Hi,
I wanted to write about a situation that has occurred for me with the NSW Tenancy Tribunal and a range of what I believe are administration and judicial process errors.
Specifically, my tenant moved out of a property before end of lease and did not pay all the rent due. I lodged a request to retain a portion of his bond with the bonds office. The tenant disputed this claim and lodged an application with the tribunal. I waited for the notice of hearing for a couple of weeks and then called to follow up. I discovered that the tenant had provided my incorrect address, the notice had not reached me and the hearing had already taken place. Orders had been made in the tenants favour to return all the bond.
On advice of the tribunal, I lodged application for re-hearing and provided all my correct contact details. The hearing was granted but again the notice was sent to the wrong address. Fortunately I found out about it before the hearing this time. The original orders were stayed. However, this had no effect because the usual process by the tribunal is to notify the bonds office to the release the bond as soon as the orders were made. Therefore, the stay of orders came too late and the bond had already been released on the original orders.
I anticipated being able to explain this at the re-hearing, however on the day of the re-hearing the applicant withdrew and the tribunal member decided that there was nothing to be heard. Therefore the hearing did not take place and we were not provided an opportunity to respond.
I then applied for a hearing myself (so that i was the applicant) and asked for a waiver of fees on the basis of:
1) We had already paid for a re-hearing
2) The tribunals administrative error in sending the re-hearing notice to the wrong address again !
3) We had not had an opportunity to respond in the original hearing
4) The stayed orders had no effect because the tribunal had already made orders to release the bond. it was too late for the stayed orders to make a difference.
The hearing has been scheduled, but today I received a notice from them saying that the waiver of fee has been refused as the register had not made any errors.
I am absolutely appalled by this. I fail to see how the above is not clearly errors on behalf of the tribunal. I am trying to find out if there is a governing body over the tenancy tribunal so that I can make further complaint. Aside from my request for waiver of fee, I lodged a detailed complaint with the tribunal a month ago about the problems that occurred and have received no response. It would appear to me they do not wish to take any responsibility for the events that transpired.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
I wanted to write about a situation that has occurred for me with the NSW Tenancy Tribunal and a range of what I believe are administration and judicial process errors.
Specifically, my tenant moved out of a property before end of lease and did not pay all the rent due. I lodged a request to retain a portion of his bond with the bonds office. The tenant disputed this claim and lodged an application with the tribunal. I waited for the notice of hearing for a couple of weeks and then called to follow up. I discovered that the tenant had provided my incorrect address, the notice had not reached me and the hearing had already taken place. Orders had been made in the tenants favour to return all the bond.
On advice of the tribunal, I lodged application for re-hearing and provided all my correct contact details. The hearing was granted but again the notice was sent to the wrong address. Fortunately I found out about it before the hearing this time. The original orders were stayed. However, this had no effect because the usual process by the tribunal is to notify the bonds office to the release the bond as soon as the orders were made. Therefore, the stay of orders came too late and the bond had already been released on the original orders.
I anticipated being able to explain this at the re-hearing, however on the day of the re-hearing the applicant withdrew and the tribunal member decided that there was nothing to be heard. Therefore the hearing did not take place and we were not provided an opportunity to respond.
I then applied for a hearing myself (so that i was the applicant) and asked for a waiver of fees on the basis of:
1) We had already paid for a re-hearing
2) The tribunals administrative error in sending the re-hearing notice to the wrong address again !
3) We had not had an opportunity to respond in the original hearing
4) The stayed orders had no effect because the tribunal had already made orders to release the bond. it was too late for the stayed orders to make a difference.
The hearing has been scheduled, but today I received a notice from them saying that the waiver of fee has been refused as the register had not made any errors.
I am absolutely appalled by this. I fail to see how the above is not clearly errors on behalf of the tribunal. I am trying to find out if there is a governing body over the tenancy tribunal so that I can make further complaint. Aside from my request for waiver of fee, I lodged a detailed complaint with the tribunal a month ago about the problems that occurred and have received no response. It would appear to me they do not wish to take any responsibility for the events that transpired.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
