McGrath

The agents forgot to do an initial inspection at the beginning of our 2 year lease. At the end of our lease, the agent (Katina) from the Coogee office tried to commit fraud by producing a initial inspection report from almost 8 years ago, which had the tenants names erased, and our names inserted. The report requires the tenants to agree on the condition of the property at the beginning of the lease - the handwriting was clearly NOT ours. She tried to claim that we had caused damage to the property, based on any differences she observed between the condition report from 8 years ago and the present day (even though we had only been in the property 2 years).

I threatened to take her to the tenancy tribunal, but in hindsight I should have reported her to the police. I have a video recording of the entire event, including the redacted/modified document she tried to use to defraud us.

Furthermore, they held twice weekly property inspections, because they wanted to sell the property. We had random people walking through our property twice per week for the final 6 weeks of our lease. We received no compensation for this whatsoever.

All renters should avoid McGrath's wherever possible.

Found Gareth at this agency to be very professional. Recently looking for an investment property and found all their listings had full details, copies of contracts, building reports and Strata reports where appropriate. Agent has been pro active in finding properties for me and stayed in contact advising price ranges etc. A shining light compared to some of the other cowboys in this industry.
Highly recommended.

very Bad service.. they never answer the phone..even the office always going to answering machine. they take forever to fix anything let alone to get a call back .. i will never rent from place they manage

Indifference is really all I can say.
We're both landlords and renters, we understand both sides of the coin and ultimately want happy, sensible.
If you want a relatively simple hands off experience of being a landlord, these ARE NOT your people.
we had a large 80's house in need of some TLC and a refurb.

Things started well, but went downhill rapidly

You really need to keep an eye on your receipts / invoices. Question everything in there.........

We gave them carte blanche to just get minor stuff done to keep tennant happy. we expected some small issues due to the age of the house......

Of course, we ended up with dozens of invoices below the few hundred dollar value that we decided...........including pool upkeep over what we already were paying for (filters, salt, cleaning,
gardening, emergency callout fees (that were due to tennant fault)
.......even if it was something tennant should pay for, Mcgrath mostly didn't bother checking, they just charged us.

The communication path between tennant, McGrath and landlord is effectively a bad game of chinese whispers meaning that actual works that needed doing differed vastly from quotes that subcontractors came back with. Often received quotes for thousands of dollars for the small (hundreds of dollars) jobs that actually needed doing.

To try to help everyone and save us the dozens of less than $500 invoices, we asked a simple question.......
take a photo if there's something broken and we'll make a call to fix it...........Nah. Nothing ever really got done after that.

Any realestate with the landlords interests surely wouldn't leave a property vacant several weeks before bothering to badly advertise it?
Any realestate with the landlords interests at heart wouldn't let a tennant pack up and leave with 6 months remaining of the contract, just shrug their shoulders and say there's nothing the landlord can do?

Your experience may differ of course, but for us, just didn't work out.

incidentally, our other rental with another company - happy tennant, great real estate, never hear a thing, required repairs are communicated quickly, are actioned very quickly and we've a lot of trust that they just don't take the easy path and invoice the landlord at the tennants whim, they take time to find the issue, identify the fix and get a suitable contractor in.

"Without Prejudice" $6,700 and more reasons to avoid Mc Grath Blackburn like the plague, go to Fletchers ([name removed]) , Jellis Craig ([name removed] is Brilliant) or Woodards ([name removed])-I really wish that I had.

This is just some of my experience with Mc Grath Blackburn. Beside many serious Ethical failures, there are apparent Breaches of the RTA; FTA; EAA and privacy.

Let’s start with serious breach of my privacy -
Email sent 10/07/2019 - [name removed] I am notifying you that my personal information has been disclosed today by McGrath Blackburn by XX without my authorisation. My personal details, background/history, name and number have been given to a third party without my consent. I was called twice today by XX and the voice message left confirms what McGrath Blackburn has done with my personal information.

I take my privacy seriously and have every right to protect it. I like so many of your clients have given your personal, private and sensitive information to give my information out without my knowledge or consent is breaking the law and completely disgusting. I wonder how all your clients would feel if they knew that their personal information is not safe, secure or respected? Or is this “special” treatment for me as I have complained?

