Sunday Speaks 9/3/25

Sunday Speaks 9/3/25

🍃 Sunday Speaks 
9 March 2025

I can't sleep rn, so a very early Sunday Speaks it is. This has evolved into a big ol cathartic word vomit, but I feel I need this to move forward. Validate me or don't, either way I'm putting this out there as once again I feel like it's one of those moments where I could have stayed small, kept the peace, like others would have in this situation, they may just caved due to stress and wanting to just be done. But I stood up…..and now I'm the bad guy,..again. and we got our bond back, again.
Curious to know, have you ever had a real estate not try to bank your bond?

❤️🩹TLDR TW recap, vent about our previous landlord and property manager. Ill post a part 2 for a positive looking forward check-in.

It's been a whole dam minute since we've done a check in. I think in our last one, was just before Xmas, I shared that we had just received ‘notice to leave’ our previous rental, AFTER  a new 12 lease had been offered, and realised the landlord/property manager were stalking us online.
Absolute heartless act, proving themselves to both be walking landlord memes, and I can't help but feel like their ‘facebook hurt feelings’ had a lot to do with it, but seriously what did I post that could have been so offensive? Was it the insight into our life, real candid narration? The doom piles? The unfolded laundry? Or just the stock standard landlord scum memes? Or maybe the woke agender gives them the big feelings. 

They specifically asked if there were any loose screws or missing fixtures that they need to know about 😂 hook line and sinker, choking on the bait!! See screenshots, attached. Backstory: I bait posted, joking about removing random screws from all over the dwelling, eg draw runners, and they gobbled it up. I shouldn't have posted it!
.........I should have done it!!!!
..but seriously that's not how I roll, they'll get theirs and I don't even need to do a thing. If I was going to petty sabotage, I wouldn't be posting about it on fucking facebook would I 🤷🤨

It really was a lot to deal with. Certainly gave me the big feelings. We were burnt out dead on our feet already, then slammed with that was fucking wild. 

Our autistic son had been in hospital with pneumonia and whooping cough, then my partner with irregular heartbeat, our fam had head cold after head cold, all on top of our usual life struggles of being not always able bodied NDs, with mental health struggles and other issues we just don't talk about publicly. 

We had been offered a 12 month lease, so we didn't have any money set aside for moving costs, and were in no place emotionally to move, still getting over the epic move from Ormeau, 2 hrs north to Caboolture South, less than 10 months beforehand. 

They gave us the exact bare minimum of time from the ‘notice to leave’ issue date. We literally begged them for a 6 month lease at $80 a week extra to what the new lease would have been, just to have some time to get in a better place to move. They gave no reason for the ‘notice to leave’ but from what the property manager shared (possibly unintentionally), their overly zealous exit report and attempt at claiming bond for cleaning, the fact it was instantly relisted and new tenants moved in very quickly, makes this feels personal, like they just wanted us out asap. The property manager quickly went from sickly sweet to smug knut, boasting their ‘photos clearly show the dwelling was not clean to standard’, as soon as we said we would dispute any unnecessary costs to us. 

Funnily enough that was the last time they mentioned photos at all. Every communication from then on, appeared to intentionally avoid talking about photos at all cost. Even when directly asked about specific entry photos, or when asked multiple times to acknowledge the condition of the dwelling as shown in the dwellings entry photos.

In person this property manager spoke multiple times about their ethics and reassured us that as renters we have the right to actually live in a dwelling, not keep it as a display home, that we didn't have to worry about our plants or unusual use of space. In each email they made a point to speak of being empathic and fair, but then this is how they conduct themselves. It's like they say all the right words, they say one thing, but then their actions are completely different. Offer a lease, not reply for weeks, then retract the lease, give notice to leave, and when asked why, they reply “the owners don’t have to tell me or you that information.”. This culture right here. Does this sound ethical, empathic, or fair? What did we do? There should be laws against this exact situation. 

For the exit report, they literally took photos of dried water droplet marks in the kitchen sink!!,.. as ‘evidence’ of the dwelling being dirty. Like are you fkn kidding me rn! The sheer audacity of this. 
For the ensuite there were literally 40 photos of the tiniest specs of dirt on the floor. In the bathroom, there were 23 photos just of the bathtub!,.of a few specs of dirt in the bathtub! Another room on the exit report had 45 dark and blurry photos of ‘hairs on wall’. 45 photos!! Etc. 

What an impossible standard to meet. I don't even know how there were specs in the tub to begin with! Like the ensuite floor, clearly someone walked through there, but it's not like footprints, it was tiny specs. The bedroom must have had a fluffy cloth that kept dropping hairs, I understand the how, but 45 photos, really? On exit we took close to 1000 photos, the tub was spotless! All their exit report photos were so far zoomed in, a lot had no context from one room to the other, or of placement in each room/area. 

