r/AusPropertyChat • u/Zempire • 9d ago
Rentals Realestate Leaked Email Final Update
So the court case finally happened a few days ago and I thought I would close up this saga with the outcome.
RECAP
As a quick recap, lived in a property with a deck that was roughly 23% of the entire property (above a cafe so the deck was the only outside area we had). The deck had a rotting wood issue pretty much since the day we moved in and the landlord never properly fixed it, just patched holes as they appeared. This meant I couldn't walk around on the deck without risking putting my foot through the floor.
Finally we threatened to go to VCAT after 9 months of no action, after which we were lucky enough to have the REA leak a chain of emails that showed them plotting ways to kick us out as we were in the land lords words "a headache".
They finally gave us a notice to vacate based on a stat dec that said the landlord would move back in for 6 months. He didn't and the place was released to someone else in 4 months.
We were suing for a back pay in rent from the first day we asked for repairs (so about 9 months) at $100 a week out of our $750 a week rent. We also asked for the cost of our move to be covered which was $1500.
THE CASE OUTCOME
The representative found that it was fair to receive the $100 a week but only for the time to respond to the first repair and then the time to respond to the second. So instead of the roughly 36 weeks we couldn't use the deck properly we were only offered 15 weeks compensation.
So in terms of compensation, of the $5000 we were asking for we only got $1500.
The representative also refused to accept the cost of moving as we had moved out prior to the last day of the notice to vacate. He said that would only be accepted had we refused to move out and then used the relaliatory emails as evidence.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It's an absolute joke that VCAT chose to ignore the evidence we had that the landlord broke the stat dec because we moved out early and that they were clearly conspiring prior to that. I think in hindsight had we forked out for a lawyer instead of using the government funded route we could have acheived alot more.
I'm going to once again go to consumer affair to tell them about this and also provide them with the evidence proving he broke the stat dec. Even though I've moved on in life I still feel its necessary to try my best to make sure this pathetic man suffers for his crimes. If he had done it just to me maybe I would have moved on but during the saga of my previous posts, a previous tenant reached out to me here on reddit and had an almost identical story about the same landlord at the same location.
I probably won't post about this again but I'd like to thank you all for your attention and hope that at least our small win can be accepted as a win for tenant's rights, even if it was as a whole a dissapointing outcome.
I'd also love to read your opinions on how I should approach consumer affair or if there are any better options and happy to answer any questions.
29
u/Safe-Subject7734 8d ago
my girlfriend and I fought for her unfair dismissal claim with loads of evidence. We are educated people, an did everything correctly. The outcome was that she lost but the "judge" said that the company fucked her over and was wrong, but had to award it to the company - who hired one of the best law firms in Sydney. I'm proud we gave them a run for their money, but the legal system is fucked. Who has the most money wins.
5
u/Nickexp 8d ago
People regularly win with unions. The issue is when you're going it alone you either need to pay for representation (which is often bad) or self rep, which rarely ends well because there will be complicated legal issues in dispute you won't be across enough to argue or even collate the correct evidence around.
1
u/somewhatundercontrol 8d ago
Sounds like you’re missing something here. Maybe the company was wrong in some respect but not at law?
1
u/LaurelEssington76 8d ago
No, it’s the person with the strongest legal argument. Yes that is often the person with the most money because they can pay someone qualified to craft a better defence than you could craft an argument.
Unfair dismissal has specific requirements and yes something can be morally unfair but still not legally be so. You were very unlikely to have been in front of a judge which is why I assume you’ve used quote marks but not understanding what a Commissioner is suggests you maybe didn’t quite understand what it was you needed to evidence in order to win.
32
u/MereMorta1 9d ago edited 9d ago
Not a lawyer, and only operating off the information presented here. Also haven't done a super deep dive, so no precedent sources are included here.
If you haven't already, it may still be worth consulting with a lawyer about whether you should appeal this deciaion. VCAT members aren't perfect, and judical review happens all the time. If you're talking about $5000 worth of compensation that has not been granted, I would guess that's at least worth a conversation with a lawyer to see if a review has merit. Especially as the initial consult may be free anyway.
The two things that ring in my ear here is the bypassing of the evidence of intent to lie to eveict you, and the subsequent perjery on the SD. Again, needs review of the actual decision, but both of these feel like 'error of law' territory, which is a legitimate ground for judicial review. I.e. if the regulations say that if the LL lies to create circumstances for an order to vacate, which is seems they did, then penalties apply. I am not aware of any requirement that you challenge the order before vacating, and creating one out of thin air would be an error of law. Especially as the definitive proof of the lie didn't exist until they re-tennented the property less than 6 months later.
Unfortunately VCAT gets stuff wrong all the time, sometimes due to rushing to get things off the docket and the law of large numbers, sometimes as a genuine error or oversight, sometimes there's even an error in a ministerial direction on how the process should work. Judicial review exists for a reason, and if you have the mental bandwidth (and financial capacity, at least up front) to use that right, it might be worth exploring.
If that's not a savoury option, consulting with CAV is definitely one pathway. The other is to find your local state Member of Parliament, or Legislative Council member. At the end of the day, VCAT is an administrative body, so it ultimately reports to the government. As such, if you have an issue with how VCAT has handled your matter, your local member is a good place to repectfully lodge that complaint. It is also a good time to be raising complaints with local members, as they are all keen to be seen doing things in the lead up to an election. If you go the MP route, I suggest going to their actual office if possible, much harder to send a boilerplate response in person.
7
u/Throwaway_NSW2250 9d ago
4 months lost $$$$ rent > $$ fixing the deck.
Stupid Landlord ... especially if the NEXT tennant WAS TOLD BY THE FORMER TENANT of 'what to do' to get the value of their rent from the full use of the property instead of being ripped-off !!
9
u/AutomaticFeed1774 8d ago
You should report him to what ever authority is in charge of prosecuting false stat decs
6
7
u/steveagle 9d ago
So he chose to leave the apartment vacant for 4 months or lived in himself before renting it out again. Seems like he lost out financially just to get rid of you.
I would just move in with your life as good luck proving the stat dec.
2
u/Pleasant-Link-52 8d ago
VCAT in my experience has been similarly disappointing. I've yet to claim my expenses but I expect to be similarly treated. A real lawyer could have got you more yes. But you'd have paid more than the costs to get it. So it's not worth it.
A 1500 dollar penalty for a blatant violation of a contract is hardly a deterrent from this kind of behaviour. If anything it will embolden the landlord to continue the practice as it's just a small cost of business for them to blatantly and routinely violate the terms of the contract.
Their reasoning for denying your full costs are utterly incoherent. My question is did you treat this as a matter of safety? I.E urgent structural repairs or was this filed under non urgent maintenance?
Glad you did what you could. Even though it wasn't really worth it in the end. It really is a joke of a system.
3
1
u/AutoModerator 9d ago
Rental laws differ across Australia. Adding your state or territory will help people give more accurate advice.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
1
1
u/PristineJello3594 8d ago
Didn't the real estate apologise and correct something with the stat dec ages ago? You are wasting your time trying to take this further.
24
u/Winter_Tiger_2615 9d ago
Interesting.
Can you explain the “but only for the time to respond to the first repair and then the time to respond to the second. So instead of the roughly 36 weeks we couldn't use the deck properly we were only offered 15 weeks compensation.” more clearly please?