Pay the rent, and the rest: tenants hit back at the rise in third-party processing

Aggrieved tenants forced to pay fees as real estate agents outsource rent collecting feel little choice but to pay up

When Max* moved into a new rental property in Queensland earlier this year, one of his first questions, naturally, was how to pay the rent.

So he called his new real estate agency, Harcourts Chermside, a Brisbane firm which boasts of its high ideals and standards". The agent sent Max an email explaining that a third-party company called RentPay was its primary and preferred" method of collecting rent.