Fair and empathic practices would be holding space for tenants to come back and dust off the few stray hairs, or whatever else requires doing within reason. And that's the thing that gets me, 90% of what this property manager was demanding as needing rectification was completely unreasonable, unrealistic impossible standard of perfection.

Eg Exit report marked as ‘dirty blinds’ requiring rectification clean, they were marked as ‘clean’ on the entry report, but in the entry reports photos it's very clear that they were not clean. Not like day to day grime, the blinds are old and showing signs of aging. 

This shit right here feels dishonest and it's a culture between every property manager, every entry report I've seen. Every entry report is like all green ticks from the property manager, everything is ‘clean/undamaged/working’ but then when we do our section it's like, hold up, blinds are dirt, creased, broken at top clip, plastic weights are literally disintegrating, etc. it's like ‘not all men’, ‘not all cops’, not all property managers but fuk me it's enough for it to be a known issue that tenants have to be extremely vigilant against and take literally 1000s of photos on entry. And if you as entering tenant are just too overwhelmed to put in that time, after fearing homelessness, the cost and stress of packing and searching, trying maintain normality for vulnerable ones, on top of life's already overwhelming shit show, well your cooked. 
If your a landlord and this doesn't represent how you operate, the like the not all men crowd, call out the ones who are, set a better standard. And I'm not saying that's easy coz I can imagine the industry would be vile with bully culture.

Workers had attended the dwelling, apparently replaced the oven, and the kitchen ceiling had a massive crack that was getting worse each week, so surely that would have had to have been re-plastered and painted? Right? Ensuite sliding door needing replacing or some form of magic to replace the very dodgy lock/handle. It feels like yet another real estate trying to get tenants to pay for a clean up after workers. 

They wanted to claim $572 of bond for ‘rectification clean’ as well as two water bills that weren't even due yet. One water bill had just come in, not due yet, and the other was the end of tenancy partial bill that they must not understand how water bills are calculated because they tried to sting us for the highest rate and then tried to push a three day due date! **Water bills are calculated at one rate for a certain amount each day, then above that at a higher rate, then have a month time frame for tenants to pay. Also fun fact, if they don't issue the bill to you within a certain time frame of receiving the official bill, tenants don't have to pay!! But can you imagine as a tenant, actually enacting your right to refuse payment 😂 bye bye lease renewal. We have rights, but what happens if you actually stand your ground? Your fucked.

This whole process felt like the property manager was expecting us to just fall in line and do as they said just because they said so. They gave conflicting information, repeated double standards, and their miscommunications were creating confusion.
Eg when I questioned why they marked damage and not working items as undamaged and working on the exit report, (oven, porch light casing, bathroom fan, ensuite door, kitchen ceiling crack, leaking patio), they said they intentionally don't add those to the report to avoid any confusion for what is the tenants responsibility, like they were doing us a favor. But then they also added other items as a direct “note to the owner” as needing replacing on the same exit report. This just feels like bs. They were overly critical about specks of dirt, marking almost every point as “unclean” but then marking things that are damaged as “undamaged”. 

In emails the property manager wrote out accusational lists, and time lines of actions and each interaction, as if for the benefit of some third party reading on in the background, or maybe they thought they could show them at QCAT? Either way it was all irrelevant to the condition of the dwelling on exit, and predominantly circumstantial. 

There were several points that I really wanted to stand up against. I felt like they were vilifying us, but I restrained and just called it what it was, untrue, half truths, and underhand slander toned comments. 

One thing they claimed was that we refused entry to workers, via them not being able to contact us, and then claimed the same workers had arranged a date with us and on arrival we weren't home. Make it make sense! So they couldn't contact us but they had and we stood them up? Firstly, someone is legit always home. Three people in our family work from home, there is literally always someone home. B) we report shit because we wanted the shit fixed, why would we avoid contact? And then stand them up? Also if we didn't answer phones, wouldn't the workers have sent a text message or email? 
But what it really comes down to is if this were the case and contact was not made, and if we were repeatedly doing this over the 12 month lease, wouldn't a competent property manager follow procedure and write an entry notice? If it's such a huge ongoing issue then why not write an entry notice? This clearly wasn't a huge or repeated issue over the life of the lease. 

They claimed they had multiple workers who had difficulties in gaining access, implying a track record. We had a smoke alarm guy call mid morning later in the week, just days before Xmas, attempting to do the annual check THAT DAY while he was in the area. It was too short notice. Does this mean gaining access was difficult for him? Not my fucking problem, that's just poor form on his behalf. At one point, plumbers were needed to get up on the roof to check the tiles, but they then cancelled due to weather. What about this? Difficult access? Ppffft. 

It's like all these lil things to point the finger at us like we were difficult or bad tenants. We had zero breaches, never missed rent, or a water bill, there was zero damage to the property, and we did a fantastic job cleaning! Like what's the fucking issue here? 

