John Gribbin Realty

John Gribbin Rental Team – Highly Illegal No duty of care Disgusting filthy Mouldy uninhabitable rental homes. Repairs never completed Staff lie or do not reply! After reading all the other reviews, shows nothing changes there! Seeing my solicitor this week! Don’t risk your families health on their unmaintained, unsafe, unmanaged, filthy boxes !

The worst Real Estate in Townsville – Unprofessional. Nasty. Don't fix maintenance issues. Unfriendl hiy. Disorganised with paperwork. Called me over and over about Lease agreement. Trying to take finances without cause. Manipulative. These are just a few of the many issues I had with this Real Estate.

Minus 10 Out of 10 – Just putting this out there because I see recent reviews are the same as my experience way back in 2003!! Nothing has changed at all. I rented with Gribbin while I was building in Townsville. Took the property on with a less than desirable clean, then when I vacated it was cleaner than I received it. Example: never used the oven, cleaned by… Read more

hand all cupboard shelves and every slat in every Venetian blind. Received a report saying dust in all cupboard shelves, blinds filthy, oven filthy, garage floor spots and wall marks were my fault. I produced the original entry document, went to their offices and requested a face to face meeting. I was told it wouldn't be necessary to have the meeting if I used 'their' cleaners instead of cleaning it myself. Told them I didn't need to and wasn 't prepared to pay for that because there is only me in there and no mess or grime. They eventually gave up when they realised I wasn't moving out of their office till it was resolved. Got my bond back, didn't need to do another clean, but they were clearly dodgy back then and still are now. They aren't transparent and are just a messy, messy company to deal with from start to finish.

S*it Real Estate – Unprofessional. no repairs done on property. Bad staff. disorgainsed. Won't rent or buy from them again! Wouldn't recommend them to anyone wanting to rent or buy in Townsville! Completely crap

STAY AWAY – When I first received the keys to my property I went back and tried to open the front door, key wouldn’t work at all. I called John Gribbin Realty where the staff member insisted she gave me the correct key and that I must be at the wrong property. I ensured her I am not stupid and that the key is obviously wrong. I then had to drive back and pick… Read more

up the correct key, where I was given the wrong key AGAIN. I rang as soon as I realised and due to the business closing in 5 minutes they were quite annoyed on the phone that I made them wait back to give me the correct key. I then drove back again and collected the key. After that, my rent money wasn’t debiting out of my account and I called to ask why, apparently my rent was paid and my account balance was fine. Then 2 weeks later I received a phone call from an older lady at John Gribbin telling me they have made a mistake and have used the $1400 I put towards bond on my rent and I now owe $1400 right now. They did not care whatsoever about me needing to gather the funds, she rudely demanded I pay it NOW. No sympathy, no apologies.

This place is unorganised and there are too many people walking around doing the same jobs, that things are getting mixed up. I have received no ‘help’ with the vacating process of my property and they’ve just been doing things in their own time. I was breaking lease so told them real estate if they ask me I will allow inspections to occur, obviously not affecting my personal life and when I am busy. Inspections were booked without my approval and I rang to cancel, one lady informed me it was cancelled but turns out it wasn’t and I had to ring up 1hour before and cancel it myself which is obviously putting me AND the prospective tenant out.

The state in which we received the property was appalling, pubes and dirty cotton buds behind the bathtub, the previous tenants had fixed things so that to the eye they looked good but we soon found out everything was in a poor state. Inspections need to be a lot more thorough.

The state in which we left the house was immaculate compared to how we got it and everything was cleaned correctly but the inspector was picking on little things and also things stated in my entry report. Make sure you keep a copy of your entry report as they will try get you to pay for things that aren’t your doing. I received the property with stains all over carpet, listed it in my entry report and also on vacate got a carpet cleaner but apparently this wasn’t good enough and was MY ISSUE.

Never ever would I rent though this realestate, it is so unorganised and poorly ran. Two many staff overlapping each other and too many properties for them to manage obviously. If I was a home owner I would never let John Gribbin Realty manage my property just because of the state they allowed our previous tenants to leave the property in.

Also cannot believe how the owner argues and tries to prove people wrong on their reviews, so unprofessional. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and if that offends you, take a look at the business you are running.

