with. Made my rental simple and easy. Thanks Mela.

Our property manager is Grace Beal. She was excellent! Grace always had prompt response to our questions and concerns, and presented a high level of engagement and professionalism. She gave clear guidelines on our moving out, and did her best to help us with the procedure. Grace also built nice rapport and created trust for us on her, which I don't think you would always have in Canberra real estate business. I can't recommend enough of her, and wish her the best with her job.

Overall, the experience was good. Kaylee Wang was our new property manager who took position midway our tenancy. She was professional and easy to communicate with. She also made sure to do follow backs and check ups that were forgotten by the previous property manager. Those include updating communication details and some maintenance items.

However some maintenance took a long time or was either never rectified during tenancy. It includes things at the start of tenancy that was noted. There was also a water leak around the time our lease ended, which affected our living conditions a lot as it caused mould damage to the kitchen area. I understand that as a fault of the landlord.

Read the local guide below. I an also assure you that none of these reviews are real as i had written the worst review imaginable and read through 30 plus bad reviews and they are all gone also. Terrible communication. Terrible timing and without a doubt thw worst real estate agent ive been through

Amazing team at Independent! Mela Tonga was absolutely AMAZING! She helped me find a rental in no time! So professional!! For all your rental needs have a chat with Mela Tonga!! Best in the town!!

James and Sofia have provided us with outstanding service and made leasing our property very easy. I highly recommend their services.

Miss. Liz Harvie is very responsible and takes care of her clients. She is also a great consultant.

I have a great property Manager Emily Varga, always repsonds to emails within 48hrs. Emily also is great over the phone and is always willing to help anyway she can.

Sofia is by fair the most amazing leasing Consultant I ve ever dealt with. She went above and beyond helping me out with submitting my application. She originally wasn t my leasing Consultant but took over my application to help me out as her colleague was on leave. Her ability to be able to problem solve a difficult situation is outstanding. I m so grateful for all her hard work and positive attitude. I can t say thank you enough!

I had only a few weeks to secure the perfect place in Canberra while still living in Sydney. After some bad experiences with other well-known agencies, I inquired Georgia about an apartment advertised on AllHomes. She was very responsive from the very first message and helped us find the perfect place for us and our cat, which she cleared with the landlord before the inspection instead of forcing us to drive back-and-forth to Canberra for inspections where pets wouldn't be considered anyway. Once the property was secured, the rest of the process went really smoothly and 100% online. The property manager called me a few minutes after my application was approved to congratulate me and give me clear instructions on the next steps.
So, if you are moving interstate to Canberra, do yourself a favour and don't waste your time with other agencies. These guys know what they are doing.
P.s.: Georgia addressed our cat by the name and recommended us a nice vegan restaurant to visit when we get there. The little things that make a big difference ;).

I would highly recommend Independent Property management as efficient real estate in Canberra. The property manager Sofia Ligeros is very professional, her dealing with customers, tenants are awesome, she is efficient and professional. She treats her customers with highest priority and listen to what tenants has to say. She is infallible in delivering her services as a property manager. I am pretty sure she would conquer happiness in real estate society.

I have never encountered such incompetent management. In the year our property was being managed through Independent, they:
* Provided inaccurate accounts.
* Unnecessarily withheld funds and misreported their intended purpose.
* Failed to pay several outstanding bills and to follow up on the causes of unpaid bills, resulting in over $450 of late fees.
* Misappropriated funds from our tenant s account, resulting in $1500 being withdrawn from his account without consent.
* Failed to act on instructions, including:
several maintenance requests, requiring both the tenant and owners to follow up on many, many occasions
updates to our bank details, resulting in several months worth of payments going into the incorrect account
* Were untimely in addressing serious maintenance issues - it took 6 months to have the heating/aircon fixed
* Failed to communicate effectively, for example:
owners and tenant were not informed upon the departure of the property manager
communications only being sent to one of the two owners
failure to respond to emails
neglected to respond to requests for financial clarification
* Continued to pay bills and send us accounts after we had moved to new property management.

