This will be along post but I can't work out how to make it otherwise and it still be clear what happened. Need to explain in full so you will understand the situation better.
Tenant has started action against me with CTTT. His claims are distorted and some are pure fabrication. Tenant left property at beginning of Dec because he would not pay $15/week rent increase. There were been MANY maintenance issues over course of their 18mth tenancy
1) blocked sewer, dealt with immediately on day that tenant notified agent which was a Saturday.
2) during extreme storms in Jan 2011 the garage was inundated. This matter took few days to remedy because of the time of year. Plumber attended cleared storm water drains. Routine Inspection report done in presence of tenant at beginning of March 2011 states " since clearing of drains & digging of trench down side of garage there has been no further flooding to garage area"
3) I was notified on 1st June 2011 that the oven door was broken. I instructed agent to get it fixed
4) On 5th July received email from agent informing me that tenant had started action against me through CTTT because oven was not fixed. Also included in email was attachment of quote from electrician advising that oven was irreparable and would need to be replaced. Quoted was dated 29th June. I then rang agent because I was confused. I had told them to get oven fixed. They hadn't. I had not chased it up because I thought they would have acted as instructed. I was furious. I rang tenant myself & found out that oven was not working at all. So it went from door that would not close properly as I was originally told to oven totally unusable. Arranged for purchase of new oven and installation but it took 10 days to get it done. We were in contact with tenant the whole time keeping them informed as to what was happening. We have diary entries to confirm phone calls to tenant & agent and emails also. We realise that 10 days is long time but it could not have happened any quicker. We live 1000km from the rental property. Biggest time delay was getting electrician back to install oven. Tenant was informed of such & had agreed it was ok. The oven that was replaced less than 2 years old and was an expensive oven when purchased, not some cheapy of ebay. The oven was installed on 19th July which was only 10 working days.
5) On 20th July tenant rang & told us that hot water heater (also less than 2 yrs old) didn't heat over night. We called electrician & he attended the next day & had to replace fuse. He also commented that he thought that the control unit on side of the heater looked as though it had been removed because the screws were loose when he went to remove the cover to inspect it.
6) On 14th September tenant contacted agent re: light globes blowing. We contacted electrician and he attended and replaced fitting. He also informed us that light shade would have to be replaced because it was broken.
7) Tenant sent email to agent on 2nd October (Sunday of long weekend) informing them that air conditioner was not working. Agent did not contact us until 6th Oct and them only by email. We contacted air con technician that day but he did not return our call. We managed to contact him next day 8th and he said he'd attend on following Monday. We contacted tenant and informed them & they were OK with that. We also asked them if we could give the air con tech their phone number so he contact them directly and they agreed. We emailed agent to inform them what was happening. On 10th agent rang asking what was happening because they'd received an abusive phone call from tenant re: air con repair. We go WTF. Tenant had our phone number so he could have contacted us directly but on previous Friday he knew that air con tech would attend on the following Monday. This left us very confused. Could not understand what was going on. Tried to ring tenant no answer. Rang air con tech. He had been in contact with tenant and arranged to attend on 13th .... day that suited them .... he could have gone any day before that but they specified the 13th. He found the air con to be cooling & heating really well. He did however suggest the replacement of sensor unit because if anything was wrong it would be that. We agreed. We contacted tenant and informed them that a part needed to be replaced and would have to be ordered and that we were unsure as to how long it would take. Once again tenant said they were OK with that. Tues 18th we contacted air con tech & were informed that part had still not arrived & he was unsure when it would be in. We rang tenant again to keep them informed. Tenant once again seemed to be OK with it all. Contacted tech again the next week & he said that he expected the part by end of week & would install next week on day that suited tenant. we rang tenants again to inform that part was due & would be installed the next week on day that suited them and that tech would contact them directly to arrange the day.