How is this company still operating?

Never trust them – They said I am approved for an application. Made me wait for more than a month and finally changed their mind. They don't care. I would never trust them and their employees ever.

Sales process was ok – I bought a vacant property from JGR and was reasonable satisfied with the process, comms could have been better but the agent bend over backwards to save me a buck here and there. I was puzzled about not engaging rental more actively until after the sales was settled, and with the comments I've read here it now makes sense. I thank all contributors you might just have saved me a lot of pain. Show details

Landlords beware – Landlords beware… Do NOT let John Gribbin Realty manage your property because they DON’T manage the property they ONLY manage taking your money, admin fees, management fees and advertising fees. My house (my family home) was completely destroyed by tenants. The damage exceeded thousands of dollars, 7 loads of rubbish left in the house and… Read more

even fence panels missing.

The property was unliveable and yet John Gribbin’s office was sending me emails offering the deluxe/standard advertising packages…of course for a price$$$$. Go figure …

Incompetence and uncaring – I made the mistake of trusting John Gribbin with the responsibility of managing my home. What an expensive mistake for me. Thousand of dollars of damage, constantly no rent and very few house inspections. John Gribbin's response to fair trading was - claim insurance. My insurance company's response was that I had dealt with an incompetent real estate.

Please Shut Down your Business! – John Gribbin has remotely nothing to do with Customer Service, at least here in Townsville. Government should be taking strict action against these Cons. They don't deserve to be doing any kind of business here in Australia. They will try their best to prove you wrong and would deduct your bond amount for no valid reason. Lost most of my documents… Read more

provided and held me responsible while I was away. If their business is still running, they might have some kind of support from local government. The reviews from other people are completely authentic and there is always a similar pattern. Would be glad if this review could make a slightest difference.

Disgusting Real Estate Agency – Wowwwww, where do I start? I've just read every review on here, and can relate to every single one. I'll try and put everything in a timeline. It all started when we vacated the property and got a call from the vacating inspector, they blamed us for a cracked window and told us, we are responsible regardless of how it happened (it was a second… Read more

story window, with the crack very clearly on the outside, did not go all the way through) we almost gave up on trying to prove it wasn't us until.. one day we went through all of our paperwork, and low and behold found the entry report with pictures of proof the crack existed before.

Even that apparently wasn't good enough evidence, and the lady's words were 'well someone has to pay for it'.

Finally I took it further and spoke to someone else regarding the issue, and they finally let it drop (knowing they didn't have a leg to stand on).

They weren't happy with the cleaning, so we had to go back multiple times (which I would understand, if it wasn't up to their standards) but I can promise you, we left that place cleaner than when we moved in.

They will try anything to take your bond, and take so long with replying, you almost give up (because that's what they want).

We were also accused of a patch repair on a mesh door screen, which we managed to prove was the previous tenants cat.

Anyway, 6 weeks later, still hadn't received my bond, and countless calls of 'such and such is busy at the moment, they will call you back'.

They never called me back (I have my call log to prove it).

Finally, they told me I would be getting a $700 and something odd bind return out of $940...

Absolutely no reason they should have returned the full amount. I demanded receipts of where my bond was spent and they charged a handy man fee of around $80 to fix to areas of mesh screen (again, clearly proved it wasn't us, but still charged me) they also charged me a $77 cleaning bill for the blinds, even though I had a bond steam clean done on them, and when I questioned them, they said they were not done properly and it had been 7 days since my blind clean was done (meaning my warranty doesn't stand with the cleaning company anymore).

Although, they did the inspection the DAY AFTER the steam clean.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop there.

Please please do not go with this company for any reasons ever!!!

I would like to say that the front reception staff had always been lovely and empathetic with my conerns, etc. But the rest of them are a disgusting piece of work, who are condescending towards you, will take advantage of your lack of knowledge. It's literally their job to make money from bonds and they are good at it. Please don't let them win, this is what they are good at.

My advice would be, to copy your entry report before you have to return it within 3 days, so you always have a record. Also, go through the property with a fine tooth comb and make sure you submit anything wrong with the property (including the colour of the walls) believe me, they will say you painted a wall a different colour just to get money out of you!

