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McGrath
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gmbrown2Sydney, NSW
Very Poor Customer Service
As a landlord, I have been charged a $33 fee for the issue of an annual tax statement which was never requested, nor required as I keep personal records. I have spoken to several people and been promised a refund of this amount numerous times but several months later this refund has never transpired. On occasions when my tenants have requested maintenance, the company has contacted me several times in relation to the same issue when a go-ahead has already been given at the initial contact. Really quite poor!
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Eline Ekladious
- 6 reviews
Hard working and prompt in response. Easy to communicate and work with.
Hard working and prompt in response. Easy to communicate and work with. Respectful and kind, very helpful and very understanding. Honest and professional with high working ethics. I appreciate Julie excellence
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SamSydney, NSW
- 7 reviews
- 30 likes
Not genuine price guides
There was very recently a property in Revesby advertised for sale by auction with a price guide of $625k. There was no way that the property would sell for anything like that. After I complained to Fair Trading about it, McGrath changed the price guide to between $650k to $700k. Again, there was no way that the property would sell for that amount. At auction, the property sold for $900k which is what I was saying all along. Beware. Don't waste time and money being duped by such price guides which are only intended to bring as many people ...Read more
as possible to the auction and create a bidding frenzy while at the same time making McGrath look good. In their defence, McGrath will say that they quoted the price guide that they had in their agency agreement. But that is not the point. The point is that the public is being misled as to the real expectations of the owner.1 comment
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Tom.oHunter Region, NSW
- 2 reviews
Mcgrath Hunter Valley
Horrible communication and customer relation skills. Was commited to a sale subject to finance which we had done through their chosen mortgage broker. Followed step by step instructions as per the realtor including paying for building and pest inspections only to have the property sold from underneath us less then a week away from having the finance sorted. The realtor avoided all communications during the process including not returning phone calls and not replying to various messages in relation to the property. Worst customer experience of my life and a waste of money.
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JaySydney, NSW
- 2 reviews
- 5 likes
I caught them committing fraud (with video evidence).
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...Read more
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.Similar opinion? Write a review on ProductReview.com.au!
Mike EscherGreater Melbourne (Inner), VIC
- 3 reviews
- 3 likes
McGrath Real Estate Lower North Shore Sydney
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.
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Bad service.. never answer the phone
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
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- Verified customer
Find someone else to 'manage' your investment rental house.
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.........Read more
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.2 comments
Small followup.....
We've a new realestate now, ... Read more
required works came to well under $5000, itemised and fairly well done. that's OVER SEVEN TIMES less than McGraths contractors quoted for piecemeal works Hopefully the tennant's happy! Also, Landlord beware if your realestate agent can't be bothered, leaves you out of pocket and is generally indifferent resulting in you losing a tennant.....There's not much you can legally do if you change agents :-( Tennant left with 6 months on the lease, annoyed that (grossly expensive) repairs didn't get done quickly enough, left stuff in a worse condition than when they moved in and, well, it's tough luck us really!. Lesson learned, kick your agent up the backside BEFORE changing them :-(Further updates again........Small issue with sewer outside of property boundary - the new agents told us about it, actioned it and fixed it in the same Email!. It's great when you can TRUST your real... Read more
estate with YOUR money!.....Tennants should come first and communication is key. To give you an Idea of McGrath's tardiness - Damage done in December by Hail. Come April there still hadn't been a sensible quote for the replacement of a few sheets of laserlite, Cue one annoyed tennant because We, the landlord didn't spend 5 figures on the first random complete balcony teardown? tradie McGrath googled.....instead we spent very low 4 figures with a suitable tradesman that just replaced the laserlite, after just 3 weeks of signing up!Similar opinion? Write a review on ProductReview.com.au!
$6,700 and more reasons to avoid Mc Grath Blackburn like the plague
"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 Mc...Read more
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CarlaSydney
- 2 reviews
Lost the sale because of greedy, cocky agents
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 ...Read more
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.Similar opinion? Write a review on ProductReview.com.au!
Kawaii chan M.Sydney, NSW
Tamra Williams at McGrath’s estate agent
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 a...Read more
nd 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.Similar opinion? Write a review on ProductReview.com.au!
VerusSydney, NSW
- 3 reviews
- 1 like
They don't care
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 turn...Read more
ed 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.Similar opinion? Write a review on ProductReview.com.au!
KimSydney, NSW
- 2 reviews
- 1 like
Dishonest and Unprofessional
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!
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EdouardSydney, NSW
MC grath Hunter Hill The worst experience with a real estate agency ever
- 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...Read more
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.Similar opinion? Write a review on ProductReview.com.au!
McGrath St Kilda - Jesse Jones
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
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McGrath Hunters Hill - Horrible staff
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.
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QvmGreater Melbourne (Metropolitan), VIC
BAD AND DISAPPOINTED
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.
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Electrical faultsVermont
- 2 reviews
- 2 likes
Dishonest at best
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.
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TthSouth East Queensland, QLD
Very very bad property magement
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 pointe...Read more
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MelN
- 2 reviews
- 1 like
Cold agents only focused on the $$$
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.
