A furious Adelaide renter has unleashed at her property manager for failing to show up for multiple scheduled inspections which forced her to miss work.
Eliza Andersen-Ponton, 28, vented on TikTok after she sat around waiting for hours on the days that her past three property inspections were booked.
She said the real estate firm that handles her rental, which she did not name, assured her they would be there within the specified time window to check the condition of the home, but either called to cancel after the appointment or just didn’t arrive.
In the video, Ms Andersen-Ponton said she had dealt with her fair share of difficult landlords but that this property manager’s behaviour ‘takes the cake’.
She and her partner have been living in the $550-a-week home on the outskirts of Adelaide with their newborn baby girl, and their cat and dog, since May 2024.
She said she was ‘p****d off’ when the first inspection in August was rescheduled, but let it slide as she was ‘heavily pregnant and sitting at home anyway’.
However, since returning to work as an occupational telehealth therapist, she is fed up with the property manager’s no-shows because it’s impacting her income. She said she is missing out on about $200 worth of work each time.
‘Periodic inspections can be quite stressful for tenants, especially with a five month old baby. The work we do is also quite confidential, as we work in the mental health and disability space, so we cannot have people in our home for sessions.’
Mum to a newborn baby, Eliza Andersen-Ponton, (pictured) slammed her property manager for repeatedly failing to attend scheduled rental inspections
The new mum is also trying to get her five-month-old daughter on a sleeping schedule, meaning the scheduling of inspections has to accommodate that.
After failing to turn up in August, the property manager arranged for January’s inspection for between 11am and 1pm, but also failed to turn up on the day.
‘It got to 1.45pm and, again, she still wasn’t here so I called her up,’ Ms Andersen-Ponton said.
‘I was like, ‘Hey, what’s going on? Are you coming?’ and she was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll probably be closer to 2.30pm’.’
She told the property manager she had a telehealth client at 2pm and couldn’t have them walking in and out of the house.
The property manager agreed to come by at 3pm but by 3.30pm, Ms Andersen-Ponton had grown tired of waiting.
‘She still wasn’t here and I had another client at 4pm and I was like, ‘Look, you’re gonna have to reschedule for another day’,’ she said.
The manager offered to come back the following day but the new mum said that was impossible as she and her husband, who also works at home, need to know in advance so they can schedule their clients around the inspection.
Ms Andersen-Ponton said she is missing out on income due to the cancelled inspections as her telehealth work with patients is confidential, and can’t be done when someone could be there
The third inspection was rescheduled for last Wednesday between 9am and 11am but the property manager, again, did not arrive.
‘It is 11.04am and she is not here and I have a client at 12pm. What would you guys do? Just say sorry no and organise another reinspection?’ the mum asked viewers on TikTok.
‘Do I have to keep cleaning my house for her? Obviously we clean our house every day, but do I have to keep cleaning the windows and doing the deep cleans every two weeks for them to maybe come for a reinspection?’ she said.
Thousands of people responded to her post, sympathising with the new mum and sharing their own inspection frustrations.
‘I swear every inspection I have had with real estate agents they are always hours late or they pull a no show and have to reschedule, and that’s only because I call and say no one attended,’ one said.
‘The fact that they don’t contact you when they are running late is hugely disrespectful,’ another wrote.
Others joked about having ‘PTSD’ from inspections with one recalling a property manager letting themselves into their home early to use the bathroom.
Ms Andersen-Ponton emailed her property manager expressing her anger over their repeated lateness and how it actively reduced her income every time she had to push back appointments, which start at $193.99 an hour.
In a later update she revealed that the property manager had not responded to her email or answered her or her husband’s phone calls.
Aussies said the manager’s behaviour was ‘unprofessional’.
‘Unfortunately real estates treat us renters like second class citizens,’ one said.