8) We had already notified the tenant of rent increase. They knew about the rent increase at each contact we'd had with them over September and October but they never mention it so we thought they were Ok with it. Then on 4th November the agent notified us that tenant was taking action with CTTT asking for increase to be waived because it was unfair because
1)regular flooding of the garage area and it took 3 months for the problem to be rectified. Sewer was unblocked the day that tenant notified the agent. Inundation of garage due to extreme weather happened a few weeks after the sewer was blocked. The water drains were cleared and a tench dug to direct water flow away from back garage door was done the week after the inundation. The routine inspection report for March states "that there had been no further flooding". At no time during the rest of the tenancy did the tenant ever mention further issues re: flooding of the garage area. BUT when lodging claim with CTTT he said it had been an ongoing issue. Is it fair to ask why he had not informed us that there was still an issue with the flooding. It seems only common sense that if he could notify us of so many other maintenance issue, the majority of which I have not included here but including sliding door coming away from opening and needing to be reinstalled, cornice coming away from along the front of built in wardrobe in main bedroom to name just 2. He also claims that the problem had been an issue before their tenancy started and that they had not been informed. i lived in the house between 2002 & 2009. At no time did I have any issue with the garage flooding during bad weather. So he's making claims that are just not true & I don't know how to prove them as such.
They also claimed that had to keep garage doors sandbagged to prevent possible water entry. Once again we were never informed that this was happening by either tenant or the agent and only became aware of it in this claim.
2) all the dates he quotes re: oven replacement & air con repairs are wrong. BUT they should be easy to prove as such because we have emails & phone log, purchase receipts, invoices etc.
3) he claims that he first informed the agent that there was a problem with the air conditioner on July 20th, but we were not informed by agent that there was. So how do we prove that we had no knowledge of it? He claims that we told him that it was still under warranty and that we would get it looked at. We could not have told him that because we didn't know there was problem. He then claims that he got a technician to attend.
All the claims he's made are either false or if unattended to because we had no knowledge off. He manipulated the facts to make things appear worse than they were and much of it is outright lies. After we received this I rang the agent and had a heated discussion with them re: why they weren't keeping us informed. They said they had told us everything we needed to know. The tenant was saying one thing & agent another & I didn't know who to believe. After much thought I decided to cancel the agreement with the agent because I felt they could not be trusted. There were also issues with transfer of fund into my account being late on many occasions.
We agreed to the tenants demand re: rent increase because we wanted to avoid a hearing especially because we would have to do it on our own because the agent flatly refused, saying that we cause all the problems because we wouldn't let them manage the property. They caused the initial problem re: oven by NOT getting it fixed as they had been instructed and that is what prompted us to get the thing fixed ourselves.
At the time that new agent took over the management the tenant handed in notice to leave giving required 21 days notice. During the course of the tenancy I had paid all but one of the tenants water use bills to try & show them that I cared that they had been inconvenienced firstly by the inundation and then by the delay in the oven repair. The property IS water compliant and I did this only because I was trying to show them that I cared.
They handed to keys back on 5th Dec. The new agent attended the property the afternoon of that day. We were in Sydney at the time & had arranged to do final inspection with her on 6th. During that inspection I found many things wrong with the property mainly cleanliness but there were alos things like heat damage to the kitchen benchtop, walls being repainted without permission, damage to the outer casing of the internal air con unit, holes in one of the bedroom doors that had not been repaired very well and were glaringly obvious, damage to kitchen doors & drawer fronts. When I'd spoken to the agent the previous afternoon she said she was happy with the condition of the property. I was actually horrified when I saw the place. Both toilets were filthy, the oven & the cook top with covered in baked on grease, the sink was filthy. There was dust on all skirting boards & light switches, the carpet was bulging in places in 3 of the 4 bedroom, the curtains were filthy, the concrete slab on back patio area was covered in paint, there was grass clipping piled up along fence line, cigarette butts in all the gardens. The ingoing report indicated that all these were clean at the start of tenancy so I instructed the agent that they would need to be addressed before I was happy to release the bond. The other damage I was not going to make an issue of because once again I was trying to avoid having to go through CTTT to get orders. The agent said she would inform the tenants and get them back to address the issues I'd raised. On late on Friday of that week I received email from the agent informing me that tenant had refused to do all the things I had asked to be done and asking my instruction re; release of bond. It was to late to respond by either phone or email. I sent response on Sunday telling them not to release the bond and to try & get tenant to comply.
