From the other perspective - crazy landlord!

[NOT 2 L8]

Wouldn't you just love to share a flat with Gary's sister?

No mortgage for her, just pay rent and still think you own the place and have even more rights than the person who is paying the mortgage.

People like your sister and you, really **** me off.

Buy your own house if it is too difficult and you are too precious to pay rent!

Hi JennyP,

I really hope that you have had a good night sleep and feel a whole lot better about yourself. You obviously are experiencing a rotten run and needed to vent. I do not however think that you targeted the right person and would suggest that, as a gesture of goodwill, you post an apology and thus restore the goodwill and respect of a lot of the SS forumites here.

Just a thouhgt................

Cheers and good luck.

Chris

 

[wobbycarly]

I'm glad it is not just me who was surprised at the post by JennyP.

Not just you. Maybe someone has hi-jacked her login!

 

[garygoodbloke]

Thanks for the replies guys, it's a relief to know that I'm not going crazy or have unrealistic forum expectations.

I also think you guys are right and that it's probably more to do with her (JennyP's) terrible situation at the moment. Last thing I want to see is for her to feel cut off from this community and to have fewer options than she currently does. I think if I were in her shoes, I'd snap at some point. So from that perspective, I understand.

On the other hand, it's one thing what you say about me, it's quite another what you say about my family. For me, I have a pretty low tolerance when it comes to people talking smack about my family. I think anyone with a sense of loyalty can understand that.

Back to the matter at hand, the conciliation is tomorrow and I just gave my sister all her things back, she's working extra retail shifts at the moment to save money so I decided to sit down and organise and figure it out - that's what family is for, after all.

Also, being outside of the "he said, she said" stuff, means it's easier for me to guess how a tribunal would see it.

Tomorrow morning is the conciliation, if they don't agree there (highly unlikely that they will) how soon afterwards is the actual tribunal? I hope it's the same day, win, lose or draw, I think everyone is happier when it's over quickly.

 

[wylie]

Gary, when my Mum was taken to tribunal, she chose not to go to conciliation. The tenants were not speaking to her, answering her calls and were totaly rude and unreasonable, so Mum told the concilation people that she did not want to attend, so it was sent direct to the tribunal. I would think it would not be straight away because they would have to book a time.

Most important for your sister to keep to the facts, keep calm and don't let the landlord goad her into being snappy. Dignity will win the day .

 

[G_Man]

Wouldn't you just love to share a flat with Gary's sister?

No mortgage for her, just pay rent and still think you own the place and have even more rights than the person who is paying the mortgage.

People like your sister and you, really **** me off.

Buy your own house if it is too difficult and you are too precious to pay rent!

Who was paying the mortgage again? If Gary's sister was paying rent then where is that rent going?

If she has a lease signed by both parties, then yes, essentially she does have as much right as the owner. Why is this such a sore point with so many LLs?

I've seen plenty of other posts on here saying the same type of things:
Those ungrateful so and so's in my house!!
If you feel that way then don't rent it out.
Why have such an emotional attachement to an investment?

Jenny:

Buy your own house if it is too difficult and you are too precious to pay rent!

I know you've had a rough time with your current tenant but I think you should probably take some of your own advice (like above) and sell your unit is it is too difficult.

 

[kathryn d]

Gary,
There certainly are bad landlords out there.
Many times we have informed tenants what their landlords are doing illlegally.Most had never been given a copy of the RTA.We keep telling them, without that ACT they can leave anytime they want, without penalty.

Not sure of the rules where your sister lives, but maybe you have something similar to it?

 

[Perp]

Tomorrow morning is the conciliation, if they don't agree there (highly unlikely that they will) how soon afterwards is the actual tribunal? I hope it's the same day, win, lose or draw, I think everyone is happier when it's over quickly.

I would think it would not be straight away because they would have to book a time.

I'm with wylie. In QLD, you'd get a Tribunal date in about 3-4 weeks' time. But maybe NSW is more efficient.

 

[garygoodbloke]

Argh, I'm so annoyed! Here's what happened, they went to concilitiation and the Landlord asked my sister to pay for electricity, water and gas, as that was in the lease.

Fair play, makes sense to me, only she never recorded the metres and there was a third person living there for half the time. Also, my sister wasn't living there for six weeks in the middle of the lease and wasn't there for the last month! They agreed to split half, but I so wish my sister had gone to the tribunal, as the Landlord would have gotten nailed for not filing the bond as well as a lot of other breaches!

Of course, I didn't say this to my sister, it's over now and I don't want to make her feel worse, but silently I'm so upset that she didn't push it and take it to the tribunal. Oh well, at least it's over and it can be put behind her.

I'll post tonight with the details I had of all the breaches, the time line and the rest. I'd at least like someone else to appreciate how lucky the Landlord is at this point...

 

[wylie]

I would be tempted to still report her non-lodgement of the bond. It depends on how much your sister wants to pursue it.

