Hi all
I have spent a number of hours scanning the threads, but have not found the answers I need. Please if anyone has the time to read through our current situation and has any advice, it would be very much appreciated. Sorry it is VERY long, I am trying to get my head around this all.
Nov 08 we moved out of a 3bdroomed home owned by my parents to move into relatives home temporarily while house that was being built was finished (builder kept saying 3 or 4 more days only)
Dec 08 we helped parents find tenants for 3bdroomed house. We'd taken a few weeks to get out as were trying to find space in parents home for all our furniture as our home was not yet finished. We find out our own tenants in a 2dbroomed unit will be leaving at month end. Late December we are forced to move into mostly finished new home as I flooded parent's home.
Early January 09 we rented out a 2bdrm unit to a well spoken, self employed male with good personal references but whom was living with mother and so had no recent rental references and obviously no-one we could check employment through. He has a ‘sister’ high up in Child Welfare and a ‘brother’ high up in some other government organisation, so they are apparently an educated family and he doesn’t have down and out relatives that might cause trouble. (This is all information he volunteered – we originally thought, “shame, must be hard to be an aboriginal when you’re trying hard and stigma is attached to you”). He had applied for the 3 bedroomed property but we'd offered him the smaller, cheaper 2 bedroomed property as we had chosen other tenants for the larger property. We did this to save on having to advertise, reduce time unit was empty etc. as we were worried about finances with having had to keep paying rent to parents for 3 bedroomed home with new property not finished allowing us to move furniture in. He kept trying to produce cash, offered $5 more per week in rent to 'round off the figures' and wanted to pay for air conditioning to be installed. He paid a $300 deposit when signing lease and we handed over keys and husband signed form for what we now realise was homeswest bond.
(Note: I have always dealt with our tenants, but late December we realised we'd fallen pregnant with 4th child which meant I am bedridden for almost 3 months and so all dealings became my husband's responsibility along with cooking meals, usual 9-5 job and extra child minding. Consequently we were more lax and less organised than we have been.)
Late January we managed to get bond and 2 weeks rent from homeswest.
Husband contacted tenant as often as he remembered until end February as no rent was ever paid by tenant.
Excuses were:
Lost our account details (we had them on 3 of the lease documents). We gave them to him.
Daughter in hospital with leukemia, that's why he'd wanted to move closer to city and also why he's given up his truck driving business as he was working away too much. He's now working for Education department and paperwork is still going through to be paid. (This we believed as I had worked for Education department and had the same problem and my husband had just changed jobs in December in the Health Department and ended up only get his first payment 3 months later - so at the time we were also fighting the government departments for pay)
End of March - After many phonecalls from us to DEpartment of Housing we got 6 months payment taking us to end of February.(Homeswest)
Tenant meets us and signs a statement proposing payment plan with us for 4 weeks rent still in arrears. Insists he’ll be able to begin paying this next fortnight. Didn’t happen, we send warning letter (as we’d like him to stay, just want some rent)
(We had been considering Landlord insurance which we hadn’t taken out previously as previous tenant was a close relative. Now we don’t think it’s going to help as there is already a problematic tenant in there and so we think we will just have to keep going to get him out and then get insurance. (Please advise anyone?) )
Phonecall to him the day he’s supposed to have paid by, he says he still hasn’t been paid as paperwork is still messy. Later in same conversation he says he was sick and so didn’t work 4 days of the previous week and so didn’t get paid enough to pay rent. AHA so we realise he’s up to mischief and IS being paid. We question a window that we see has been broken. We are told there was an attempted burglary and he has a police report number for it. We determine a new date he will pay some by or we will have to send eviction notice.
