staticsan

Thanks for the very detailed message.

I rather suspect your reasons are largely the same reason property managers are shifting to Direct Debit. Personally, I would never try to short the rent – I’m just not that sort of person. Until I setup an automated payment, I would often be angry with myself for mucking it up!

On the other hand, if I were renting directly off the landlord instead of using an agent, I may be more amenable to use Direct Debit. The truth is that real estate agents are amongst the least trusted of businesses, and Direct Debit requires an inversion of trust compared to other payment methods. This is the primary reason I object to it.

My property manager has assured me several times that I can continue to pay with BPAY. More, I know his own boss knows my stance on this. 

There have been no more problems with my payments.

Wade.

I googled a bit first about Direct Debit and rents and there seem to be an unusually high number of people saying DD is a bad idea. I notice the DFT website stops short of saying “don’t use it”.

The letter suggests that the agent plans on allowing only Direct Debit for paying rents. It doesn’t cost me an additional fee, so far as I know, but only requesting one particular way of paying can’t be legal. Or shouldn’t be. 

Sounds like I will be complaining to the DFT one way or the other.

Wade.

Hmm. I’ve raised a complaint with the principal at the agency where he works. Haven’t heard back from them yet; I have a suspicion they think I’ll go away if I get ignored. But you’re right: he’s more the Letting Agent than a Property Manager.

Never thought of contacting the owner. Since I’m supposed to go through the Letting Agent, that could be a problem. 

He has nothing to do with the EC and only when I pushed him did he say I should be talking to Strata directly. I see this as evidence that he doesn’t see his role as any sort of advocate for me, the tenant, to anyone else.

Wade.

An update.

The Property Manager returned my call. It turns out that there were a few deadlines that collided. The settlement for the sale of my flat, an otherwise unrelated incident, was late. The new owner was a little tardy in getting the new management agreement back. The Property Manager assumed that Australia Post would deliver the letters in one day. :-/

He acknowledged that the situation didn't look good and wasn't handled the best. He assured me that it absolutely wouldn't be a problem to use the old account until I had the new details. And also I wasn't the only one in that situation.

And it took some pushing but he rather reluctantly kind-of admitted that they could do better next time (though he didn't seem to grasp the idea of a week's notice to tenants for changing the rent account). It wasn't the outcome I really wanted. But I think he understood it made both new and old agents look pretty clumsy.

Wade.

I should add that the notes were very carefully worded and took me a few days to think about. The key was to unambigiuously address the adverse effects of the noise, not to criticise the people making the noise. I didn't want any reason for them to take offense and to say “screw you, I'll do what I like” but rather to say “oh, I never realized I was doing that, how terrible”.