Full Application before Rental Property Inspection

Lovel on 21/10/2020 - 22:55

I'm looking for rent a house here in QLD and it appears this is not the first case when a real estate agency wants me to have full application filled BEFORE actual inspection of the property.

So I've got the following email:

From: Rentals Caboolture <[email protected]>

====

Thank you for your enquiry on xxxxx Upper Caboolture

Our office has changed our process and are adapting to ever changing situations and appreciate your patience during this time.

Step 1:
We advise you to drive past the property to ascertain the area is suitable.

Step 2:
We require you to submit a full application. This can be found within the property advertisment on our office website by clicking "APPLY FOR THIS PROPERTY".
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR OFFICE WEBSITE

Step 3:
Once we have received your full application, it will be processed and discussed with the owners of the property. Pending approval by the owners we will then arrange a viewing time suitable to all parties.

===

To be honest, i hate this. Filling the full application takes around 2 hrs and i have to put all my personal details, my children's, my wife's, all my income just to come there and see the house is crap. Or it smells like crap. or anything else that is not reflected on their glossy pictures. Yes, i'm that old-fashioned individual who prefers to see the things in person before going into a 1-year lease.

And this is not the only one real estate agency with such weird conditions. I have found at least 3 different ones. Each one has their own forms so sort of you have to waste the whole day just for the inspection (and only if you're shortlisted). Is this actually legal ?

Another company's application form said that I had to pay 2weeks lease if I'm approved. But hangon, i haven't even seen the property. i'm not going to sign such papers.

Anyone else was stuck into the same issue ?

Thanks!

Home & Garden

Comments

  • Wickz on 21/10/2020 - 23:07
    +5

    Do the agents in QLD use 1form?

    I found that to be a game changer when I was looking as you only need to fill out all those details once, and it’s saved in your profile for all rentals you apply for.

    The only questions I then had to fill out where property specific

    Yes it takes a while to collate all the information, but I like how 1form allowed you to upload photos of yourself, your pets and write a blurb about them, and really explain who you are and why you want to live there, rather than the impersonal paper application.

    With regards to signing before seeing the property, I don’t think it will work like that. They probably want to reduce the number of people going through the property so want to already have a short list prior to opening.

    You can always apply, then if they approve you, you visit the property before agreeing to a lease. All rentals I have been in require you to have sighted the property prior to signing the lease.

    • spackbace on 21/10/2020 - 23:09
      +4

      They probably want to reduce the number of people going through the property so want to already have a short list prior to opening.

      Bingo

      Would be to avoid having 50+ people in a small house during Covid times. Means only the serious people will bother going through the hoops.

    • ovel on 21/10/2020 - 23:15

      none of them have 1form. They have their own different forms, many of them want to have paper application scanned and signed. It's just very time consuming. And the agencies easily limit the number of people inspecting the property by implementing pre-inspection registration. So once the number of registered people is full, the property is no longer available for inspection. But this applicaiton filling before even seeing the house is just weird.

      • ThithLord on 22/10/2020 - 09:52
        +1

        C'mon are you exaggerating? I was looking early in the year, BNE, and majority had 1Form.

        • ovel on 23/10/2020 - 11:58
          +1

          I'm not looking in BNE but mainly in remote areas. I'd say most of them have their own forms. In Brisbane, yes, you're right, 1form is common.

  • Logical on 21/10/2020 - 23:09
    -6

    Much easier just to buy a property… consider this.

    • ovel on 21/10/2020 - 23:16
      +2

      happy to provide my bank account to seek your support in my considerations :)

  • pjetson on 21/10/2020 - 23:10
    +1

    Is this actually legal?

    Why wouldn't it be?

    • ovel on 21/10/2020 - 23:18
      +2

      so you send a signed application where it's stated that you have to pay 2 weeks lease upon approval before even visiting the property? hmmm… sounds dodgy

      • pjetson on 21/10/2020 - 23:22

        You have the choice whether or not to play the game.

      • Wickz on 21/10/2020 - 23:25
        +1

        Have you called the agent to pose these questions? A 5minute phone call my either allay all your fears or convince you not to apply with that agent.

        • ovel on 21/10/2020 - 23:32
          +1

          yes, I did, not to rey white but to others. They said they have new rules and if I want to inspect the property i have to follow. I filled their application putting wording like "the details will be provided once I inspect the property" in places where I had to state my wife's and children's names and their DOBs, and also crossed out parts that required me to pay the lease upon the application approval (i didn't want to pay anything before seeing the property), and also where it was stated that I visited the property (while I didn't). After this they texted me that the applicaiton was not successful and stopped answering my calls. I thought that time it was some weird agency, but now I see this is becoming a widespread practice among other agencies.

          • Presence on 22/10/2020 - 08:20
            +1

            @ovel:

            where I had to state my wife's and children's names

            I can't possibly fathom why a real estate agent needs your children's names and DOB. It's absolutely none of their business and a serious privacy concern.

    • trongy on 22/10/2020 - 10:07

      If taken to court it might be considered unconscionable conduct..

      • pjetson on 22/10/2020 - 11:19

        I think that's quite a stretch, unless you were thinking of getting Dennis Denuto, lawyer to The Castle's Darryl Kerrigan, to fight the case:

        "It's the vibe of the thing, your Honour."

      • whooah1979 on 22/10/2020 - 12:58

        LOL.

        Nobody is going to court for being rejected after failing to fill out a rental application.

  • nilesstandish on 21/10/2020 - 23:22
    +2

    Dodgy.

