Tenant in arrears, going to Tribunal

Hi all,

As the title suggests, my tenants are in arrears and I'm taking them to the Tribunal (QCAT in QLD). I was wondering if anyone had some advice for me since this is the first time it has happened.

I found out the tenant was in arrears when I received my fortnightly statement and called them up when I saw the lack of credit. Their response was "yep they're in arrears, do you want us to send a remedy of breach?" So basically it took 2 weeks for me to find that out. Are they required to notify me ASAP and not just wait for me to call them? This was also the 2nd time this has happened with this particular tenant and it was their last chance.

I had to do some maintenance on some trees on the property anyway so I gave them 24 hours notice to go there myself. Without even walking around the house I could see finger painting on the walls, extremely dirty carpet, unkempt lawns and gardens etc. The PM did do an inspection 1 month prior and provided photos showing it was all clean.

So basically I got the PM to lodge a remedy of breach request (7 days), then a notice to vacant (7 more days) and they didn't move out - effectively squatting. At this point they have not paid rent for 1 month, wiping the bond money. Anything else is a loss, and there is no repercussion from the tenant to actually clean the property before they vacate.

The next step was to lodge an urgent application with QCAT for a 'warrant of possession', which it took 1 week to actually get a hearing date nominated, and the hearing date was nominated for 2 weeks after that (it's actually set for Feb 13th). Then i'm told it takes 2 more weeks for the police to come and act on the warrant to boot the tenants out.

So effectively, in QLD it takes approximately 7 weeks to evict a tenant from the date you start the process. Since I missed the first 2 weeks it will be 9 weeks total. On top of this, I am anticipating the house to be in an un-rentable state, where I will have to potentially have to re-paint, re-carpet, and do a lot of gardening maintenance. I have landlord insurance which only covers wilful extreme damages and it sounds like I will have to replace this at my own cost.

The tenant is a young single mother with 3 kids living off Centrelink. It sounds like she knows that she can squat until the police come kick her out. It also turns out the PM never sought my approval for such a tenant, or provided me with a copy of the lease agreement at the time. No offense intended but I would have said no to such an application because of alarm bells in my head about someone not working.

So I guess my questions are:

  • Do I have any recourse with the PM that they didn't get my approval of the tenant or give me a copy of the lease?
  • What would happen if I just shut off the water supply and locked the meter box or something like that?? I'm joking of course, but I wonder...
  • How do I get compensation from the tenant? Do I need to lodge another QCAT request or will this warrant of possession hearing also give me some sort of compensation arrangement of the rent in arrears and any property damage?
  • Do I need to front up to QCAT with a bunch of copies of documents or a written summary of events? Or will this just be an automatic thing? No one seems to be able to tell me...
 
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Don't forget the tenant may be given a few weeks to get out as well. They need time to find new accomodation.

If you shut off the water that could be a breach of the tenancy act and would work against you

unlikely a centrelink person would have assets so you are unlikely to be able to get any compensation. If you could that would be further orders such as seizure of property or guarnishing bank accounts or wages - after an allowable sum is taken into account for their living costs.

You need to present evidence at the tribunal, although the normal rules of evidence don't apply, you still need to prove your point.
 
Thanks Terry. The impression I was getting from the PM was when the police act upon the warrant of possession (from QCAT) then the tenant is removed from the premises...is that not true? I'm also told that if the tenant leaves a bunch of rubbish on site then I have to pay for the removal, and if they leave anything of value, I have to pay for it to be put into storage!!
 
Yes all true.

But the order may be that they leave in 2 weeks time so it may be 4 weeks until the police get them out.
 
Here's an update for anyone searching for QCAT help.

At the court hearing, the tenant told the Judge her sob story about not being able to find alternative accommodation. Instead of issuing the warrant of possession immediately, the Judge decided he would give her 2 more weeks before he would issue the warrant so she could have a little extra time. So the police will come 2 weeks after that. She will be about 9 or 10 weeks in arrears at that point.

The dumb thing is she will have to come up with some money as a bond at her next place, so she would not be able to repay me anything.

I still don't know what state she has the house in!
 
Here's an update for anyone searching for QCAT help.