We phone on the day we expect rent and are told he is on his way to the bank at that moment to pay and will drop off the automatic payment schedule – he never arrives. We are then unable to contact him for 5 days and as we are away for our yearly family camping trip are unable to . He then says he had 3 other bills he had to pay and so couldn’t pay rent (all bills must have been received on the way to the bank obviously and rent is not a ‘bill’). We send eviction notice. (Unfortunately we later realise that we sent a NSW eviction form and not a WA one)
Mid April - We apply for court to get:
• -Termination of lease
• -Possession of property
• -Rental arrears to date.
Early May - We wait 21 days, go to court (tenant doesn’t) and realise the eviction request was not from this state!!!!! Magistrate says we shouldn’t ask for money until they move out and we determine the total amount owing. My husband is confused but magistrate cannot offer any more advice. He asks the clerks where you file for court and they tell him you are only allowed to get one court order for money per tenancy and so magistrate was doing us a favour as if we got a court order for rent in arrears now we wouldn’t be able to keep bond or get remaining rent, damages costs etc. when they move out.
and asks So we start again.
We send form 1B requesting he get out for non payment of rent.
Two days later we receive a phonecall, letter and email from strata company informing us that for the past 6 weeks there have been 2 adults, 7 children and a dog living in the 2 bedroomed unit. (When approaching tenant he says they’re staying a couple of days as wife is ill.???)
• -Police have been called 3 times due to arguments and noise.
• -‘wife’ threw beer cans at window during one argument and that is why it is broken.
• -eldest 2 children 14yrs and 11 year do not attend school as they have been expelled/suspended.
• -younger children are often left along with 8year old in charge
• -sons have graffitied various parts of the complex
• -14yr son owns hunting knife and has cut ropes to another resident’s boat and has hacked plants at front of unit.
• -door, flyscreen and window fly nets to the property have all been broken
• -mail is being stolen
• -dirty nappies are being chucked around and into other people’s bins
• -Elderly lady opposite has been verbally threatened.
• -Large school bus parked in the small residential road causing it to be a one-way and causing many near crashes.
My husband tries to meet with tenant 3 times each time staying late to get to the property at 8pm when the tenant requests or going VERY early in the morning and twice tenant is asleep and wife won’t get him and the other had left for work. Finally a phonecall gets him and tells him we’re expecting him to leave the property by 2 days later or are filing for court again – he sounds full of disbelief and says how is he supposed to find somewhere else to live in only a couple of days (I’m not quite sure what he thinks all our eviction letters are about then?). We send breech notice 20 about all the breeched to the tenancy agreement. (After 14 days we can send for 1C and start eviction/court proceedings for this reason).
We are informed by another owner of a court application form 12 (or 14) section 73 to evict due to fear of personal injury. My husband meets with tenants, get signed statements and files for urgent hearing at same time as filing for usual hearing for non payment of rent (just requesting end of least and possession of property this time). Court clerks don’t seem to understand what to do with form 12 (or 14). A hearing is granted 4 days later. Tenant doesn’t appear. Magistrate dismissed case as statements could be just hearsay and needs witnesses. Photos of property damage are viewed by magistrate and kept. Hearing is adjourned for 3 weeks till we can get a witness to be brave enough to come.
Cops were called this past weekend and tenants told them they were moving out last weekend. They have broken furniture all over the small ‘what used to be lawn’ and carport. Neighbours said a delivery of whitegoods was delivered during the week though. Monday just gone, the cops were called again for noise, fighting and I gather damaged to old lady’s property. Old lady opposite has now had to move to her daughters as her electricity fuses were stolen, her flyscreens slashed and her outdoor furniture wrecked. Tenant’s next door want to break lease and move. Our tenants are still there.
I now realise that our court date for 10 June doesn’t mean they’ll be out soon, but that magistrate can grant up to another 28 days notice (what for??????/) and then if they don’t I have to apply for and pay a bailiff and if he doesn’t work get the cops involved (this info is from Department of consumer and Employment Protection). Then I need to change locks, get rid of rubbish, fix up property, find new tenants and go back to court to try to get rental arrears, access to bond and ‘fixing’ up costs. I get a court order for this. Is this correct? I can’t seem to find from any government body what I actually do with a court order? How do I get him to pay anything?