The electricity cost being shared is something that she cannot really fight as there would be nothing in writing agreeing to anything else. I suppose if the landlord went away for several weeks, she would still be paying for electricity while she is not there, so no joy on that one.

She could probably still notify someone about the bond without taking the landlord to tribunal. Why not investigate a little. This landlord needs a good bite on the rear from some karma, methinks .

Friend of my son asked if he could stay for dinner at our place one night. No problems at all. Turns out his female flatmate (half share, down the middle) wanted some "privacy" that night, so he was told when he could come back home.

Okay, that's understandable, and could work both ways. However, this boyfriend has now moved in with the other tenant, and they are sharing the cost of the half share while the poor other half-share chap is paying his half. As soon as the lease is up he is out of there, but I suspect he could put up a good case to leave earlier without penalty if he wished to.

Female is late 20s and young chap is 20, so she is using her age and life experience to bully him.

 

[garygoodbloke]

If it were me, I would send a letter of complaint to the bond board. However, I suspect my sister will want to try to totally forget all the unpleasant feelings associated with this situation.

One thing I'm struggling with is having to accept that there is very little I can do and that my sister has to stick up for herself, which she's normally fine with but in the legal setting, not so much. As her brother I naturally want to step in and try to solve the problem but it isn't mine to solve, I have a hard time of letting go of these things.

But it's my urge to stand up for the little guy or for people who don't know how to manage the idiosyncracies of the system.

I always loved watching the old "Law and Order" shows, when it was more about the law and the courtroom drama and before they started all the over-the-top, staccattoed speeches and melodrama.

I would watch and barrack for Jack McCoy, the Prosecutor for the DA, who fought for real justice.

Sometimes I have a hard time letting go when I feel there's a wrong I could right...

 

[garygoodbloke]

Ok, so is the info below and a one page outline.

I'm pretty sure all the facts are in there. So now you know what the story is. I've colled down a bit, but I'm still annoyed it didn't go to the tribunal, I reckon the landlord would have been creamed.

Summary of Breaches

7.1 – Privacy, Landlord's live-in boyfriend would shut my balcony door in the morning while he was smoking there

7.2 – Disruption of my quiet enjoyment of the property. Landlord started painting, sanding and covering up counter-tops to the extent that I couldn't use the kitchen and communal areas. When landlord had a dinner party, living room and kitchen were unusable. Landlord essentially making her boyfriend a third resident also disrupted my quiet enjoyment of the property.

Tenancy agreement states “Only 2 people” are allowed to live in the flat at any one time. Boyfriend was living in the flat while I was there for 3 months.

27 – Landlord has put a claim on the rental bond without informing the tenant and without giving the tenant any reasons why or any documentation whatsoever – no contact.

Landlord never conducted a condition report

Landlord didn't lodge the bond until tenant notified her that she'd contacted fair trading, bond was finally lodged 138 days later and well after notice had been given

Goodwill Gestures

Goodwill on both sides as the landlord and tenant agreed that the landlord would paint the apartment and credit the tenant with one week's free rent. Tenant understood that this painting would be done while tenant was abroad

While tenant was abroad for 6 weeks tenant offered use of her room to the landlord's painter/boyfriend instead of seeking to recoup her losses by subletting

Upon leaving the premises, tenant left cleaning supplies, toilet paper and a woolworths gift voucher as a parting gift of goodwill.

Reneged Assurances

Landlord twice promised to file the bond but never did so, bond was only lodged after landlord became aware that tenant had asked fair trading for her bond number.

Landlord promised to return bond after inspection on two occasions, this never happened.

Landlord committed to do the painting while tenant was abroad and had 8 weeks to do so, this never happened.

 

[kathryn d]

Gary,
I know you are upset, but your sister has learned a great lesson here.
If you are willing to settle, you will get less than you want. It is always a compromise.

Sister could have pushed and went forward to the Tribunal, where she may have lost completely. Tribunals are always a gamble, even when you are in the right.Depends on the adjudacator/judge.

More important, what are your sister's living arrangments now?
Is she in control of a lease, or is she the flatmate of someone else?

 

[garygoodbloke]

I know you're right Kathryn, myself, if I felt in the right and that the vidence backed me up I would rather lose at the tribunal than concede an inch.

Now she's living alone in a granny flat. It's really nice. The main house has a lovely (and ver ywealthy it would seem) Brazilian family. The mother gives her some of her cooking and they get along. I don't think she has a lease. She's paying cash in hand, so I think she's technically a boarder with a lot less rights.

I'm in the same situation. I get along with my landlord, I keep him happy and don't bother him. It's a nice place, rent is very very good from my perspective but if I had to move out tomorrow, I'd be ok. I don't have many possessions because I like to feel free to move around if I need or want to. My bond is $600, so not a life-changing amount of money if that's my maximum downside.