Tenancies Tribunal

I am a landlord who has experienced a situation whereby tenant moved out of my property 4 weeks before end of lease and did not pay rent that was due for this time.

I have been through the appropriate legal channels to claim portion of bond and the entire process has been fraught with inefficiency and errors on behalf of the tribunal.
If anyone on this forum has some legal knowledge and able to steer me in the right direction it would be most appreciated.

Essentially the first tribunal hearing I was not informed about because the tribunal recorded my contact details (address etc) incorrectly and sent communication to the wrong address.
Therefore at the hearing they ruled in the tenants favour and returned all of her bond.
I lodged a rehearing application along with copious amount of evidence and documentation and paid my $37. The rehearing was granted, but yet again they sent the hearing documentation to the wrong address. Fortunately, it was actually forwarded on to me a week before the hearing.
Because I am located 700kms away from the area where the hearing was taking place I requested a telephone hearing and gave them my correct contact details verbally and in writing. Despite my following up with the tribunal via phone call and email over several consecutive days I was unable to obtain a confirmation that the telephone hearing had been granted. I was told the file was with the tribunal member who was travelling and between cities etc etc.
The hearing was scheduled for this morning. I called 1 hour before to check on progress and again nothing could be confirmed until the tribunal member had arrived at the court with the file.
The time of the hearing came and went and I had received no telephone call. I have since received an email from the tribunal saying that they received my request for telephone hearing, however, as the tenant has no further issues to discuss the matter has been withdrawn !

I am totally gobsmacked at the inefficiency of the tribunal and their disregard for fair treatment. Why would we pay $37 and request a re-hearing if we didn't have anything to say ? it would appear all our documentation has just been ignored by this latest tribunal member. I feel like we do not have any legal rights to be heard in respect to what has happened and to give our side of the story.
 
I have since received an email from the tribunal saying that they received my request for telephone hearing, however, as the tenant has no further issues to discuss the matter has been withdrawn !

What did the email exactly say?

I don't really understand what the tribunal meant by this - it was your application after all.
 
Hi. Thanks for reading my post. Although I applied for a re-hearing the tenant is still considered as The Applicant. This is because when I requested a portion of her bond from the Bonds Office she disputed this and effectively lodged a claim with the tribunal to get her bond in full. So, she is effectively The Applicant and I am The Respondent.

The re-hearing was granted because I did not get an opportunity to respond to her claim for the full bond and explain why I did not want it released in its entirety.

Today the re-hearing was scheduled and I had previously advised them multiple times that i would need a telephone hearing as I live in another state. However, this was not even looked at until the hearing commenced today. The Tribunal Members orders today were:

"The applicant appeared before the Tribunal. The Respondent sought a telephone hearing but consideration for this did not need to be determined because the applicant has withdrawn the application. There is no issue for the Tribunal to determine"

Obviously, I was gobsmacked by this response. I have never been given an opportunity to respond to the orders that the Applicant sought initially (the return of her bond in full). I feel certain that this cannot be a legal practice. Surely there is an obligation for both parties to have opportunity to respond and present their case. But the matter has been withdrawn without any communication with me. I actually feel sorry for the tenant as well because she has been mucked around by having to attend court multiple times.
 
The whole thing sounds pretty odd and you are right in saying you should have been given an opportunity to dispute the application for bond disposal.

But without seeing the orders in front of me and a full history of proceedings its nearly impossible to determine where along the line the procedure fell apart or became irregular.

Generally I would have been advising to set aside (appeal) the original decision to dispose the bond in the tenant's favour - which is what I thought your "re-hearing" might be - but the new orders of the tribunal seem to suggest otherwise.

Otherwise you might be entitled to actually re-apply for any damages arising from the tenancy agreement - but this course is also contingent on whether the correct way to proceed is actually an appeal. Because if you get it wrong it could be an abuse of process.

Without a tenancy lawyer handy to look at your matter, my advice would be to be talking to the court registry and asking how to apply to set aside the decision to dispose the bond.
 
Assuming the application is the bond dispute you could read that as the tenant is no longer disputing it. I would be surprised if that is the case however.

That is how I read it. The applicant is the tenant and they have withdrawn meaning they are no longer challenging you about taking the bond.
 
That is correct. The tenant has withdrawn because the original hearing orders were in her favour and obviously she is satisfied to have received her bond back.

I applied for re-hearing and received a notice from the tribunal saying the orders had been staid.

I was under the impression that all parties to a matter were supposed to be given an opportunity to respond. Obviously this did not happen for us hence the re-hearing being granted. I would have thought the re-hearing could only be withdrawn by either us or the tribunal member. It seems a strange legal system whereby the other party can just dictate whether they want the respondent to have a chance to respond or not. I am going to have a chat to a lawyer I think about the actions of the tribunal because it just doesn't feel right. Thanks all
 
And you are doing all this for $800-1200?

Have you relet the property? How long was it empty?

The tenant has now been paid the bond and there is no money left with the bond board.

The best you will get is an order against the tenant for hem to pay the moneys to you, you will then need further legal avenues to recover that money from the old tenant with more hassles and costs involved.

This will start being very expensive for you if you get solicitors involved just to prove you are right.

There was a post recently where a forumite retold his experience with collecting monies after getting tribunal adjudication. Can't find the reference.

CHeers
 
I think handyandy has hit the nail on the head. Same thoughts here.

I hate having to accept an injustice, but if it really is simply four weeks' rent, then the angst this is causing is not worth it.

Even having the court admit it made a mistake would be nice, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Having the court rule that she owes you money doesn't mean you will ever see it.

The only satisfaction you might get from pursuing this is that you could blacklist her on TICA or similar, but that doesn't put any money in your pocket.

I would move on.
 
Having the court rule that she owes you money doesn't mean you will ever see it.

Very true - I had tribunal award in my favour for around 3 months of rent to be paid at $30/wk (long story but by the time the tenant was behind the tribunal bookings was 3 weeks minimum, and then they gave her another 2 weeks to leave!) - yet to receive a cent.

Once the money has left your control then the chance of getting back is buckleys ... stinks but you have to learn to move on
 
Back
Top