Least ends 4 July so our 4th chance is for eviction through court for end of lease.
I just can’t believe how this just keeps going on and on. I have phoned so many places for advice, also to try to address some of the problems he and his family are causing for the residents around and nobody seems to be able to do anything. I’m so mad. My husband worked extra shifts for 6 months of last year to save money, we got our lovely Rudd money for 3 children and squirreled that away and he has been saving most of his leave to have time when the baby is born. Now all our savings are virtually depleted and soon we will have to be defaulting on our mortgage payments. Tenant owes $5000 in rent currently and who knows how many weeks this could still go on for and how much damage he could be causing in the meantime? My husband has spent so much time at court, trying to meet with tenant, other owners, on the phone that he has used many of his leave days and for what? Just to keep paying for someone to live rent free. He will have received thousands for all his children in December, his youngest is only 2 moths old so there is another $5000 for that, plus he’s on Centrelink I’ve since been informed by Homeswest for any time he doesn’t work very much, plus the latest Rudd handout for workers.
I have phoned a number of government departments/council about the behaviour of the tenants and this is all I can figure out:
• Bus parked on road –
o I am unable to lodge a complaint form to the council as I do not live at the address. Another owner/tenant who lives at the property and who is affected by the bus being there has to lodge a ‘health and compliance service request form’ which is attached to this email.
• Nappies thrown around and in other people’s bin’s unwrapped –
o Strata agent needs to resolve if it’s causing problems to other residents. Council is not interested, the most they would do is go and tell them to please not do it.
• 8 or 9 people living in 2 bedroomed unit that was only rented to one. –
o This constitutes a breech of lease – owner to resolve through courts using form 20 (which we’ve done and which will take another 5 weeks at least to reach court). If this also breeches strata rules then it is up to the strata manager to try to deal with, also through the civil magistrates court. Child services can be called if anyone has reason to consider neglect of the children, but this I cannot do, it would have to come from someone ‘viewing’ the situation. There seems to be no real health and safety guidelines here apart from a very lenient guideline of minimum requirements for air space needed by a person to breathe. It takes into account bedrooms. The health department would have to measure the bedroom size and the height of the roof. Children require a LOT less breathing space than adults and so it is unlikely they would be breeching anything. If they were, the council would charge the owner anyway and get them to rectify.
• Dog on property –
o Non issue for the council, the owner/strata manager needs to sort out, through the magistrates court if needed.
• Excessive noise, fighting, throwing beer cans etc.
o Police need to be called at the time of the incident. If it is from stereos, radios, air-conditioners and the like, the City if Stirling will get involved by the person who hears it and to whom it affects has to call them: 9345 8555
• Verbal abuse –
o Police are only interested if you phone at the time.
• Child not attending school and owning hunting knife that has hacked off bits of plants and loitered around other people’s property with. –
o Police have to be called IN the moment. A person witnessing could contact the Education Department and get a truancy officer involved.
• Graffiti –
o If it is viewable from the road then the council will clean it up. Someone who is there needs to phone to lodge the complaint.
o If anyone has SEEN them do it, the Police are very interested in graffiti offenders and the number to phone them on is 131444. The police may then fine and possibly go further, involving the Department of Justice.
• Various other difficulties, vandalism and antisocial behaviour are all of strata concern and of a civil matter and need to go through the breech using form 20, termination notice using form 1C and then magistrates court (which I am in the process of doing but which will take a number of weeks yet).
• Litter is a council issue only if they are seen doing it and it is on council/public property.
Ok, my pertinent questions:
What does an eviction order from the court mean and how long might it really take to get him out?
How does he get ‘kicked’ out?
When is it best to have tried to get unpaid rent through the courts?
If I get a court order for unpaid rent, what can I do with it?
Is Landlords Insurance any help if a dispute is already going on?
What else can we/should we have done in this situation?