I ask that you immediately prevent any further unauthorised contact from this or any third party. This matter will be reported to the OAIC. Besides a written apology from XX, I look forward to hearing what action you will take and what you are going to do to prevent this from happening ever again to anyone.

I am waiting for that apology and reply.

Next: I counted over 31 recorded attempts to speak to a McGrath Property Manager and over 5 attempts to speak to the Principals. The only time I was given the mobile number to speak to the Property Manager was when it was brought to light that an email (and their approach), they wrote to my Tenants was about to trigger an investigation. Their call was not a follow up to my calls, it was purely a desperate attempt to scramble for cover. [name removed] the Principal who I tried to call several times prior to this day was suddenly available and admitted on the call that they have made an error, and that they operate in a “boys club” environment.

McGrath Blackburn performed so poorly that the Tenants engaged a third-party Agent to resolve the concern. As a Landlord I had terms dictated to me by my Tenants and an Agent who I did not know, all the while thinking that McGrath Blackburn had my back and had done the right thing by everyone. I did not want to go to VCAT, McGrath Blackburn bludgeoned my Tenants with the “iron fist”; once I was advised by the Third Party Agent of their attempts to reach me via McGrath Blackburn and of the communications going on in the background (without my knowledge) I asked for McGrath Blackburn to hold off as it was a sensitive matter and critical that my property’s sale go ahead.

When I asked for all other relevant communications that I as a Landlord, your client should be made aware of? The response I got from McGrath Blackburn ([name removed]) was “Following your email below and in keeping with your request, your communication below has rescinded our rights to manage the property effectively on your behalf”

Please make alternate arrangements with the tenant where the rent is to be paid. Your file will be ready for collection by close of business today including the Bond Transfer Notice. Where you do not notify our office of alternate agent, we will post to your nominated postal address in tomorrow’s post the file and all particulars relating to the tenancy thus far by registered mail.

McGrath Blackburn wrote an email to the tenant telling them that they would be homeless!!! Then when another agent called them out on their email and approach, they rescinded their agreement with me because I wanted to negotiate with the tenants via this agent and not go directly to VCAT! They had the nerve to fail epically, and then write: “We will not be party to any conduct which may breach the Residential Tenancies Act or the rights of the tenant.” Umm, a little too late don’t you think? They were paid to Manage and to provide Professional recommendations and instructions- their actions put the Tenants and myself in this “stalemate” place to begin with!

It is my strong opinion that McGrath Blackburn are the reason why the $3,000 early break lease agreement fell over and I ended up paying $6,700 to the Tenants.

[name removed]’s view is “you get what you pay for and we are reluctant to compromise on our fee because we believe in our service”. You really can pick and choose from loads of poor reviews including mine- you can see what just some of what that experience looks like RUN anywhere else-McGrath Blackburn rates as a catastrophic fail in my opinion based on a horrible and exhausting experience. Life wasn’t meant to be easy, and they made this a whole lot more complicated and nastier than it needed to be.

We bought a house in an area that was supposedly moving forward and market value was at a reasonable price to what we bought it. In the beginning we were dealing with one salesmen which we thought would be selling our house, he then passed us over to a horrible arrogant agent. We were trusting and didn’t think too much of it - maybe the confident sort of attitude would appeal to buyers. We signed with McGrath to sell our house after them promising to make us 40-50,000 over what we bought it at. 2 months later, barely any people walking through to look at the house, we missed the opportunity to sell it at the price we thought was reasonable. We even said to both men the price you’re listing is too high, just put it on for market value. They didn’t listen, repeatedly. It is now 8 months down the track, we cannot sell it for the price to breakeven due to McGraths greed and cockiness to sell it over market value. This company is disgusting and think they are the best. Watch out if you want up themselves, arrogant salesmen.

