Hi there, I’m Sophia Cong

"Poor communication"

Sophia is responsible for the most stressful week of my life. Our agent was Sophia, who was an average agent during our tenancy. She did what she was supposed to, she responded normally, got the landlord to fix things, etc. She didn't go above or beyond, just did her job. However when it came to ending our lease, she became a nightmare to get ahold of. Sophia completed our inspection on a Thursday. She then waited until 8pm on the Saturday to tell us the issues. There were a few minor cleaning things (a hair on the wall, dust on the exhaust fan in the bathroom, dirt on the stovetop, etc). We considered this reasonably clean, as when we moved in we needed to clean the place head to toe as a lot of things were dirty (flyscreens, windows, cupboard shelves, etc). She even wanted us to replace light bulbs when it was clear she didn't turn all the light switches on, and one was blown in our condition report when we moved in. She also pointed out damage to the skirting board, I thought it was wear and tear, however it wasn't which I will admit was my fault. Her communication was very blunt, unprofessional and always out of business hours (sometimes 10pm). THIS is where it gets ridiculous. My roommate and I were willing to come back and fix these things, only to be told THE NEW TENANTS HAD ALREADY MOVED IN?! She purposefully waited until the new tenants had moved in before she told us of the issues. So now we had to go and clean somebody else's house. I got a maintenance man to fix the skirting board. After we cleaned and gave her a detailed word doc with photos, she kept talking about the curtain rails. The curtains themselves were old and dirty, and the tracking had slanted due to the WEAR AND TEAR of opening/closing the curtains. We explained this. We even tried to bend them back into place and make them look neater. The ball was now in her court, she left it for nearly a week without quoting damages or any communication about it. Finally, we get an email on a Monday that our full bond would be returned. We replied to the email and waited patiently. On Friday, she declined my call and wouldn't answer her emails. I called her office this time, and the receptionist gave me her manager's email. Just as I was going to email him on the Sunday, I got a one word text at 8pm which said "organised". Sure enough, there's the official email from the RBTA the next day. It took almost a MONTH for our bond to be returned because of the poor communication after our tenancy had ended and new tenants were in. I honestly felt like after we handed in the keys, we weren't valued by her or Harcourts anymore. To any new tenants or ones just ending their tenancy, BEWARE.