The Estate Agent: Ballarat Pty Ltd - Ballarat

Absolutely the worst rental experience I’ve had. If I could give zero stars, I would. Ballarat Real Estate keeps changing property managers — FHIL VELLA— is now the third person managing this property and every time it changes, it feels like no one knows what’s going on. There is no continuity, no accountability, and no proper communication. I’ve even had tradies call me asking for MY house keys because the agency “lost” their spare key and couldn’t access the property to complete repairs. Because of this, repairs were cancelled and rescheduled, wasting my time. That should never be the tenant’s responsibility. Communication has been extremely poor. Emails go unanswered. After repeatedly following up, I finally called and was told, “I don’t have time to check emails.” That is incredibly unprofessional responding to tenants is part of the job. I was then told to call or text instead, which I did multiple times, yet I still received little to no response. There are ongoing maintenance issues that were reported from the beginning, including broken doors that have completely come off and loose fittings that were mentioned when I moved in. Several light globes also need replacing. I have followed up by email, text, and phone with no meaningful response. The only reply after so many attempts I received was on January 15th: “Currently at routines. I’m awaiting for the owner approval please be patient and allow for the owner to respond.” There has been no update, no follow-up, no explanation — nothing. What makes this even more disappointing is that I previously rented through the same agency under James Plover and had no issues at all. Communication was clear, timely, and professional. So I know this agency is capable of doing better. The current level of service and attitude I have experienced with FHIL is unacceptable and far below basic professional standards. Tenants deserve clear communication and timely action on repairs. If Ballarat Real Estate is too busy to manage their properties properly, they should consider hiring more staff rather than leaving tenants chasing basic updates.

Sanjaya AlessandroGoogle

We decided to move out of our rental early and was notified of two inspections (dates and times). Our normal agent didn’t show up for the first inspection, no notice. We called the office and it seemed to be a slip up- second inspection went by fine. Our issue became when there was a third inspection that we had no communication or notice of. I found out that there was an “inspection” when a random agent (not our usual agent) walked into the house, and knocked on my bedroom door at the back of the house at around 9-10am in the morning. Would’ve been fine if 1, we were notified of an inspection, and 2, we were notified that they’d be a different agent- this made me extremely uncomfortable at the time as I woke up half asleep after a long night shift to a strange man banging on my bedroom door…whilst I was alone in the house. I had so little notice that I had to immediately stand outside the house in my nightgown, barefoot. At the time, I was only about 19. The new agent proceeded to make comments about the cleanliness of the house (whilst we were mid move and again, had no notice) to everyone who walked through the house. When I asked how to file a proper complaint in person, I was ignored. My housemate proceeded to email our regular agent later that day, again wanting to make a complaint- and was ignored, in email. There was also the matter of our agent losing documents for adding a new party to our lease (before we decided to move out) and we only found out that the documents were “lost” when we contacted the landlords after waiting almost an entire month on a response…only to find out that they never received any documents to look over (the agent had told us that he sent them, and that we were just waiting for confirmation) Whilst I’m sure this doesn’t reflect the entire company, these two situations were both upsetting and frustrating.

Hades SlaterGoogle

Excellent services and great professionalism. They offer quality services with local knowledge. They found a great Tenant for my property and Mikayla managed it extremely well. I really have appreciated all your services and the entire Team of Ballarat Real Estate.

Jane GoncalvesGoogle