They also claimed that multiple neighbours contacted them directly to show them my Facebook, and then more neighbours approached them while they were doing the exit report at the dwelling,..in the middle of the day,..on a working week day. Our neighbours must have been camped out the front, just waiting for the perfect moment, just thinking to themselves ‘we are such great samaritan’s, we must go out of our way to right this wrong’, we must show this evil tentants Facebook posts to what could possibly be a property manager, who is inside the dwelling. Ah yes, this sounds very likely... I don't fucking think so!!
Nobody cares that much about other peoples bs. Nobody has energy or time to waste. Especially considering we spent a lot of time out the front with goals of building community via my edible garden. 

And when I questioned them on these and other things they blamed their willful ignorance and incompetence, and said "no one deserves to be spoken to in the manner you have addressed me" in such an "attacking manner". As if no one has ever called them out, oor held the accountable in their entire life. As if they honestly thought they could intimidate us with the threat or QCAT. As if I was name calling, or swearing at them, I most certainly was not! As if my tone and angst was unwarranted in any way!! As if anything I had said wasn't true! It's not deformation if it's true. Like jfc! *Rolls over dead, plays victim*. 

I literally just said what they were doing, as they were doing, and asked questions like "why are you choosing to overlook this? How are you being so selective with these facts? How do you think it will be viewed at QCAT?" 
 
Maybe adding “not rhetorical” after every question, was too much? or could have been saying “please answer our questions”? 

We left the dwelling very clean regardless of how dirty it was on entry, as we do with every property we have had. I'm really not sure what gold standard the property manager expected or how to achieve it. They complained they had to return a second day to complete the exit report because it was taking so long. I feel like if they had to spend hours on hours doing the exit report, then it mustn't have been that bad and they had to really go searching for imperfections. 

The entry report was all green ticks for every thing being clean, and this is what the property manager was using as their wholly grail, but the photos from the entry report showed dirt everywhere. Throughout the process the property manager flat refused to acknowledge the entry photos, even when repeatedly asked directly. I was completely dumbfounded as to how they can do that and think it's ok. These photos are there to prevent situations like this, because what's written on a report does not always give all the information, and sometimes that's intentional. See attached entry photos, these are from the entry report, we didn't even need to use our own photos because theirs showed it all. 

I refused the RTA phone mediation as I prefer written communication for things like this, and which gives them the option to drop it or apply to QCAT, and thats what they said they were going to do. 

From this point a 'Notice of unresolved dispute' should be issued, giving them 14 days to apply to QCAT, or the bond is automatically refunded. Because we initiated the bond refund, it's all on the other party to dispute, and apply to QCAT.

But they then sent a 'proposed agreement' to rta, which then came to us. Once this is sent there is a 4 day window to sign, before the 'Notice of unresolved dispute' certificate is issued. It can be a way to stall for another four days. And the wording in the email can catch people out. Screen shot attached. It sounds like if you sign you get your bond refunded, but it's actually agreeing to give the landlord a portion of the bond. We didn't sign. 

In the end after two strongly worded email, the property manager finally gave in when we pointed out our comments on the entry report about the fine sanders dust throughout the property left from the painters. We also had emails from the previous property manager stating they hadn't had a cleaner in after the place had received the full landlord special. Absolutely ridiculous to think that they hadn't even read the full entry report. They had missed the tenant comments on the entry report. They hold "senior" title but this basic. I don't understand. 

These are not just big meanie words!! It's shifting responsibility. 

‘Weaponized incompetence’ is a manipulative behavior where someone pretends to be incapable of doing something and/or is intentionally choosing not to do something. It can be used to avoid responsibility, shift responsibility, or get others to do tasks for them. 
Eg, Choosing not to follow procedure, then shifting responsibility because the desired outcome was not achieved. Or requesting reports be resent to you rather than you going back through your files to find them yourself. Basically making others do labour for you that you are capable of but intentionally choose not to do.

‘Willful ignorance’ is when someone intentionally avoids information that could lead to negative consequences, avoid criminal or civil liability, can be personal, political, or professional. It's recognized in criminal law in different jurisdictions. 
Basically if it's your job to know information by reading a form from top to bottom, in its entirety, and you then claim you know it all, but you failed to find all the relevant information, written and image, because you didn't actually read the fucking form from top to bottom, or you choose to ignore/not acknowledge facts infront of you that you have read, it's on you! Saying it's human error, is willful ignorance. It's also incompetence.

An 'underhanded comment' is a seemingly polite or innocuous statement that has a hidden meaning, usually negative in connotation. The underhanded definition often applies to snide remarks or backhanded comments.

How to address these issues:
NAME IT!
Call out the behavior when it happens, as it's happening. Avoid minimizing the behavior, and understand the root cause of the behavior. What are they trying to achieve? What's their motives?

Talking about how I feel, is not the same as accusing, or name calling. "This feels vindictive" means I perceive a specific action or situation as motivated by a desire for revenge, while "you are vindictive" is a direct accusation stating that someone has a general tendency to seek revenge or hold grudges, implying a more ingrained personality trait. 












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