# Terrible renting experience with Elders Real Estate Agent!!!



## anthonynguyen (Dec 12, 2013)

This is my 'brand new' experience (happened today), and I - a desperate renter - would like to share with you guys in a hope that my story could be a piece of warning to prevent this from happening again to any of you in the future. We are very angry and disappointed at the way the Elders Real Estate (Hurstville) have treated us. We are feeling like we have been cheated by them actually. Being newly-returned residents trying to settle down in Sydney, my wife and I have done everything the agent required to apply for a premises and our application was true and genuine in every detail. The agent then informed us that our application had been successful and strongly urged us to confirm acceptance and pay a one-week rent deposit to secure the house. They also requested us to move in the house and start the lease next Sunday. We have followed their every single instruction and done everything accordingly and promptly. But then, after having kept silent for almost one day since receipt of our deposit, in the last minutes when all decisions had been made, they got back just to let us know that the house was not secured for us as the owner had changed their mind without giving any reasonable explanation!!!

We do not know what has been happening in their end with the owner, and it's not our business too, but everything they did has in fact left us with no choice and put us in a very hard situation. They have made us not only miss other vacancy options but also even lose the current shelter as it has been promised by the owner to other people as we were moving out. What they have done was not only irresponsible as a business unit, but also extremely cruel as human beings, especially when they have already known very clearly that we have small children to take care of (ironically, they said earlier that one of the reasons why our application was successful is because we have small children and the owner of the house wanted that!).

Now though very frustrated, we have got nothing to do as they have completely denied all responsibilities. We are waiting for them to repay our deposit and we need to quickly find some shelter for our children before this Sunday comes!!!


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## chicken999 (May 2, 2013)

That is absolutely outrageous. Did u report them to the head office and also to reiq?


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## anthonynguyen (Dec 12, 2013)

Thank you for your sharing and the advice, chicken999, I am going to email Elders HO now but what is reiq?


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## aussiesteve (Mar 16, 2012)

That's a terrible but not uncommon thing to happen. I was in property management for 13 years ablnd owners changing their mind was one of my biggest problems.
You could complain to Elders HQ but it would probably get you nowhere. You would be better asking the agency to find you another property, after all they had already approved you for the property you have now missed out on and would nit have to carry out the checks again.
The REIQ is the Real Estate Institue of Queensland, as I beleive you are in NSW they would be of no benift to you.
Good luck in your house hunting.


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## anthonynguyen (Dec 12, 2013)

Update: 

1. They - the RE Agent - kept my deposit over one week before release. Though the amount was not big, this was a case of illegal capital appropriation.

2. aussiesteve was right, Elders HQ stayed silent. Only a 'man of honour' (requested to be kept anonymous) from Elders Hurstville telephoned me upon receipt of my email saying that he felt 'it's humiliating' for his colleague to treat the client that way. He said the colleague in charge was of Chinese origin and he heard she was talking with the owner of the house, who was also Chinese, about my case in the Chinese language and that how my case was 'settled'!


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