They are the worse of the worse. Never ever go with them !!! 2017 experience – Never gave us any check list of what needs to be done before vacating the property. We got the carpets and blind steam cleaned with the invoice and cleaned rest of the house ourself. On inspection, they made a list of 120 pictures of things that needed doing. They called us on Wednesday and told us to sort it all out by Friday 5 pm when… Read more

Thursday was a public holiday.

We left them various messages on phone and emails and there were no replies.

They are simply time wasters and rude staff. Never ever going to go with them.

Refuse to fix office air conditioner after 2 inspections (6 months ongoing) – Literally as the title says. Have had 2 inspections over 6 months, and all they have to show for it is 6 magnet-calendars left on my kitchen bench after numerous e-mails and phone calls pleading that the air conditioner be fixed, all to no response. Calls ignored. Emails ignored. Facebook messages ignored. Am going to go to QCAT soon. This is… Read more

beyond a joke now. It's Townsville - your house shouldn't have to be 40*C.

Thanks for the hideous calendars that went straight into the bin. Good joke.

They are a disgrace to the real estate industry – John Gribbin Realty are the worst Real Estate Company I have ever had to deal with. They allowed me to be bullied and harassed by the owner of the rental property I lived in. They refused to advise him of my rights as a tenant, even when they were aware that he was showing up at the property unannounced, expecting to come inside the unit. They… Read more

demanded the keys at 10.00am on vacate date, even though I have until midnight under the RTA. I put in a complaint to the tenancy tribunal, who informed them of my rights and I was "allowed" to return them at a later time on vacate day. They tried to blame me/charge me for wear and tear in a 15 year old unit.

They are rude, uncaring, arrogant and completely hopeless. Do not rent, buy or sell through John Gribbin Realty unless you like being treated appallingly. They could seriously benefit from hiring staff with some level of customer service skills and it is evident that legislative training is long overdue.

I used to own a Real Estate Company and have met and worked with many professional and caring people in the industry. John Gribbin Realty is a disgrace to the industry and should close their doors. They give the Industry a bad name and do not deserve to have a licence to operate. If I could give a Zero rating or negative figure I would. I recently purchased a property through another agency and the experience was the complete opposite to this. John Gribbin Realty could learn from copying the behaviour of their competitors.

Awful service, no idea who my Property Manager is after renting for 3 years – If you don't want the appropriate notification about contractors attending your unit, if you want your emails/request/phone calls ignored, if you don't care about your investment these are the property managers for you. They are rude and unprofessional.

Stay far away!! – The owner of this company really needs to pull his staff into a meeting to work on their customer service to start with. I have been bullied, spoken down to, cursed at and lied to by at least 3 off the staff members who work for this company. If it was possible to give this company a zero star review I would. I have had nothing but problems with… Read more

them from the moment I gave my notice to vacate. They some how lost my entry report but refuse to go back on the cameras to the date I dropped it off to them. I now have to cover the costs for things e.g paint scratches missing light covers, missing plugs that were not there when we moved in... They tried to charge for a rent when I went back to clean up the property.. They will try and bully you into paying them extra rent. I had 2 family friends who are both property managers go through my property and do an exit for me and said it was fine and they would have done a full bond refund. When I went back to the real estate they said that only their (john gribbins) opinion matter not anyone elses. When I asked for them to send me photos or take me to show me the cleaning they refused and said they were not obliged to.. We vacated over a month ago and I still have NOT received my bond back. Now taking it to the RTA to get my bond back after countless phone calls and promises that the bond would be in my account multiple times. I would never recommend to anyone to this sad excuse for a real estate!

Unprofessional real estate agency – I would advise any potential renters to go through the Entry Condition form thoroughly and take photos as they will try to hold you responsible for things that were existing issues with the property. I found out later that there were things that they had missed listing on the form also; however, I was fortunate to have email evidence and… Read more

maintenance log evidence to support me in terms of the issues they had raised. (Better still, rethink your options when it comes to real estate agencies).