I found Tamra Williams from McGrath’s Estate Agents to have unethical and disgust work ethic. She took had me sign a release of bond monies stating it would be released in a few days then went on to hold the money illegally stating false reasons. She made up lies and had absolutely disgusting behavior towards me. At the time I was facing cancer treatment and a pregnancy. This woman was uncaring and all she wanted was money!! I lived in the Gymea area and had rented for 10 years from the same real estate agent. They did 6 monthly inspections and never brought up any problems. She actually sent letters stating how good the property was kept!! Then suddenly when I had signed the bond release and had the unit cleaned for over $500 she, Tamra Williams without any notice or contacting me took my bond.
I had no energy and was expecting my baby and cancer treatment within weeks, I didn’t have the opportunity to fight her allegations.

Initially I was a bit skeptical about all the negative reviews on McGrath here. Until I got to experience their abominable behavior first-hand.

Having just arrived from overseas, my wife and I found a fantastic house for rent in the Sutherland area of Sydney. McGrath Cronulla was the rental agent. We signed up for a scheduled inspection and while on our way to the property we got a text message saying the inspection was canceled. No reason was given. But since we were already on our way, we decided to go there anyway.

When we arrived, it turned out the owners of the house were there, overseeing the cleaning of their house. They didn't know an inspection was scheduled. Some minutes later the McGrath agent also showed up, rambling some excuse that didn't make any sense to either of us. But she took our name and phone number and would contact us about the next inspection. We never heard back, but we noticed a new inspection was scheduled a few days later, so we signed up again.

We arrived well in time, in contrast with the agent, who showed up 10 minutes late. Now that is a lot of time, given that inspections are usually limited to 15 minutes. Fortunately, the owners were there again, doing some last-minute works on the house. They were very friendly, and when the agent didn't show up on time, they let us in and showed us around themselves, saying "enough time had been wasted already", which sounded to us like they had been having issues with the agent too.

We got along very well with the owners, we had a very pleasant chat about various aspects of the house, and we showed our interest, and they showed theirs. In the meantime, the McGrath agent had shown up and started to chat along, but it was clear she didn't know much about the house, or what she was talking about at all.

The automatic confirmation email we had received from McGrath beforehand, included the application form. When we asked the agent about how to apply, she told us they work with tApp, but we could also use the form and email it. If we would fill it out during the weekend (the inspection was on a Saturday), she would look at it on Monday and let us know. In fact, we had already filled out the form before coming to the inspection, because we were eager to get the house, and so we sent it to them only a few hours after the inspection, with all requested information inasmuch as applicable.

Several other interested folks inspected the house as well that day, but we are pretty confident we were the first to apply. And since the agent could not have possibly missed the chemistry between us and the owners, we expected a quick and positive response.

But Monday went by without a response. Tuesday, same. On Wednesday we sent an email asking about the status. No response. On Friday we called her, got more lame excuses, she would look into it and get back to us. We never heard back. But we did notice that in the meantime more inspections had been scheduled.

It was all very weird. We were home owners ourselves before moving to Australia, and we had sold our house with a good margin, and could have paid the rent for years to come, even without my well-paid job, which we clearly explained and showed in the application.

Long story short: Avoid wasting your time with McGrath. They just don't care. We feel very sorry for the owners of that beautiful house. Fortunately, we found another great house a week later, managed by an agent who does care, and we are very happy now.

I expressed my interest in a rental, I called, emailed and sms the agent and asked for a private viewing to be set up as the home was exactly what I was looking for and I was desperate to move. The only reply I got was to say a viewing was not yet arranged and that the agent would be in touch when one was set up. The very next day I got another email to say that the house had been filled. Firstly, the place was on the market for a day, secondly if they had a prospect lined up why didn't they just say! There is no honesty or integrity, what do people have to do walk directly into the agency and demand to see the place? SO UNPROFESSIONAL!

- Constant issue with apartment in Darlinghurst (gas bills issues, humidity and mould, dust due to construction work next door) , with defficient support and help from agency. Hunter Hill agency handling our apartment in Darlinghurst which makes things even more complicated.

