Policy: Owner Payments & Disbursements – Special Requests & Out of Norm

Company Position:

Property Providers’ vision is to “Help People Live Better” by being Sydney’s most flexible residential rental company. This vision is driven by three core values: Passion, Performance and Partnership. Importantly, we seek profit not through dollars and cents but through the pursuit of partnership through our guiding principle that all meaningful long-term partnerships have a strong foundation of mutual investment, respect, risk and commitment. We aim to create these virtues in all our relationships and touch points with long-term leasing tenants, short-term rental guests, employees, suppliers, partners, and our property owner partners. 

Document Purpose:

The purpose of this document is to clearly communicate Property Providers’ Policy in relation to owner payments and disbursements that are considered a special request and outside of the normal operating procedures applicable to both  Short-Term Rentals (<6-month occupancy) as well as Long-Term Leasing (>=6 months occupancy) owners.

Background:

Property Providers have a customer-centric approach across our policies and procedures. As much as possible, we would like to accommodate the requests of our clients while still maintaining fairness on both sides. This includes the owner’s requests to receive their disbursements outside of normal procedures (i.e. not to their registered Australian bank account). For example, pay another company, transfer to accounts that are not in the contracts, pay to an international bank account etc. Many owners have special financial requirements, which include their money being paid in different places. However, there are a lot of risks associated with these kinds of requests and so we would like to give clarity on special disbursements/fund transfers.

Policy Objectives:

To be clear, concise, consistent, reasonable, and fair in relation to Property Providers’ position and capabilities to effectively manage expectations regarding special requests on owner income disbursements and/or fund transfers. 
To be clear about the role/responsibility and liability of the company staff in connection to managing these kinds of scenarios. 
To proactively anticipate, as well as avoid problems that may arise internally and at the customer interface. 
To minimise touch points, conflict, and cost. 
To implement a simple, clear, consistent, and fair framework.

Agency Policy (For Short-Term Rentals):

Generally, the agency would like to avoid special disbursements or fund transfers to accounts that are not registered or agreed in the owner contracts.
If an owner requests a special disbursement or transfer of funds to an account that is not in our system, we require five days’ notice for notification to be given in writing/email.
The notification will include full instructions for the transfer and complete bank details. This includes bank account name, BSB, bank account number, BIC/Swift Code, bank address etc. Take note that it will not be Property Providers’ responsibility if any details are missing or incorrect.
A minimum amount of $10,000 is required to proceed with the processing of the special disbursement/transfer of funds.
Bank fees will be charged at cost – $27.50 domestic / $55.00 international per transaction.
The company will also charge 1.5% or a minimum of $150.00 (on top of the bank fee) per transaction as a load outside the owner’s personal bank account and to cover the hard cost of the process.
After the processing of the transfer, we will send a receipt of the transfer to the owner via email. The owner shall be the one responsible for monitoring any delay that the transfer will go through, this will include but not be limited to currency exchange rate/currency valuations.
The company is not responsible for following up on the money from the bank of origin to the account it is being transferred.
If the transferred money did not hit the account it was requested to be transferred to, it shall not be the company’s responsibility.
Once funds have left our account, Property Providers do not have any jurisdiction or control over the funds. It should be noted that Property Providers are unable to make any further payments or “re-pay” funds if there is a problem with the original transaction unless there is a bounce-back to our account, as we operate in a trust accounting environment.
If funds bounce back to our bank, we will inform the owner and will then repay the funds, however, we will require them to be paid to their original stated bank account on file. This can take up to seven working days.

Agency Policy (For Long-Term Rentals):

All the above policy bullet points apply.
In situations where a tenant had paid in advance several months’ rent, the agency is legally not obligated to transfer the funds in advance to the owner.
The agency will review requests on a case-by-case basis and reserves the exclusive right to approve or decline the request.
Where the agency does transfer advance funds:
- Commissions will be calculated to the total gross rent transferred at the time of the transfer.
- The owner agrees that they understand their obligation as set out in the Property Stock and Agents Act 2022.
- The owner agrees to indemnify the agency against all future tenant claims for compensation and is responsible for holding funds/rent in reserve should it be determined that any applicable tenant credit is appropriate.
- The owner also agrees that they will personally manage any NCAT application should one be submitted.

Rationale:

This policy supports “Partnership” which is one of our core company values.
Time and resources are required to do a job properly. Therefore, we believe that it is important to balance risk if we are going outside or normal processes.

Effective Date: This policy is effective 1^st October 2022. 