When I moved out the unit that I had rented for over 5 years they tried to make things as difficult as possible for me and although I had fulfilled my obligation of paying for the unit to be professionally cleaned along with the carpets and curtains, they asked for the cleaners to go back as they were not satisfied with some of the cleaning. The cleaners returned on the same day that I received the Exit Condition Report but even though the cleaners had returned the real estate agent was still not happy with the standard and continued to relentlessly pursue the matter. It seemed as things proceeded they tried to find new issues to raise. In the end they have charged me (deducted from bond money) for the additional cleaning and almost 5 days for rental compensation apparently due to not being able to get someone into the unit as result of this. This unit is still currently listed on their website for rent so I am not sure how they feel they are entitled to claim for this

One of the real estate agents that had dealings with was very elusive and unprofessional in her manner. It is stressful enough having to move house and pay over $700 for cleaning an old unit with existing damage, without having to deal with people like this.

Renters nightmare – Sadly my landlord changed from a great real estate to this lot of sorry people. Nothing is ever fixed, and they seem to have no idea what the term "reasonable use" means. I have rented this property for going on 5 years now, 3 of which have been through John Gribbin. I have been name called, failed inspections due to immature inspectors who deem… Read more

it perfectly fine to chide me on the fact that I am a single working mother of three kids and cannot reach a 15ftcieling to polish the woodwork. I have been told my dryish lawn was not good enough during a water restriction period and dry season, (ironically mine was the greenest in the street.) Spoken down to over damage to the property that was inflicted by the previous tenant and included in my entry report.They never return phone calls, never let you know how long until repairs will happen. In my 5 years with the property, there has never been a pest controller in and only seen the smoke alarm guys twice in my whole time with them. Given the choice I would have never rented with them in the first place, having had a bad experience with them years ago. I wish I couldafford to move now so I did not have to feel like a second class citizen in my own home.

Would not recommend to anyone – I have been broken into numerous times, asked to change locks nothing happened until I said I was changing them anyway whether they liked it or not... Took weeks to get anything fixed and constant phone calls.. Things only got done when I notified RTA and filled out remedy breach forms.. No one ever calls you back, and management including [name… Read more

removed] are useless!!! I'm taking civil action in court for loss of property.. Would not recommend to anyone

Criminals, Disgusting, Unproffessional, Never rent or buy or even waste petrol driving to their offi – I rented from them. They lied numerous times.I had things broken in the rental before I moved in and after 12 months of living there it never got fixed. I gave notice 2 months before I moved and they " lost my paperwork" and forced me to pay an extra month of rent. Their vacating condition report required me to " reclean the window at the top of… Read more

the stairs" only problem was there wasn't a window at the top of the stairs which was funny until they refused to give me back my bond until I did it. They conducted numerous inspections without any notification which is a breach of the law.They do not care about anyone or anything but getting people's money. ! They are the worst business I've ever dealt with. And anyone I talk to who knows them only has worse things to say.

No care & no responsiblity - John Gribbin Realty in Townsville – I agree with the above reviews. This agency seems to have a different person to speak to every time an issue needs sorting. They didn't tell me when my tenant gave notice. They didn't tell me about the cyclone damage until 6 months later as "they were really busy". They made numerous mistakes in the advertising of my rental property, and fully… Read more

charged me for their "service". There is nothing good I can say about this agent for the rental side of the businss and I suggest that if you go with them, that you be very careful!!!

How can you trust an agent with no ethics – John Gribbins Realty have a property for sale across the road from ours for sale in Townsville and quite legitimately, our prospective buyer of a couple weeks now had her parents drop in to an open house at their property to gauge the area. No problem. The only problem is; the agent at John Gribbin Realty Townsville told our prospective… Read more

buyers, and I quote from their email:

"the real estate with [no. removed] said he knew the owner of [no. removed] and said the bank is after him for a certain amount and we may have to pay what is left owing after settlement"

I have certainly, never met this agent, not would any debt, if there was one, carry over to a buyer of a property anyway.

Really doing the real estate industry a great service there guys, most people don't trust sales people as it is, without your help.

Well done!