On the 24th December I received email from agent informing me that tenant
had once again started action against me with CTTT and this time was claiming compensation to tune of just over $9000. I was totally gobsmacked. The new action/claim by the tenant listed all the things above but this time they included itemised amounts of monetary compensation for each one, such as 44 days without cooking facilities at $10 per day $400, they were allowing 4 days grace to accommodate postage time (postage time? all correspondence was by phone or email and we're unsure where they get 44days from). 65days with out air con at $15/day. Now I wondering who helped them do this claim because i didn't know about air cons being given a value of $15 with regard to rent charged until the new agent took over the management. Seems more than coincidence to me that tenant is claiming exactly the same amount that agent told me. Or is $15 with respect to air con a standard figure used by all agents as monetary value of air con with respect to rent charged?
So what I'm after is input on how to handle this. the new agent won't assist us because all the claims being made by the tenant concern issues that happened before they became the agents for the property. Fair enough I suppose. However I don't think they have actually submitted the proper paperwork re: bond. They agent concerned is not back from holidays until the 9th Jan and the office will only be staffed by people who are just clerks, there won't be any property managers back until the 9th. The hearing is scheduled for 19th. I am going to ring CTTT to see if I can get the matter deferred and the bond issue heard at the same time. Big problem though is that I'm no where near any of the CTTT offices so i will have to organise to get abck to Sydney and quite frankly I can't afford it. Without the rent from the property it seriously impacts in my finances, the rent forms the main part of my income. I've on part pension because the income form the house affects my payment.
Sorry this is so long and thank you to any of you that take the time to read it. I'm really desperate for some input. It seems do unfair that tenants can get help from the tenants tribunal but there doesn't seem to be anything for landlords .... or is there. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again, and once again sorry for how long this post is.
Tenant has started action against me with CTTT. His claims are distorted and some are pure fabrication. Tenant left property at beginning of Dec because he would not pay $15/week rent increase. There were been MANY maintenance issues over course of their 18mth tenancy
1) blocked sewer, dealt with immediately on day that tenant notified agent which was a Saturday.
2) during extreme storms in Jan 2011 the garage was inundated. This matter took few days to remedy because of the time of year. Plumber attended cleared storm water drains. Routine Inspection report done in presence of tenant at beginning of March 2011 states " since clearing of drains & digging of trench down side of garage there has been no further flooding to garage area"
3) I was notified on 1st June 2011 that the oven door was broken. I instructed agent to get it fixed
4) On 5th July received email from agent informing me that tenant had started action against me through CTTT because oven was not fixed. Also included in email was attachment of quote from electrician advising that oven was irreparable and would need to be replaced. Quoted was dated 29th June. I then rang agent because I was confused. I had told them to get oven fixed. They hadn't. I had not chased it up because I thought they would have acted as instructed. I was furious. I rang tenant myself & found out that oven was not working at all. So it went from door that would not close properly as I was originally told to oven totally unusable. Arranged for purchase of new oven and installation but it took 10 days to get it done. We were in contact with tenant the whole time keeping them informed as to what was happening. We have diary entries to confirm phone calls to tenant & agent and emails also. We realise that 10 days is long time but it could not have happened any quicker. We live 1000km from the rental property. Biggest time delay was getting electrician back to install oven. Tenant was informed of such & had agreed it was ok. The oven that was replaced less than 2 years old and was an expensive oven when purchased, not some cheapy of ebay. The oven was installed on 19th July which was only 10 working days.
5) On 20th July tenant rang & told us that hot water heater (also less than 2 yrs old) didn't heat over night. We called electrician & he attended the next day & had to replace fuse. He also commented that he thought that the control unit on side of the heater looked as though it had been removed because the screws were loose when he went to remove the cover to inspect it.
