Brisbane agency Rental Trends is under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading following the claims, which were discovered by the company’s directors in February.

One of the company’s former part-owners, Riccardo Bagio, said they were blindsided when they discovered money was missing and they’d lost everything.

The matter has been reported to Queensland Police Service and officers are conducting inquiries.

Deloitte director Richard Hughes has been appointed as liquidator after a meeting on February 25 resolved the company that owns Rental Trends, Legacy Rise Pty Ltd, be wound up.

Mr Hughes said the owners had concerns they were insolvent and acted immediately.

“The directors approached us last week and said they had some concerns they were insolvent and appointed us on Wednesday as liquidators,” Mr Hughes said.

The company – which looks after more than 200 rental properties – was continuing to trade and service clients under the liquidator.

The staff member at the centre of the allegations no longer works for the business and investigations are underway.

A former Rental Trends client said her rental payments started to become late more than a year ago and progressively became worse.

“I had to keep on harassing them, at first it was two days late, then five days, then a week and then the worst was about 10 days,” they said.

The client, who rented out their unit with the team, said the excuses for money delays were blamed on issues or delays with banks.

The client left the agency in December – two months before the company was placed into liquidation.

Mr Hughes said they were close to signing a deal with new owners to take over the business.

“The company is continuing to trade and we are still providing services to landlords and tenants and still employing employees,” Mr Hughes said.

“We have not completed our investigations and we are focused on the sale.”

The business website remains active and says it has more than 10 years of experience and a high-level of professional rental services in Brisbane.

The website’s staff profiles have been scrubbed, but the staff member at the centre of the claims was described as honest and hardworking who was the key to the business’ success story.

The Office of Fair Trading confirmed it was investigating the company, but could not provide any further comment.

Queensland Police Service has received reports about the incident and it is conducting inquiries.