Unethical, dishonest and untrustworthy

Landlord Beware! – As a landlord, I have had nothing but constant headaches from this incompetent lot. I have had my property rented for less than I authorised, photos of repairs not sent through, urgent repairs not arranged with urgency and once they were done, they have not been done correctly (a month later and the problem is still present). Remind me again… Read more

what I'm paying for? Multiple people dealing with things and no-one knows what is going on! Even had no idea what my repairs cost limit was despite this being on my original agreement with them - property management 101 failed! Being a remote owner, I need someone to look after my interests however I believe I've spent more time managing the property than they have! Get out while you can!

The Worst Experience Ever, Will Never Recommend! – As Landlords for the first time we hoped to have professionals look after our investment, this hope was dashed not once though twice with two bad rental experiences one after the other. References were meant to have been checked though we found out later hadn't and our tenant stopped paying rent, left without cleaning with damages and junk to get… Read more

rid of.

We gave JGR another chance and the same thing happened again!

JGR were absolutely useless with every task, we continually had to ask for things to be done and are still awaiting reports for our records though I am sure the final invoice will come!

Worst experience ever, I will never recommend.

Useless, impersonal and uncaring. Terrible service with a new person everytime we called and no communication at all even after all of our desperate phone calls and emails.

Rent from another real estate agent – My house got robbed and I lost all of my possessions. When I went into the real estate office to ask to get the landlord to upgrade the security of the house, after telling them I'd lost everything, they looked at me blankly like they were wondering why they should care. So I filled out a maintenance form to get the locks upgraded etc. A week… Read more

later, they still hadn't done anything about it. Two weeks later I start making calls, I had to really harass these guys to get the locks upgraded after a house robbery and then I had to pay for it myself.

Another issue was the washing machine that was a part of the rental property broke down and it took them a month to send someone out to fix it.

All in all, they have no respect for tenants. Seek a rental property elsewhere.

Not happy so far – Well have just had my first inspection after renting a property through JGR. I was told off by the arrogant agent for my fans being I little dusty, and apparent mould over the shower, which I am yet to find? When we moved in the front and back yard where patchy and the grass was dead. We have been watering the back yard tidied it up so it looks… Read more

100% better . We even got the grass to grow on a previous bare dusty part of the backyard. All I heard about was how bad the front yard looked and no consideration into the time we had spent on the backyard. I plan to leave the house in a better state than when we moved in, not that I think they will notice any work we have put into it.

Second thing being our a/c stopped working, filed a maintainence report two weeks ago and still not a word... This is Townsville and its hot! One of the things about renting is that this shouldn't be my problem to deal with. I don't pay good money for a hot oven of a house.

Poor service, rude arrogant agents

Total Lack of Professionalism – JGR were the agents as my family were the tenants. As a landlord as well, I would advise to stay way clear of this agency. If you want them to syphon your money away on unnecessary trade people attending/visiting repairs & without doing anything. As a tenant one only is able to get some thing done via the assistance of an Form 11 from the RTA … Read more

Notice to Remedy Breach. Waiting for a repairs for up to 12 months to get things fixed within the stipulated RTA 7 days. Watch out as the like to bully you also!!

They are super pedantic,unrealistic regarding your bond clean even if you get a professional in to do the job. When moving in as a tenant make sure the house is in A1 condition & take stacks of photos of it's condition if not up to par. Words that come out of their mouth is like the boy that cried wolf.

As a tenant be very accurate with you records and communication e.g emails In case you do take one of their tenancies and they challenge your bond clean at the end of the lease.

3 monthly house inspections we got very grumpy sour pus women attending to it. When we were absent they don't even leave a business card. So obviously we had no idea who went through?

One big warning for all potential landlords & tenants. Go to more of a Boutique agency that will give you the time of day, and not treat you like your are on a production line. Be aware of your intuition when you visit their office maybe for the first time. If you are getting treated in an unprofessional way, You are probably right!! Be warned it will continue!!