I have spent a number of hours scanning the threads, but have not found the answers I need. Please if anyone has the time to read through our current situation and has any advice, it would be very much appreciated. Sorry it is VERY long, I am trying to get my head around this all.
Nov 08 we moved out of a 3bdroomed home owned by my parents to move into relatives home temporarily while house that was being built was finished (builder kept saying 3 or 4 more days only)
Dec 08 we helped parents find tenants for 3bdroomed house. We'd taken a few weeks to get out as were trying to find space in parents home for all our furniture as our home was not yet finished. We find out our own tenants in a 2dbroomed unit will be leaving at month end. Late December we are forced to move into mostly finished new home as I flooded parent's home.
Early January 09 we rented out a 2bdrm unit to a well spoken, self employed male with good personal references but whom was living with mother and so had no recent rental references and obviously no-one we could check employment through. He has a ‘sister’ high up in Child Welfare and a ‘brother’ high up in some other government organisation, so they are apparently an educated family and he doesn’t have down and out relatives that might cause trouble. (This is all information he volunteered – we originally thought, “shame, must be hard to be an aboriginal when you’re trying hard and stigma is attached to you”). He had applied for the 3 bedroomed property but we'd offered him the smaller, cheaper 2 bedroomed property as we had chosen other tenants for the larger property. We did this to save on having to advertise, reduce time unit was empty etc. as we were worried about finances with having had to keep paying rent to parents for 3 bedroomed home with new property not finished allowing us to move furniture in. He kept trying to produce cash, offered $5 more per week in rent to 'round off the figures' and wanted to pay for air conditioning to be installed. He paid a $300 deposit when signing lease and we handed over keys and husband signed form for what we now realise was homeswest bond.
(Note: I have always dealt with our tenants, but late December we realised we'd fallen pregnant with 4th child which meant I am bedridden for almost 3 months and so all dealings became my husband's responsibility along with cooking meals, usual 9-5 job and extra child minding. Consequently we were more lax and less organised than we have been.)
Late January we managed to get bond and 2 weeks rent from homeswest.
Husband contacted tenant as often as he remembered until end February as no rent was ever paid by tenant.
Excuses were:
Lost our account details (we had them on 3 of the lease documents). We gave them to him.
Daughter in hospital with leukemia, that's why he'd wanted to move closer to city and also why he's given up his truck driving business as he was working away too much. He's now working for Education department and paperwork is still going through to be paid. (This we believed as I had worked for Education department and had the same problem and my husband had just changed jobs in December in the Health Department and ended up only get his first payment 3 months later - so at the time we were also fighting the government departments for pay)
End of March - After many phonecalls from us to DEpartment of Housing we got 6 months payment taking us to end of February.(Homeswest)
Tenant meets us and signs a statement proposing payment plan with us for 4 weeks rent still in arrears. Insists he’ll be able to begin paying this next fortnight. Didn’t happen, we send warning letter (as we’d like him to stay, just want some rent)
(We had been considering Landlord insurance which we hadn’t taken out previously as previous tenant was a close relative. Now we don’t think it’s going to help as there is already a problematic tenant in there and so we think we will just have to keep going to get him out and then get insurance. (Please advise anyone?) )
Phonecall to him the day he’s supposed to have paid by, he says he still hasn’t been paid as paperwork is still messy. Later in same conversation he says he was sick and so didn’t work 4 days of the previous week and so didn’t get paid enough to pay rent. AHA so we realise he’s up to mischief and IS being paid. We question a window that we see has been broken. We are told there was an attempted burglary and he has a police report number for it. We determine a new date he will pay some by or we will have to send eviction notice.