    Report them to QLD Fair Trading.

  • AdosHouse on 21/10/2020 - 23:34
    +5

    Look OP, lets be serious, it's Caboolture, it shouldn't be hard to be approved anyway. Just having an income puts you miles ahead of 99% of the area. Stuff like having no criminal record, all your teeth, and wearing shoes out of the house is also a bonus.

    But seriously, I would be asking the agent if they are doing this so lots of people aren't inspecting the property at once. And if so, can they maybe share some maybe phone video footage of the house as it is now?

  • Rilo 117 on 22/10/2020 - 07:50

    This is how they're doing it in Victoria atm too, at least where I am, due to the covid.

  • whooah1979 on 22/10/2020 - 09:04

    The owner is doing their due diligence before handing strangers the key. The application is reasonable to make sure that they give the key to the right people.

    • ovel on 22/10/2020 - 09:11
      +1

      What keys? It's just an initial inspection before even I decide whether to rent the property or not. Just to come there and see that it might be shit inside. I'm happy to provide my ID if necessary for such purpose but not the full financial status with all my payslips, movements for the last 5 years and other sensitive info. I'm quite concerned this approach is becoming quite widespread tho.

      • whooah1979 on 22/10/2020 - 10:14
        +1

        They're asking potential tenants to fill out an application correctly. This is the first step in the screening process. People that can't do this simple task may not be suitable tenants.

        • ovel on 23/10/2020 - 11:43
          +1

          Filling the form takes 1-1.5 hrs. So if you want to inspect 10 properties, you need to waste at least 10 hrs of your time just to be shortlisted to see the property that may be stinky as a dead horse. This behaviour is simply unacceptable. I'm happy to provide my ID, my address, but before visit I don't want to tell all details of my family, names of my children, wife, their DOBs, my financial status, working references, annual income, and 10 years history of my previous residentials. It's quite too much to demonstrate this, come there and see a dried dog shit everywhere in the backyard and stinky property (just visited one yesterday).

          • spackbace on 23/10/2020 - 12:01

            @ovel:

            Filling the form takes 1-1.5 hrs.

            No, no it doesn't…

  • Quantumcat on 22/10/2020 - 09:44
    +3

    You definitely shouldn't be paying anything before sighting the property and agreeing to a lease. Only scammers ask for that.

  • Peter Enis on 22/10/2020 - 10:59
    +4

    I'm with you OP, I think this is ridiculous. These days we are all taught to protect our privacy and be very cautious about handing over any personal information. I think this is another case of business using COVID as an opportunity to make life easier for them, lets just hope that this doesn't become the new normal.

    What's wrong with registering for an inspection, hell even make it so you have to pay a $100 refundable deposit and provide your drivers license, better than handing over your entire financial records, birth certificate etc. That would definitely weed out the tire-kickers.

    BUT at the end of the day, what are you gonna do? Unfortunately if you need to find a rental, you'll probably have to go along with it or keep looking elsewhere.

    • ovel on 23/10/2020 - 11:55
      +1

      luckily there are still a lot of normal agencies with normal inspections so I just skip those ones with such weird requirements. But their number is growing and the tendency is quite threatening.

  • Willco88 on 23/10/2020 - 11:49

    Same here in SA agents won't even bother to view the property with you belt they get your application and then narrow it down to whom they like before they show the house.

    So basically they only show the property to a selected few who they feel would even qualify.

    That's it, I sent off maybe 50 application and only got shown 5 properties in the end.

    • ovel on 23/10/2020 - 11:57

      That's bloody outrageous. Is there a way to complain somewhere. I still don't think such approach is acceptable. I'm ok to provide necessary information to arrange contact tracing, but they require full details, bloody hell, almost like my NV1 clearance.

      • Willco88 on 23/10/2020 - 12:12
        +1

        That's the way it is now, frustrating yes but no choice in the matter but it is kind of why I look for private rental to actually talk to the owners!!

  • OzzyOzbourne on 23/10/2020 - 13:40
    +1

    Yep, I just had to do exactly this in Victoria too and used 1form… It's apparently due to coronavirus… But isn't everything these days.
    Also, providing such detailed information about my life and background which gets passed on to a complete stranger (the landlord), who could be a criminal for all I know, also concerns me.
    Anyway, they are lords and we are not, so we have to do what they want if we want somewhere to live and to fund their government supported, tax deductible, investment ponzi scheme for them.

    • Willco88 on 23/10/2020 - 13:57
      +1

      Yes that's life unless you can buy your own

      • OzzyOzbourne on 23/10/2020 - 15:50
        +1

        I did, but people's situation change.
        I suspect you are a landlord and quite comfortable with your position of power.
        Anyway, just because something is the way it is, doesn't mean it's right and can't change. That's why we are a democracy and people have rights. Otherwise, we'd have a few people in positions of power abusing the rest of the people. We can see it in the news every day even in a country as "free" as Australia. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    • whooah1979 on 23/10/2020 - 14:13
      +1

      to a complete stranger (the landlord), who could be a criminal for all I know, also concerns me.

      The tenants could be drug dealers and start selling drugs in front of the property in their vehicle.

      • OzzyOzbourne on 23/10/2020 - 15:45
        +1

        I was referring to giving your recent life and financial history to a stranger who may not be a good citizen rather than the fact anyone could be a criminal.
        I doubt many tenants have such information about multiple landlords, whereas landlords could have this information on hundreds of applicants with no laws for protection of privacy.

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