Take your business elsewhere - save yourself (and your property) the grief and cost – The comments of the 2 other reviewers are very familiar to me. I was with JGR for some time but started noticing some significant shortfalls in efficiency, service and management over the past 2-3 years. My concerns were confirmed when I had to start managing the Property Manager. The Property Manager is not the only point of contact for a… Read more

property and hence could not discuss issues with me, even within the same week as conducting an Inspection - too many fingers in the pie, to the point that no one in JGR actually can give a straight answer without having to speak to 'someone else'. My queries were 'brushed off' and only responded to with constant follow-up by myself. Maintenance was not occurring efficiently and Inspections were not completed accurately. Upon notifying JGR (with 90 days notice) that I was ending our tenancy agreement, they decided not to honour my request and notification period and 'dumped' the management of my property with less than 30 days notice. I would have argued this except for the fact I was glad to be separated from JGR. Unfortunately whilst undertaking a handover inspection of the property with a new real estate, it became very clear to me why JGR refused to attend the handover inspection. The property was a mess: gardens were overgrown, the entire yard was covered in dog holes, garden beds had been removed, the 8 month old carpet was covered in stains (requiring replacement again), the tenant was arrears in rent, etc. Overall I am extremely disappointed with their service and management of my property; although, I was more shocked at JGR lack of professionalism and complete disregard for owners and tenants of the properties they manage. All of this information was conveyed to JGR within the last few months of our management relationship. Now another real estate agent has the unpleasant job of cleaning up / fixing JGR's mess! Rent was collected and deposited into my bank account Lack of service, management, professionalism ......

deceptive coniving bullies – My friend cleaned her house to a pristine state. The carpets were cleaned to the best of the dry cleaners ability (the carpet was so old it was sun faded). John Gribbin realty did the inspection, all was fine. Until they submitted their claim for the bond. Well a phone call with them they advised of one price for their unwarrented bond claim,… Read more

their claim was for the whole lot. They did not have the decency to tell my friend of the total cost of what they were claiming. They are nothing but lying coniving deceitful cheating liars. Never, ever, ever, ever deal with the people. cheats and liars deceitful, cheats

Poor Management - Left Hand does not talk to right – John Gribbin Realty was engaged to manage a room by room rental Property which they advised they were more than capabale of managing. Firstly, on handing over management, they advised me there was food left on the bench - they did not put in bin as 'it was not their job to do'. I called a family member to collect keys and attend to it. Then my… Read more

house was not compliant with smoke alarm legislation as advised by authorised smoke alarm mob we needed all new hardwired alarms. I knew I was compliant with the law but they could not tell me (or be bothered to tell) where the smoke alarms were located in the house (the Landlords job!- agents are employed in the shoes of the landlord). So the fire department was called in & all was compliant.

At our yearly maintenance an outhouse (shed) was handed over to Tenants. We gave key and access. The Agent advised WE had to organise cutting of key; signing (by Tenant) of key; photos for condition entry; condition entry report and deliver to them and any special conditions on exisiting Lease. I asked what are they collecting commission for? They said they were 'far too busy at the moment to deal with it'.

The Tenants had complained to us about the non-responsivness and smugness of this Agency for about 6 months - they advised they had considered leaving as they believed the Agent's were relfecting our sentimentality and they felt every time they called them, 'they were a bother' and 'it took long for Agent to repond to calls'. That would have cost us Good Tenants. I had confronted the Agency about this issue and they denied the Tenants contacted them 'numerous times' for certain issues. They also denied having treated them with contempt (as English is not their first language) as they were 'HARD TO UNDERSTAND'.

Upon exit of one Tenant of room; the Agency called to advise exit report was complete of ROOM ONLY. I requested inventory report of all the fully furnished house and they advised this was not completed as it would have been an 'invasion of privacy' for other Tenants. I advised, upon taking up management of the room by room basis, their firm insisted they were very capable of completing thourough inspections of all House upon exit of one Tenant. This was again, not the case.

Only some paperwork gets sent to Landlords from this firm (i.e. still waiting on copy of renewed Lease) - and from memory inspections were every 6 months when I was advised 3 monthly inspections were what I was paying commission for.

Lastly, upon sending Notice to Terminate Management, I was contacted to explain myself as to why I was terminating with their firm as they had consulted file and saw nothing noted of these issues of incompentancy. Of course not.

I was also advised;

1. Fire alarms are not their responsibility to locate/report on - Wrong.

2. They were not 'aware' they had not sent last Lease documents.

3. The Employee did not agree with our treatment or Tenants' treatment. Monthly payment of rental on time. Poor Service; Incompetant uncaring staff; Treat people with contempt; Inspections are sparse and not thorough.