- Outgoing inspection was a scam. after pushing us for not being here for outgoing inspection, betraying our trust after saying everything will be fine, they were claiming an incredible amount (3.5k$+), which was including a lot of things we were not responsible for. After going twice to NCAAT, the tribunal final decision was to make us paid 600$. Our fault was to trust them and to let them do the final inspection without us being there.
As we went through so many issues during our tenancy, we thought we could trust them when they said everything will be fine for outgoing inspection. Manuela Hadanich (Hunter Hill) was rude, disrespectful and tried until the end to pull money from us as much as she could. Luckily, we didn't give up on it and never gave this unreasonable amount.
Never trust them and always attend the final inspection with them, with your own photos.

Just had the worst experience with a real estate agent in a while. Jesse Jones was deceitful and dishonest. I would never deal with him again and would strongly not recommend him to anyone

Dealing with the 2 lady property managers was a nightmare . Repeated maintainance requests ignored, unannounced property inspections and their emergency tradesman contacts are dodgy to say the least! The elderly property manager who calls herself the ‘senior property manager’ seems to think being condesending and belittling people is how you speak to tenants. Also she repeatedly ignored our request for a joint final inspection only to conduct it at 5am!! I’m fairly sure that isn’t allowed by law! Also many positive reviews on Google are not legitimate. The property managers have asked their friends on their social media accounts to write fake positive reviews. Pathetic.

They keep calling several times without concern if I am busy. Meanwhile, They also keep calling my landlord and bother her. My landlord even told me this agent is so unprofessional and ask several silly questions. Why they cannot email me first instead of calling me in the early morning during my exam. So disappointed. I will ever never use this agent anymore.

Mcgrath box hill and Blackburn both knew of electrical faults and appliances not working in the property they rented and continue to do and also trying to sell. Dishonest, unsafe.

Moved into a property rented to us through McGrath Winston.
When we moved in the property was filthy, we took loads of photos and noted it on the entry report.
Upon leaving they informed us that there was a few issues with the cleanliness. 1 cobweb and some small bugs in the cornices. We cleaned the bugs from the property on a daily basis so this was something that we could not get away from.
We had the garden and lawns done and was immaculate.
I asked for a copy of my original entry report for the property showing all the things we had pointed out. But to no avail, they wouldn’t supply it.
Then they put in a claim for the full amount of the bond. Claiming cleaning and garden maintenance.
This was after they had the photos of the garden that we had done.
The girl dealing with it was rude and extremely unhelpful. Yes they gave us 24 period to put right the cobweb issue, but they told me late on a Friday afternoon so didn’t have time to take the day off on Saturday or the Monday.
These guys are only there for the owner of the property. As for tenants they don’t give a hoot about you.
This is a lesson learned and will check out the reviews of agents in the future.
My advice is to avoid these at all costs

Due to unforeseen circumstances (me having to travel overseas to care for my dying mother) I had to pull out of the purchase of a unit I had signed a contract on, the agent Cayle from McGrath in Wilson was cold, unfeeling and extremely rude.
I would never approach this agent for the sale of any of my properties.

I have been looking to buy a unit and have received excellent, consistent and reliable information about properties available in the area which would be suitable. Connor is polite, respectful and honest. He follows through promptly with real estate information. He has a professional and courteous manner. I have been impressed with his determination and positive attitude. It has made a big difference to me in looking for a home as Connor has kept me informed and updated.

I have got many issues with the unit so far: leaking water in the kitchen, in the toilet, hot water not working. The agent never picks up my phone call

Appalling treatment of my son and partner. Everything nice and sweet until they decided to move out. Spotless house not good enough and lies designed purely to bully them into relinquishing their bond. Threats of legal action in the courts - another lie. They are all over you to get you in the rental and then its all about how they can stand over you. Their actions will come back to bite them. Never take on a mother protecting their child - I bite.

My neighbours currently rent with McGrath Glenelg.. I have for the last year asked them to speak to their property manager (McGrath RE Glenelg) about trees that are causing damage to my fence.. Nothing has been done.. Ive tried contacting the RE myself and their excuse was well we just finished fixing the roof and can't afford to fix fence line.. The real estate agent was so up herself and rude she basically told me to go EFF myself and sort it out myself.. If my tenants don't have a problem with it, then neither do we. How the tenants are renting with them, I don't know, such a horrible bunch of people..