Emily Varga was a pleasure to deal with - after the many changes to our property managers throughout our tenancy, none made as much of an effort with us than Emily. We wish her the best in her career with Independent and are confident any tenants will be lucky to have her.

I've been lucky enough to rent two of my dream properties off Josephine Jankovic. Both times she has been extremely professional, patient, kind and understanding. For my second rental I had already been offered a previous property through her, but realised it wasn't a good fit. Josephine was very understanding of my withdrawal from the process and kindly put me up for the property I really wanted. She communicated clearly with me from the beginning until the end. I really appreciated her initial phone call, follow up email and the opportunity to chat with her in person at the inspection.

Melaia Tonga helped find the perfect home for us. The quality of service provided to us by her was absolutely amazing. We couldn't recommend her highly enough.

I am have been with Independent for the past 1year.Arti has been my property manager. She is a wonderful person and has been fantastic in resolving the issues we had. Glad to have her as my property manager.Thanks for all your support Arti.

For 8 years I've struggled along using IPG with mixed results, but usually mediocre. Just recently I'm dealing with a REAL PROFESSIONAL in the gracious and efficient form of Property Manager, Kayla Chesher.
She is a revelation; efficient and thorough with an eye for detail, really responsive, obviously most capable, ethical, and delivers best outcomes with a strong focus on providing the very best service. I now feel valued as a client.
Robin K

My mate is renting through these guys, and alerted them to a broken window that needed to be fixed in January. 3 months later and it's still not fixed despite him following up numerous times. Do not recommend.

My application was processed quickly and lot of thanks to Melaia Tonga as she is so helpful and friendly. This is my second rental property with her and she is always professional and friendly. I recommend Melaia and independent property for quick and easy processing. Thank you.

We had to suffer badly because of one property manager who basically gave us false information and even lied to us. Even after number of times of attention, no one seemed to be willing to help us. We found it very unprofessional and unresponsive. Because of them we had to suffer health issues as well as financial problems in our unit which was horribly infected with cockroaches. We requested them for pest control but in return they lied us saying pest control was successfully completed when we were gone to Sydney for couple of days, in return, instead of getting rid of the issue, cockroaches multiplied day by day. Finally, we had to organize pest control by ourselves and money isn't refunded yet. Would never recommend them to anyone.

Independent have been managing our properties in Belconnen for some years now and we are very pleased with their very responsive, professional and helpful service. Michael Wright and Sofia Ligeros have delivered excellent services recently and we are very happy with their quick turnaround and great communication.

I have engaged with Sofia Ligeros and have foubd to be extremely efficient and professional person to have known. She has been very soft,kind and very prompt in clarifying my concerns and has alwas maintained a good professionalism while communicating. I am pleased to have known her and would be happy for one to approach her for property related enquiries.

Poor property management company - neglect the needs of the tenants. I actually want to give it zero star.

Emily Varga has provided me outstanding customer service and quick response times over the last 12 months. Highly recommend her.

If you have cash and don't need your bond refund, go ahead.

Moved out from Nov 22. Almost 5 months later (April 16 as of today), still no sign of bond refund.

Zara Gluhak has been the best property manager i have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. She was very responsive, always willing to help us whenever we needed and she always made sure our concerns were addressed in a timely manner.

Tim was very helpful and responsive in getting the management of my property underway. He was able to explain everything clearly and in a way I could understand.

Thank you for your help Tim!

Very friendly team. Terrific communication from Kaylee and Emily at all times.

Worst property management around. I've had 6 different property managers in a 12 month period . None of which have had any clue how to do their jobs.