We phone on the day we expect rent and are told he is on his way to the bank at that moment to pay and will drop off the automatic payment schedule – he never arrives. We are then unable to contact him for 5 days and as we are away for our yearly family camping trip are unable to . He then says he had 3 other bills he had to pay and so couldn’t pay rent (all bills must have been received on the way to the bank obviously and rent is not a ‘bill’). We send eviction notice. (Unfortunately we later realise that we sent a NSW eviction form and not a WA one)
Mid April - We apply for court to get:
• -Termination of lease
• -Possession of property
• -Rental arrears to date.
Early May - We wait 21 days, go to court (tenant doesn’t) and realise the eviction request was not from this state!!!!! Magistrate says we shouldn’t ask for money until they move out and we determine the total amount owing. My husband is confused but magistrate cannot offer any more advice. He asks the clerks where you file for court and they tell him you are only allowed to get one court order for money per tenancy and so magistrate was doing us a favour as if we got a court order for rent in arrears now we wouldn’t be able to keep bond or get remaining rent, damages costs etc. when they move out.
and asks So we start again.
We send form 1B requesting he get out for non payment of rent.
Two days later we receive a phonecall, letter and email from strata company informing us that for the past 6 weeks there have been 2 adults, 7 children and a dog living in the 2 bedroomed unit. (When approaching tenant he says they’re staying a couple of days as wife is ill.???)
• -Police have been called 3 times due to arguments and noise.
• -‘wife’ threw beer cans at window during one argument and that is why it is broken.
• -eldest 2 children 14yrs and 11 year do not attend school as they have been expelled/suspended.
• -younger children are often left along with 8year old in charge
• -sons have graffitied various parts of the complex
• -14yr son owns hunting knife and has cut ropes to another resident’s boat and has hacked plants at front of unit.
• -door, flyscreen and window fly nets to the property have all been broken
• -mail is being stolen
• -dirty nappies are being chucked around and into other people’s bins
• -Elderly lady opposite has been verbally threatened.
• -Large school bus parked in the small residential road causing it to be a one-way and causing many near crashes.
My husband tries to meet with tenant 3 times each time staying late to get to the property at 8pm when the tenant requests or going VERY early in the morning and twice tenant is asleep and wife won’t get him and the other had left for work. Finally a phonecall gets him and tells him we’re expecting him to leave the property by 2 days later or are filing for court again – he sounds full of disbelief and says how is he supposed to find somewhere else to live in only a couple of days (I’m not quite sure what he thinks all our eviction letters are about then?). We send breech notice 20 about all the breeched to the tenancy agreement. (After 14 days we can send for 1C and start eviction/court proceedings for this reason).
We are informed by another owner of a court application form 12 (or 14) section 73 to evict due to fear of personal injury. My husband meets with tenants, get signed statements and files for urgent hearing at same time as filing for usual hearing for non payment of rent (just requesting end of least and possession of property this time). Court clerks don’t seem to understand what to do with form 12 (or 14). A hearing is granted 4 days later. Tenant doesn’t appear. Magistrate dismissed case as statements could be just hearsay and needs witnesses. Photos of property damage are viewed by magistrate and kept. Hearing is adjourned for 3 weeks till we can get a witness to be brave enough to come.
Cops were called this past weekend and tenants told them they were moving out last weekend. They have broken furniture all over the small ‘what used to be lawn’ and carport. Neighbours said a delivery of whitegoods was delivered during the week though. Monday just gone, the cops were called again for noise, fighting and I gather damaged to old lady’s property. Old lady opposite has now had to move to her daughters as her electricity fuses were stolen, her flyscreens slashed and her outdoor furniture wrecked. Tenant’s next door want to break lease and move. Our tenants are still there.
I now realise that our court date for 10 June doesn’t mean they’ll be out soon, but that magistrate can grant up to another 28 days notice (what for??????/) and then if they don’t I have to apply for and pay a bailiff and if he doesn’t work get the cops involved (this info is from Department of consumer and Employment Protection). Then I need to change locks, get rid of rubbish, fix up property, find new tenants and go back to court to try to get rental arrears, access to bond and ‘fixing’ up costs. I get a court order for this. Is this correct? I can’t seem to find from any government body what I actually do with a court order? How do I get him to pay anything?