6) On 14th September tenant contacted agent re: light globes blowing. We contacted electrician and he attended and replaced fitting. He also informed us that light shade would have to be replaced because it was broken.
7) Tenant sent email to agent on 2nd October (Sunday of long weekend) informing them that air conditioner was not working. Agent did not contact us until 6th Oct and them only by email. We contacted air con technician that day but he did not return our call. We managed to contact him next day 8th and he said he'd attend on following Monday. We contacted tenant and informed them & they were OK with that. We also asked them if we could give the air con tech their phone number so he contact them directly and they agreed. We emailed agent to inform them what was happening. On 10th agent rang asking what was happening because they'd received an abusive phone call from tenant re: air con repair. We go WTF. Tenant had our phone number so he could have contacted us directly but on previous Friday he knew that air con tech would attend on the following Monday. This left us very confused. Could not understand what was going on. Tried to ring tenant no answer. Rang air con tech. He had been in contact with tenant and arranged to attend on 13th .... day that suited them .... he could have gone any day before that but they specified the 13th. He found the air con to be cooling & heating really well. He did however suggest the replacement of sensor unit because if anything was wrong it would be that. We agreed. We contacted tenant and informed them that a part needed to be replaced and would have to be ordered and that we were unsure as to how long it would take. Once again tenant said they were OK with that. Tues 18th we contacted air con tech & were informed that part had still not arrived & he was unsure when it would be in. We rang tenant again to keep them informed. Tenant once again seemed to be OK with it all. Contacted tech again the next week & he said that he expected the part by end of week & would install next week on day that suited tenant. we rang tenants again to inform that part was due & would be installed the next week on day that suited them and that tech would contact them directly to arrange the day.
8) We had already notified the tenant of rent increase. They knew about the rent increase at each contact we'd had with them over September and October but they never mention it so we thought they were Ok with it. Then on 4th November the agent notified us that tenant was taking action with CTTT asking for increase to be waived because it was unfair because
1)regular flooding of the garage area and it took 3 months for the problem to be rectified. Sewer was unblocked the day that tenant notified the agent. Inundation of garage due to extreme weather happened a few weeks after the sewer was blocked. The water drains were cleared and a tench dug to direct water flow away from back garage door was done the week after the inundation. The routine inspection report for March states "that there had been no further flooding". At no time during the rest of the tenancy did the tenant ever mention further issues re: flooding of the garage area. BUT when lodging claim with CTTT he said it had been an ongoing issue. Is it fair to ask why he had not informed us that there was still an issue with the flooding. It seems only common sense that if he could notify us of so many other maintenance issue, the majority of which I have not included here but including sliding door coming away from opening and needing to be reinstalled, cornice coming away from along the front of built in wardrobe in main bedroom to name just 2. He also claims that the problem had been an issue before their tenancy started and that they had not been informed. i lived in the house between 2002 & 2009. At no time did I have any issue with the garage flooding during bad weather. So he's making claims that are just not true & I don't know how to prove them as such.
They also claimed that had to keep garage doors sandbagged to prevent possible water entry. Once again we were never informed that this was happening by either tenant or the agent and only became aware of it in this claim.
2) all the dates he quotes re: oven replacement & air con repairs are wrong. BUT they should be easy to prove as such because we have emails & phone log, purchase receipts, invoices etc.
3) he claims that he first informed the agent that there was a problem with the air conditioner on July 20th, but we were not informed by agent that there was. So how do we prove that we had no knowledge of it? He claims that we told him that it was still under warranty and that we would get it looked at. We could not have told him that because we didn't know there was problem. He then claims that he got a technician to attend.
All the claims he's made are either false or if unattended to because we had no knowledge off. He manipulated the facts to make things appear worse than they were and much of it is outright lies. After we received this I rang the agent and had a heated discussion with them re: why they weren't keeping us informed. They said they had told us everything we needed to know. The tenant was saying one thing & agent another & I didn't know who to believe. After much thought I decided to cancel the agreement with the agent because I felt they could not be trusted. There were also issues with transfer of fund into my account being late on many occasions.
