Professional real estate company forced to make groveling apologies after Taylors Lakes office sent an ominous email to tenants about paying their rent during Christmas ‘eviction season’
A major estate agency has been forced to apologize after warning tenants they will be evicted if they do not pay their rent on time over the Christmas period.
Professionals Taylors Lakes sent an ominous email to tenants Monday afternoon stating that Christmas is often known as “eviction season.”
One tenant branded the company’s actions as “appalling” after the agency ordered tenants to keep up with their payments or face leaving their properties.
The email began by saying: ‘Christmas is a fantastic time of year and also a very busy time!’
But the message’s tone changed when it included a stern warning for tenants who fall behind on their “largest financial obligation.”
Property agency Professionals Taylors Lakes (pictured) sent an ominous email to tenants telling tenants that Christmas is often known as ‘eviction season’
‘Christmas time is also known in property management circles as ‘eviction season’ because so many people choose to use their rental payments for Christmas expenses rather than ensuring their family home remains the top priority during this period.
‘We see that many residents fall into rent arrears and then find themselves in the position where they can no longer catch up…
“We then have the… unfortunate task of having to remove and evict these tenants from their homes.”
The agency also says that “this action is very unpleasant” and warns tenants to “pay close attention” to their upcoming payments.
Hundreds of users took to social media to condemn the agency’s brazen email.
“That’s insensitive,” one user wrote on Twitter.
“That is one of the most horrible and unprofessional things I have ever seen…” said another.
‘OMG, this is horrible.’
Others were unimpressed by the company’s actions at a time when the property market is unaffordable for thousands of Australians.
“Our rental market is completely broken if this type of behavior and disregard for human decency is acceptable,” said one user.
“The fact that they’re calling it ‘eviction season’ should be enough to send the entire industry into meltdown,” said another.
The cheeky email (pictured) told tenants that the agency would have the ‘unfortunate task’ of evicting tenants for not paying rent on time, and told tenants to ensure they met their ‘biggest financial obligation’ would comply instead of spending their money on Christmas shopping.
The company’s CEO, Katherine Gonzalez Cork, apologized to tenants who received the email and said she was only made aware of the email from the Taylors Lakes agency on Tuesday morning.
“The email was distributed directly from the Taylors Lakes office to tenants and its contents were not endorsed by me or the Board of Professionals and do not represent our company’s expectations for communications with our tenants,” Ms. Gonzalez told Cork. The guard.
The agency sent a separate email on Tuesday apologizing for any inconvenience their earlier email had caused.
“We can understand how the choice of words in the email may have offended you in any way and for this we are sorry,” professional Taylors Lakes said in a statement.
‘We assure you that the purpose of the email was to remind you in a timely manner of normal rental obligations.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Professionals Taylors Lakes for comment.
The agency’s website states the company is an “established real estate company offering benchmark customer service…” with the company’s name “synonymous within the Australian and international real estate community.”
States and territories in Australia make the laws that determine when tenants can be evicted and whether landlords have the right to remove tenants from their properties. However, these rules vary by state.
Social media users condemned the company’s action, saying the email was ‘insensitive’ to Australians struggling to pay their rent (stock image of apartments)
State and territories in Australia make the laws that determine how eviction notices are enforced on tenants (stock image)
Generally, eviction notices must be issued in writing by the landlord and tenants must be informed when they must vacate the premises.
Tenants can, in some cases, challenge an eviction notice if they have been treated unfairly during the eviction process.
Failure to pay rent and damaging property are some of the reasons a landlord may issue an eviction notice.