Least ends 4 July so our 4th chance is for eviction through court for end of lease.
I just can’t believe how this just keeps going on and on. I have phoned so many places for advice, also to try to address some of the problems he and his family are causing for the residents around and nobody seems to be able to do anything. I’m so mad. My husband worked extra shifts for 6 months of last year to save money, we got our lovely Rudd money for 3 children and squirreled that away and he has been saving most of his leave to have time when the baby is born. Now all our savings are virtually depleted and soon we will have to be defaulting on our mortgage payments. Tenant owes $5000 in rent currently and who knows how many weeks this could still go on for and how much damage he could be causing in the meantime? My husband has spent so much time at court, trying to meet with tenant, other owners, on the phone that he has used many of his leave days and for what? Just to keep paying for someone to live rent free. He will have received thousands for all his children in December, his youngest is only 2 moths old so there is another $5000 for that, plus he’s on Centrelink I’ve since been informed by Homeswest for any time he doesn’t work very much, plus the latest Rudd handout for workers.
I have phoned a number of government departments/council about the behaviour of the tenants and this is all I can figure out:
• Bus parked on road –
o I am unable to lodge a complaint form to the council as I do not live at the address. Another owner/tenant who lives at the property and who is affected by the bus being there has to lodge a ‘health and compliance service request form’ which is attached to this email.
• Nappies thrown around and in other people’s bin’s unwrapped –
o Strata agent needs to resolve if it’s causing problems to other residents. Council is not interested, the most they would do is go and tell them to please not do it.
• 8 or 9 people living in 2 bedroomed unit that was only rented to one. –
o This constitutes a breech of lease – owner to resolve through courts using form 20 (which we’ve done and which will take another 5 weeks at least to reach court). If this also breeches strata rules then it is up to the strata manager to try to deal with, also through the civil magistrates court. Child services can be called if anyone has reason to consider neglect of the children, but this I cannot do, it would have to come from someone ‘viewing’ the situation. There seems to be no real health and safety guidelines here apart from a very lenient guideline of minimum requirements for air space needed by a person to breathe. It takes into account bedrooms. The health department would have to measure the bedroom size and the height of the roof. Children require a LOT less breathing space than adults and so it is unlikely they would be breeching anything. If they were, the council would charge the owner anyway and get them to rectify.
• Dog on property –
o Non issue for the council, the owner/strata manager needs to sort out, through the magistrates court if needed.
• Excessive noise, fighting, throwing beer cans etc.
o Police need to be called at the time of the incident. If it is from stereos, radios, air-conditioners and the like, the City if Stirling will get involved by the person who hears it and to whom it affects has to call them: 9345 8555
• Verbal abuse –
o Police are only interested if you phone at the time.
• Child not attending school and owning hunting knife that has hacked off bits of plants and loitered around other people’s property with. –
o Police have to be called IN the moment. A person witnessing could contact the Education Department and get a truancy officer involved.
• Graffiti –
o If it is viewable from the road then the council will clean it up. Someone who is there needs to phone to lodge the complaint.
o If anyone has SEEN them do it, the Police are very interested in graffiti offenders and the number to phone them on is 131444. The police may then fine and possibly go further, involving the Department of Justice.
• Various other difficulties, vandalism and antisocial behaviour are all of strata concern and of a civil matter and need to go through the breech using form 20, termination notice using form 1C and then magistrates court (which I am in the process of doing but which will take a number of weeks yet).
• Litter is a council issue only if they are seen doing it and it is on council/public property.
Ok, my pertinent questions:
What does an eviction order from the court mean and how long might it really take to get him out?
How does he get ‘kicked’ out?
When is it best to have tried to get unpaid rent through the courts?
If I get a court order for unpaid rent, what can I do with it?
Is Landlords Insurance any help if a dispute is already going on?
What else can we/should we have done in this situation?