QLD Has my property manager breached duty of care?

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Flydoc

Member
8 December 2021
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Hi everyone!

My situation is quite an unusual one. My property manager - employed by one of the biggest franchise real estate companies in Australia - left the company in early 2020 (resigned) and instead of handing my properties onto the next manager, two properties was left "unmanaged" for over a year! This resulted in:

1) first property : $18000 lost in rental owing due to vacate. The tenant did not pay rent, citing covid-19 difficulty, for almost 10 months. After being notified that they owe $18000 in rent, they immediately moved out and now uncontactable.
2) $31000 lost in second property due to sitting vacant for an year! There was no correspondence (email / phone / sms text message) regarding tenant moving out and the need to find a new tenant.

I was under the impression that both properties are being managed accordingly. I only found out, serendipitously, after the company employed a new property manager who happens to be my close friend and I asked her to be the property manager. If it wasn't for her getting this new job, who knows how long the first property will be occupied for free and the second sitting vacant!

To me the company has clearly breached its duty of care and grossly negligent. A proper hand over of its out-going staff's managed properties did not happen. It also clearly demonstrated that there are some serious systemic / procedural flaws in its operation. I am about to sit down and discuss this with the owner of the franchise and am wonder do I have a case if I take the franchise to court to get my losses back?

I do not want to exercise my landlord insurance for two reasons 1) it only covers two months of loss rental and it certainly won't cover the vacancy. 2) the losses are due to the fault of the company and entirely avoidable.

Many thanks for the advices!

Tim
ps. it is especially disheartening to know that I actually approached the property manager back in May last year, on my own accord, and offered to help the tenants of both properties by cutting the rent by 10%!
 

Rod

Lawyer
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27 May 2014
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www.hutchinsonlegal.com.au
You may have a breach of contract case. Send a demand letter as a starting point. The fact that you took a long time to notice and therefore mitigate your losses will discount a claim.
 
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