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Holding the Line
by A Rangihana

I was recently sent an article titled. “Centrepay, AGL warned it was wrongly taking welfare payments from former customers but failed to act, court hears.” by Editor Lenore Taylor, the Guardian.

1. Tale of corporate greed.

This story of corporate greed against thousands of everyday Australians was perpetrated over many months and years and was used by some pretty shady companies to attack people less fortunate in our society for no apparent reason other than plane corporate greed. The energy company AGL in one period collected over $700,000 from former customers and was sent daily updates and
transactions made by the Government via Centrepay, and still failed to take steps to stop the wrongful deductions according to the court documents filed. Vulnerable Australians who had ceased being customers years before were wrongly charged by a well known and reputable Australian company energy company.

The case of the Tax Department vs Big Four (accounting firms) is reminiscent of an Agatha Christie's Murder Mystery except that the victims who are dead in the library and stabbed in the back are the Australian Tax Payers. The Big Four have extensive networks into government on every level, which includes all areas of the publicly owned Tax governance office and its structure's.  These corporations created an environment where by the Australian tax paying public lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

These stories reminded me of a story some very good friends told me relating to another well known corporate brand, L. J. Hooker. Franchisee Jaborrok P/L.

2. Dream retirement on the South Coast.

My friends, both in their mid 70s, were stunned by their treatment last year from L J Hooker Batemans Bay who had managed their 5 bedroom rental property in Batemans Bay, for a number of years. Their initial experience with the Agents was more than positive. Gary Barnes, the Property Manager, had been professional and did a very thorough job while the property was leased to extremely responsible and good tenants. Sadly, this was not the case with the following tenants, who were assessed as suitable by the L J Hooker office and, by then, Gary Barnes had moved to another office. He had, however, done a very thorough outgoing inspection and knew the property had been left in a good condition. My friends had only to go in and tidy up the garden in between tenants.
The new tenants were in the property for a little more than two years. After they had vacated the property, the owners were allowed to inspect the property at the invitation of the new Property Agent, Ethan Hood, while he undertook the final inspection. Although the property had been partially cleaned by the tenants, the owners immediately noticed a bad stench coming from the carpets, which the Agent claimed was a result of their recently being cleaned and he was keen to start advertising for new tenants.

However, the stench didn’t go away and so the owners sought advice from professional carpet consultants, who reported “strong animal/urine odour upon entering property. All 5 carpeted rooms heavily contaminated with dog urine. (Category 3 sewage”). My friends had every carpet removed and disposed of, the underfloors sealed where the urine had soaked through, and new carpets laid.
The Agents refused to accept the carpet cleaners’ assessment. Apart from the carpets, the internal walls had been badly patched with paint that was nowhere close to the original colour, trying to cover damage that the tenants insisted was there when they had moved in. L J Hooker decided to agree with them and not the owners, which made no sense. My friends would never have rented out a house in such a shabby condition. Most of the vertical blinds were also damaged or missing for no apparent reason and the flyscreens.
needed replacing. They discovered the damage had probably been caused by the numerous dogs and cats, which neighbours later testified were living in the house despite no permission being given by the owners. They had given permission, after the tenants had shortly moved in, for them to have one outdoor dog, but well and truly ignored by the tenants.

My friends expected L J Hooker to, at least, seek to recover some of the damage done to the property from the Bond, but, as the Agents refused to even admit that the damage was caused by the tenants, they only claimed for the few days of rent in arrears and the water rates owing.  The owners took L J Hooker to NCAT, a very arduous and stressful undertaking for anyone. The Tribunal Member, who seemed sympathetic to their grievances, found L J Hooker had been negligent in not carrying out detailed ingoing and outgoing inspections, but, having limited powers, could not enforce full compensation for the damages and losses which were almost $35,000. She suggested a round figure of $3500 as some compensation but L J Hooker management refused. They finally settled on $1500, which my friends reluctantly accepted.

3. Lessons Learned.

This decline of corporate responsibility and moral backbone sends a stunning chill throughout the societal structures that bind a healthy functioning culture together... without basic protections of governance and a strong judiciary we are open to the very worst of rampant capitalist greed.