We agreed to the tenants demand re: rent increase because we wanted to avoid a hearing especially because we would have to do it on our own because the agent flatly refused, saying that we cause all the problems because we wouldn't let them manage the property. They caused the initial problem re: oven by NOT getting it fixed as they had been instructed and that is what prompted us to get the thing fixed ourselves.
At the time that new agent took over the management the tenant handed in notice to leave giving required 21 days notice. During the course of the tenancy I had paid all but one of the tenants water use bills to try & show them that I cared that they had been inconvenienced firstly by the inundation and then by the delay in the oven repair. The property IS water compliant and I did this only because I was trying to show them that I cared.
They handed to keys back on 5th Dec. The new agent attended the property the afternoon of that day. We were in Sydney at the time & had arranged to do final inspection with her on 6th. During that inspection I found many things wrong with the property mainly cleanliness but there were alos things like heat damage to the kitchen benchtop, walls being repainted without permission, damage to the outer casing of the internal air con unit, holes in one of the bedroom doors that had not been repaired very well and were glaringly obvious, damage to kitchen doors & drawer fronts. When I'd spoken to the agent the previous afternoon she said she was happy with the condition of the property. I was actually horrified when I saw the place. Both toilets were filthy, the oven & the cook top with covered in baked on grease, the sink was filthy. There was dust on all skirting boards & light switches, the carpet was bulging in places in 3 of the 4 bedroom, the curtains were filthy, the concrete slab on back patio area was covered in paint, there was grass clipping piled up along fence line, cigarette butts in all the gardens. The ingoing report indicated that all these were clean at the start of tenancy so I instructed the agent that they would need to be addressed before I was happy to release the bond. The other damage I was not going to make an issue of because once again I was trying to avoid having to go through CTTT to get orders. The agent said she would inform the tenants and get them back to address the issues I'd raised. On late on Friday of that week I received email from the agent informing me that tenant had refused to do all the things I had asked to be done and asking my instruction re; release of bond. It was to late to respond by either phone or email. I sent response on Sunday telling them not to release the bond and to try & get tenant to comply.
On the 24th December I received email from agent informing me that tenant
had once again started action against me with CTTT and this time was claiming compensation to tune of just over $9000. I was totally gobsmacked. The new action/claim by the tenant listed all the things above but this time they included itemised amounts of monetary compensation for each one, such as 44 days without cooking facilities at $10 per day $400, they were allowing 4 days grace to accommodate postage time (postage time? all correspondence was by phone or email and we're unsure where they get 44days from). 65days with out air con at $15/day. Now I wondering who helped them do this claim because i didn't know about air cons being given a value of $15 with regard to rent charged until the new agent took over the management. Seems more than coincidence to me that tenant is claiming exactly the same amount that agent told me. Or is $15 with respect to air con a standard figure used by all agents as monetary value of air con with respect to rent charged?
So what I'm after is input on how to handle this. the new agent won't assist us because all the claims being made by the tenant concern issues that happened before they became the agents for the property. Fair enough I suppose. However I don't think they have actually submitted the proper paperwork re: bond. They agent concerned is not back from holidays until the 9th Jan and the office will only be staffed by people who are just clerks, there won't be any property managers back until the 9th. The hearing is scheduled for 19th. I am going to ring CTTT to see if I can get the matter deferred and the bond issue heard at the same time. Big problem though is that I'm no where near any of the CTTT offices so i will have to organise to get abck to Sydney and quite frankly I can't afford it. Without the rent from the property it seriously impacts in my finances, the rent forms the main part of my income. I've on part pension because the income form the house affects my payment.
Sorry this is so long and thank you to any of you that take the time to read it. I'm really desperate for some input. It seems do unfair that tenants can get help from the tenants tribunal but there doesn't seem to be anything for landlords .... or is there. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again, and once again sorry for how long this post is.
) and disrespectful and when my parents were awarded the whole of the bond except $12 they stomped off and slammed the door. Was very enjoyable 
