First National Action Realty Ipswich avoid at all costs
This agency actively sabotaging my interest, losing me over $20,000 and costing me probably $10,000-$15,000 in repair for the work done.
Head office come, actively and aggressively stonewalling, won't return calls, insist everything is in writing, after promising an urgent phone call to start with and then refusing to return calls "too busy all in meetings" repeatedly, disinterested and disrespectful of their clients
I had contacted the First National agency to tell them that I wanted them to arrange access for a painter to externally paint the house. The receptionist answered and talked me into using her husband C, instead. He was not registered or insured, he lied that both of these were in place. He even lied to the head of the Real Estate agency that these are in place when I asked him.
C kept asking for more & more $$, 90% of it, but doing very little of the house, kept saying paint was being washed off by rain. He would leave a terrible mess everywhere, and the tenants were in tears.
C got fined by WorkSafe for not following lead abatement measures, and the tenants picked up that he was doing a terrible job, but First National agent Kim convince me that they were crazy and lying. Kim sent around a so-called independent painter to claim the job was going fine, but turns out that this is a person who works for the agency as a real estate agent, so it was a complete set up.
I had been asked by one of the seniors to put in a formal complaint about Kim two years earlier, and I refused because I didn't want to jeopardise her job, because they were ready to fire her. I saved her job and this is how she rewarded me.
C injured his leg playing football, decided after it healed he didn't want to finish the job, but had $22,000 of the $24,000 contract. C rang me stating he was ending the contract. His wife (the receptionist) sent a follow up email 4 March 2022 saying she didn't want him to attend the property to drop off the leftover paint. 8 March 2022, I asked why only one pot of paint was left over, C hung up on me. I sent an email - in which I confirmed that they we had terminated the contract as C was "too stressed" to finish it.
Kim then claimed they would get someone to finish the job with the 10% of the outstanding money for the contract. That painter turned up and immediately raised the alarm, explained the job had been done extremely poorly & there was no way that work was going to be able to be complete with the 10% of monies left over.
I got a second quote and the original people who were going to quote it, GMP painters, agreed that it was an atrocious job, for example no primer, thin paint, poor preparation. Turns out that the tenants have been Gaslighted all this time, and there has been nothing wrong with their concerns.
I involved QBCC. Kim turned up - she was not asked to be my authorised agent, the tenants were. I have been told Kim stated that I had terminated the contract. The QBCC didn't check if that was correct, and I have proof of all emails that it was terminated by the painter. But QBCC won't revisit the complaint because they said they've run out of time to do their internal review - even though I put my request for review in time.
I'm now chasing this through QCAT and other avenues, which I was trying to avoid.
The most unbelievable situation I have ever faced.
If you want it agency that actively sabotages - this is it