Incompetence perfected
You may never find more profound examples of pretentious incompetence in the real estate industry such as Johnson Real Estate, but considering the whole industry is "deeply buried" in disrepute, achieving a "Johnson Real Estate" level of incompetence is a low bar to clear.
Before the ink had dried on the rental agreement contract, the "senior property manager", appointed to "manage" the rental I was moving into, had already breached a clause of the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation (RTRA) Act, (Prescribed minimum housing standards) Division 4, Section 17A, Subsection 3 - "A prescribed minimum housing standard may be about any matter relating to the premises... for example...", (a)"Sanitation...facilities".
One of their other tenants came over to return a bin that my property "manager" had given to him (and not replaced at 19 Davis Way). Prior to this, I was given no option but to leave garbage bags of kitchen waste by the curb side, which were promptly ripped apart by crows. Having repeatedly contacted this "property manager", the new bins were finally delivered (after considerable delay) leaving me to clean this mess up. A clear example of the "property manager's" unwillingness/inability to prepare the property, pre-tenancy, to adhere to the above-mentioned RTRA requirement for "minimum housing standards". Was I compensated for her incompetence? Absolutely not.
'Neglected' may be a strong word if it were only for that example alone, but it got worse from there. 19 Davis Way (Walloon, Qld) has structural issues; not the sort to cause water ingress, but the roof (reportedly by their hired pest inspector) is porous enough to allow entry for micro-bats as well as vermin and flies. The flies were the worst, eg during the warmer months I was emptying cans of fly spray just to keep the "swarms" under control. I also discovered that I needed to quickly locate and pick up the dead flies, because some were carrying maggots, which the fly spray did not kill. Imagine for a moment, waking up in the morning and finding your kitchen floor covered in live maggots. This happened on more than one occasion. I even raised it with Johnson Real Estate's "Principle property manager" who was both quick to dismiss the flies but also said that living in a rural area you are susceptible to flies. Incompetence and contradiction? I guess she should practice checking her emails before sending. The many examples of poor customer service I experienced seem to have (similarly) been reported by other tenants, based on the many negative reviews I have recently become aware of about Johnson Real Estate.
I had enough of living in what could only be described as a public toilet. This was a new house and I was the first tenant. I did my best to ensure it was kept clean and did not attract the vermin that were otherwise clearly growing in number in the roof area, but neither this "senior property manager" nor the "principle property manager" wanted to know, either coming up with pathetic excuses that borderlined insanity, or just plain disregard with no response. This was also another breach of the RTRA, Division 4, Section 17A, Subsection 3(j) - "Freedom from vermin infestation".
Eventually, after considerable delay, they "attempted" to address the growing vermin problem by hiring a "lip service", lesser-known local pest control contractor, who spent such little time in the roof area that it was impossible to determine the extent of the vermin infestation. For example, qualified and experienced pest inspectors have advised me that it would take 1 to 2 hours to inspect this house's tiled roof area as this configuration of roof space has a lot of supporting structure to navigate around. This "lip service" contractor spent less than 20 minutes.
His pest report claimed that he "...didn't see any vermin...". Anyone who has the most basic understanding of vermin would know that they are very timid creatures that will run and hide before you even finish removing the man-hole cover to enter the roof. Laughably and obviously, yes, he didn't "see" any, but he also didn't conclude the house was vermin free, but that didn't stop the "property manager" "re-imagining" the report as saying it was so. I used the term "lip service" as the report, the failure to conduct an adequate inspection, and his omission (from the final report) of several issues that were verbally discussed with me while he was on premises, seemed to demonstrate an attempt to "white wash" the facts of the situation away with an implausible report.
They seemed to have one thing on their mind: my bond, and how much they could "steal" from it with the assistance of the feckless RTRA, and in part, they succeeded. Avoid these jokers if you ever want to see your bond again.