I cannot thank Sofia and Emily enough for all of their help in securing our new property. With our current lease coming to end, we were very happy to find a property managed by Independent as we have rented through them before and had a great experience.
From the moment we walked in at the inspection, Sofia was happy and bubbly and able to answer any questions. Throughout the application process she kept us informed and things were quick and not stressful at all. Emily was our previous property manager and was kind enough to offer a reference to assist in our application. Even during the past year where we have been renting through another agency and were experiencing issues, Emily offered advice to help resolve these.
Would highly recommend Independent to any tenant or landlord.

We have rented a properties through independent; Arti Delaney were our property manager.She responds to the emails and phones promptly. She is very helpful, professional, friendly and We found her easy to talk.
Thank you so much for everything, and We hope to deal with you again in the future, wish you all the best

Firstly, as a background to Emily Varga's excellent property management for us, I had the previous experience at this agency of difficulties well resolved with good, structured support from higher management. Emily herself has shown skills of diplomacy and good communication and organization of property management details with follow through including articulate expression and also an ability rarely found these days of brief texts to read a complex explanation of circumstances and action the main points. Her professional thoroughness, friendliness and warmheartedness make her a pleasure to deal with.

Professional service and prompt response as always!

I would highly recommend Independent, they are responsive and care about your property as well as care about you as the landlord and treating tenants with respect and kindness.

DO NOT BE FOOLED. All of the positive reviews are fake. They have created fake accounts to give pretend five star reviews. This is arguably the worst real estate property manager office in the southern hemisphere. There were hundreds and hundreds of "if there was an option for less than one star that's what I'd select" reviews about this office which have all mysteriously disappeared. They are incompetent beyond description. My experience with this office was so horrendous it was actually comical if it wasn't for the fact that they still owe me over $900. The owner of where I was living had no idea what was going on so when I offered to talk directly to the owner to let her know that they didn't know that my tenth "property manager" in a row had no idea where the spare set of keys to their property were they decided to become belligerent. Not only did they take $300 from my bond for carpets I'd spent $320 on to have professionally cleaned without my permission they took months and months to eventually return my short changed bond. When I first moved in they emailed me to say that there was $600 "outstanding" without explaining why. Relieved I'd found a place I simply paid the $600 without question. A fool and his money are quickly separated. I am now starting proceedings to get the nearly $1000 they owe me back. Do not use these people to manage your property and if you are looking to rent in Canberra AVOID AT ALL COSTS. You have been warned.

Emily is our property manager and is very attentive, professional and quick to tend to our requests when in need. Independent Property Management offers a quick and personal service, and for that we are grateful

Senior Property Manager Emily Varga has managed my investment property in Bruce for over 12 months and in that time I ve found Emily to be very friendly and professional.

Emily and I quickly built a really good rapport and whenever I ve had a question or if an issue has come up Emily has dealt with it very professionally. I ve been very happy with the service provided my Emily and the team.

Senior Property Manager Shann Howman responds to requests promptly in a courteous and professional manner. Shann has been a pleasure to deal with and we wish him all the best in his new role.

My property manager, Emily Varga, has been extremely helpful and responsive whenever any problems have arisen with my rental property. She's always a pleasure to deal with and manages to get things sorted out quickly and efficiently with a minimum of delay and disruption. Highly recommended.

I've lived in 4 rentals to date and dealt with 5 different Real Estate businesses in that time. Independent PM are always on the ball with their communication and have surpassed my experiences with other agencies.

Olivia Poole was professional,friendly and punctual- I highly recommend her

Oh you somehow removed my (and hundred others) 1 star review from a number of years ago. Well since Leah B. is no longer your staff you may have become more responsive, or should I say normal, to the tenants living in the properties you manage. Tribunal was your friend.
2 stars instead of 1, you are improving.

Emily Varga has been our Property Manager since the beginning of 2019.
She is prompt in responding to my emails, polite, professional and most importantly for us, quick to organise any maintenance issues we have had. We hope Emily remains our Property Manager throughout our tenancy. We know we will be in good hands!
- Keene Family -

Caroline is personable and efficient, and Renee is knowledgeable and a great agent. Thank you both for a positive experience!