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Questions & Answers
Phill Pasked
Can anyone tell me if it s legal for the first two weeks rent to be held and not use as rent for the first two weeks. I am renting a flat in Queensland and McGraths have told me it is, they wrote it in the lease and I signed but believe I don’t have to follow the requirements as the 2 weeks are not a legal requirement. Please advise if you know anything about this matter.
powergo98@hotmail.com
The principal at the McGraths behaved like an absolute dictator and I wish I had never signed a lease with this office. Something is really wrong!
No answers
Andreaasked
Hi, just wondering if anyone has had trouble getting their bond back from Ballina McGrath when you have done all the cleaning Yourself (except carpets). We moved to the area for 1 year from Townsville and was warned by many not to go through McGrath. But they really only had the places we were looking for. So really stressing that I am going to spend a week scrubbing walls and cleaning everything to be told they are taking our bond. When the house wasn't even clean when we moved in.
3 answers
The best thing is to go tribunal with them. You should have photo the condition at the beginning. However that is too late so try your best to clean as much as you could or use their recommended cleaner to avoid hassle . If you want full bond back thats nearly impossible. If they take more than 1 week rent from you then definitely going tribunal with them. Normally the judge lean towards the tenant. Remember to be polite and show how reasonable you are in the court and you will win!
I agree with Leon, the Tribunal is the next step and NSW Tenancy Hotline can give advise for preparation. Normal wear and tear in a tenanted property is normal. Real Estates rely on you not taking it to the Tribunal. My experience in July 2016 was with a Sydney McGrath. I ran into the Owner, who knew nothing of what I had been through with the agent. She ended up terminating them and leasing with another agent. They lied, tried to blame me for pre-existing damage and never fixed anything I brought to their attention. I left the apartment cleaner than when I came into it. Photos don't show the marks, stains and damage clearly. Prepare your documents well and use the Tribunal to get your matter dealt with. Also have a witness to the condition of the property other than yourself. Don't let them take your bond if they are not justified.
I am having a similar problem with McGraths in Qld. Having rented a property for near 15 years, they want me to repaint walls in kitchen and toilet as marked and about 6 picture hook holes which were filled but not good enough according to them to repaint over also pay $400 to cut down Palm Trees I didn't plant and the list goes on. The owner often visited the property up to 11 years ago when it was with PRD (3 years) and Ray White (8 years) but McGraths told him not to do any maintenance or visit anymore as that is what the agent is for. Now when we try to claim bond back they come up with all these excuses. I have spoken to RTA many times since 1st Sept when I handed keys in after giving 3 weeks notice to vacate as rent goes up and maintenance goes down, they were to inspect house on 2nd but didn't go there until 5th. RTA said trees are owners responsibility and after this long term rental property would need repainting anyway. I have rented 10 other properties over the last 43 years and never once lost so much as $1 from my bond. This is now in dispute with RTA as agent never gave back update exit condition report and have not to date given anything in writing regarding what was being claimed (I only found out the particulars from RTA), so McGraths are in breach as they had to do this within 3 days of vacating. They also lodged in claim unpaid water bill yet this wasn't read until 6th Sept and legally have to give 30 days to pay even on final bill, the account reads to pay by 29th Sept yet in bond claim this was disputed on 21st Sept. So again they have lied.
Never again would I have any dealings with McGraths, located anywhere in Australia and I wouldn't recommend a owner or renter to go thru them if there is a choice of another agent. All the reviews here speak for themselves.
Now agent phoned me yesterday they want me to come into office to discuss this as they don't want it to go thru tribunal, well guess what, NO WAY. I have the RTA support and recommendations in this matter.
They will have to fight me for my bond and no way is the owner going to get my bond to paint his house and lop his trees when he would have to do this anyway.
Cream carpets in 45 year old house are over 20 years old perhaps as old as house, yet we got them professionally cleaned every year.
I can understand if this place was rented for 1 year, 5 years but 15 years, you cant make an old place look like new. It hadn't been cleaned when I moved in but was completely cleaned when I moved out. Back in early 2000s I didn't possess a computer and camera films were expensive to process so photos were limited unlike today where agents and renters can take 100s.
Entry condition report states walls, carpets etc badly marked and stained. Window screens needed remeshing as had holes. I rescreened every one of them prior to moving to ensure house was up to standard. Rent was paid on time or before time week after week, never late, never a breach for anything. Water was always paid on time as well, yet agents seem to look after scum renters and abuse good renters. Well guess what McGraths thank god you are no longer my agent. I love my brand new home and thank god no longer in the termite ridden 45 year old house that kept making me ill and that landlord was too stingy to get treated or do repairs.
Listing monitored by McGrath representatives.
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Sam
Another recent example. I asked for a price guide for a property in Arncliffe in which I was interested. I was given $1.25m. The property sold for $1.447m. Agents should be able to give you a relia... Read more
ble indication of how much the property will go for, with the odd exception going for more. But there is a pattern of conduct here. Don't waste your time with price guides from some agents. Fair Trading should clamp down on the practice which only misleads people and wastes their time and money.