At the court hearing, the tenant told the Judge her sob story about not being able to find alternative accommodation. Instead of issuing the warrant of possession immediately, the Judge decided he would give her 2 more weeks before he would issue the warrant so she could have a little extra time. So the police will come 2 weeks after that. She will be about 9 or 10 weeks in arrears at that point.

The dumb thing is she will have to come up with some money as a bond at her next place, so she would not be able to repay me anything.

I still don't know what state she has the house in!

If you have landlords insurance, perhaps you can recover any shortfall in rent from them?
 
If you have loss of rent in your insurance policy find out how many weeks it covers. My tenant was finally sheriffed out at 11 weeks in arrears. My policy only covers 13 weeks lost rent (starting from 4 weeks after arrears commenced) so once the renos/cleanup was done and new tenants moving in I had about 1 day remaining before the 13 weeks was up.

You may be surprised at the state of the property (hopefully). My tenant looked after the house really well apart from done body slam/boot holes in the walls and doors and a bullet hole thru the window lol.
 
Yes I'm also covered for between 4-13 weeks loss of rent. I was going to do a backyard blitz on the property before advertising for new tenants. I wonder if insurance will cover me for this time? I mean, if I took a few weeks to tidy the place up which amounted to 13 total weeks from the date of arrears?
 
the Judge decided he would give her 2 more weeks before he would issue the warrant so she could have a little extra time. So the police will come 2 weeks after that. She will be about 9 or 10 weeks in arrears at that point.

Exactly like I predicted above.
 
Just be thankful it didn't start before Christmas. We had one and started proceedings in late November, we eventually got them out by the end of Feb! Court only sits here one half day per week. It takes on average 4 weeks just to get a date.
I hope it isn't too bad when she leaves. I feel your pain, don't let the experience put you off.
 
The REA is slack obviously and caused you more loss, and didn't move quickly to mitigate your loss. It's a strong negotiating point in asking them to replace the tenant at their expense not yours. If you're going to the Tribunal personally, not the agent, you'll need lots of proof. Get the Tribunal document checklist from the REA. Better still, let them do it and go with them to learn.
This applied to NSW Tribunals :
If you go yourself, you need proof you are the landlord,
proof you own the property, signature that you have authority from any joint property owner like spouse, copy of lease, copy of rent record printed out by the REA, copies of all letters to the tenant, notes of all phone calls and promises, condition report, any recent pics inside or outside the property to show urgency of possession. Ask for orders to immediately enter to inspect, orders for vacant possession, order that the bond be immediately released to you, orders for the tenant to pay rent arrears to date immediately , and strongly oppose any time extensions showing property damage and broken promises and unpaid rent (not even $1 attempt to catchup) as proof of urgency. Dress down a bit on the day coz you're just a rich capitalist oppressing the unfortunate battlers you know.
Good luck
cheers
crest133
 
gaiusb said:
"I found out the tenant was in arrears when I received my fortnightly statement and called them up when I saw the lack of credit. Their response was "yep they're in arrears, do you want us to send a remedy of breach?" So basically it took 2 weeks for me to find that out. Are they required to notify me ASAP and not just wait for me to call them? This was also the 2nd time this has happened with this particular tenant and it was their last chance."

It seems to me you need a new PM.
 
The very purpose of the bond is to provide money for the landlord to access if the tenant defaults. At Tribunal request an order to pay you the bond as part compensation for monies owed.
Cheers
crest133
 
Poor Tenant.

We went to a QCAT hearing Friday seeking a notice of vancant possession.
We had sent two registered mail letters with Notice to leave.
The first they say they didn't get
The second was returned unclaimed.
So the (Hanging) judge decided that since they hadn't receive the notices then the case was dismissed.
No we have to start all over again and probably get the same result in court.
These QCAT judges are total unreal.

Life's not fair - get used to it!

Good luck.
Bazza
 
Isn't the whole point of registered letters that there is proof they have been received? Don't they have to sign for them. If the second one was returned, doesn't that mean the first one was signed for?
 
Isn't the whole point of registered letters that there is proof they have been received? Don't they have to sign for them. If the second one was returned, doesn't that mean the first one was signed for?

If the occupants of a house are not home at time of delivery, then a card will be left notifying the occupants (addressee) to come to Post Office to collect mail item. However, this does not mean they will. Especially, if they know what's inside that envelope!
 
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