Sofia was a dream to deal with. She arranged a private showing of a property and made it very easy to apply once i indicated that I was interested in it. 1 week later I was in the property.

Conducting a review of Independent Property Management is a real pleasure; I have been with them for years. I have never had issues which were not addressed promptly and professionally. Omjay Singh is great to deal with, he is a highly dedicated property manager, always trying to go above and beyond. He responds to any concern, issue or query with incredible promptness. The last months have been stressful, due to the pandemic and it s aftermath.. Omjay has made every attempt to solve any issue with added dedication. I hope to remain Omjay s client for many more years.

Mela Tonga was super responsive. An absolute pleasure to deal with in helping to find a suitable rental property.

My partner and I enjoyed wonderful customer service from leasing consultant Liz Harvie. Liz showed us around a set of units and answered all our questions with profession and patience. Our emails were also replied responsivley. We regard Liz as a very responsible and professional leasing consultant.

I was extremely impressed with James Scott and Josephine Jankovic at Independant Property Turner office. They managed to secure a good quality tenant within the week when the previous company struggled for months. I would highly recommend James and Josephine for your property portfolio needs.

Tim

We rented our Canberra property through Independent for just over 4 years while we were overseas. We were very happy with their service and communication. They found great Tennant's for us, provided regular property inspections (with photos) and put us in touch with quality maintenance people to look after repairs. Kayla was always quick to get back to us and although there were a couple of minor mix ups with invoices over the time we were with them (they were handling all our rates / water / bills / strata fees etc while we were overseas) , overall we had a great experience.

Our experience with Independent Property Management is a blissful one. Josephine Jankovic is indeed an angel. We needed a house quickly and was stressed with house hunting & moving (joy of moving).Josephine understood our situation and helped take the hassle out. She was able to find us an ideal house in record time. She is friendly, professional & efficient. The turnaround time from the time of inspection to getting the keys to the rental property was amazing. It just blows our minds. She is quick to respond to emails and was in touch with us all through the process. We can't recommend Josephine enough. Thank you so much Josephine, God bless you richly.

Absolutely shocking service. These guys have been our property managers for around 18 months and they have done an absolutely appalling job in that time. The whole point of paying for this service is so I don't have to worry about managing the property myself. However my husband and I seem to have to take it in turns to constantly chase them to do thier jobs. My current issue is needing to chase them up for 2 weeks to book in a repair man. If I have to chase someone up for two weeks, I could have booked in the repair man myself! Not exactly sure what they are being paid for. And calling them or emailing them is a job on its own because a response is rare!! We have had multiple similar issues in the past. Might be time for a change.

Independent have been a great help since we moved into the property and with the initial process, making our moving smooth and stress free. Our property manager Madi has been an exceptional help and I would highly reccomend Independent Property Management.

Renee Bink and the team at independent property management make property investing a breeze.
Highly recommend for any type of investor.

One of the best agents I ve felt with. Highly professional and very friendly.

Emily has been my Property Manager for some years and is polite, thorough, responsive and consistent in looking after my property and in all of her dealings with me. I am happy to commend Emily for doing a great job.

Liz is very helpful and professional in leading the inspection because she knows the property super well and also incredibly patient and friendly in answering so many questions raised by us.

Kimberley is by far the best property manager I have had in over 20+ years of owning investment properties. She is proactive, intelligent and on-top of all property requirements to ensure a smooth management experience. Nothing is too much trouble and she is always a pleasure to deal with. She is a true gem!

Fantastic property management service. Caleb and Monika have been very knowledgeable and helpful during my tenancy. I would recommend Independent to anyone looking to rent.

The experience inquiring about, inspecting, and applying for a property has been very smooth. The agent (Liz) has been very helpful and knowledgeable.

I would like to commend Sofia from Independent for being one of the BEST leasing agents I have met. She was proactive, kind and responsive. She made sure to keep me updated and would always check in with me. I've had a fantastic experience with Sofia and would 100% recommend her. :)