Tenant not paying up. Off to Tribunal

Over the last couple of years, our tenant had been either late paying or not paying quite enough one week and would take her a month to catch up. Anyway she looked after the house well, so we have been ok with it. We agreed on a payment plan and she was adhering to it. Then things changed.

She suddenly stopped paying altogether and after 14 days, I issued her with a termination notice which gives her until the 23rd of this month and then after 18 days from when we sent the notice, I applied to Tribunal. We have got a hearing down for 6th September.
I just have a few queries if someone could please help.

Is it up to the tenant to contact us from here on in or do I still try and contact her to retrieve payment?

What happens on the 23rd of this month? Do we go to the house and request that she hands back the keys and moves out?

Or do we simply sit and wait for tribunal? I have tried to search for information, but I cannot find any.

Lastly, we pay for the water, so can we turn it off after a certain date.


I am planning for Tribunal and have been jotting down all my notes. I am a little nervous as I have never even stepped inside of a court room. But at least I am on the "good" side. She is a bit of a drama queen so I can imagine that she will rant and rave, but I will be very composed and present my case :)
 
lesson I learnt from a very successul businessman. When you go to court, dress down, buy some clothes from the op shop, no makeup, drag a couple of kids along with you if you can, and just sound like an ordinary mum & dad type investor .
 
Lastly, we pay for the water, so can we turn it off after a certain date.


QUOTE]

I don't think you are allowed to do this. You can close the account but water corp will leave the water on until the tenant puts it in their name so they probably have a few months to sort it out.

I would just go round and manually turn off the water, then pull some fuses from the main power board and then have a torchlight vigorous discussion with the tenant about helping them to move out tomorrow.
 
engage an estate agent.

Alternatively engage a solicitor or do the study yourself to know the law.

I chose the first option and have never looked back.
 
Lastly, we pay for the water, so can we turn it off after a certain date.


:)

In NSW all landlords pay for the water first. you then recharge only the water usage to the tenant.

I agree with other poster either get educated quickly (there are plenty of past post re this matter) or get a managing agent.

Cheers
 
Is it up to the tenant to contact us from here on in or do I still try and contact her to retrieve payment?

Can't hurt and will go in your favour at tribunal that you have continued to try to get payment.

Actually it might hurt, she might pay when really you might just want her out.
 
I would just go round and manually turn off the water, then pull some fuses from the main power board and then have a torchlight vigorous discussion with the tenant about helping them to move out tomorrow.

Probably not the best thing to do before you head to the tribunal.

I like to take a reasonable approach to my tenants and am prepared to have a honest and harsh discussion with them prior to heading to the tribunal.

Funny how if someone drives off without paying for petrol they will get a call from the cops within an hour yet you can live in a house and not pay rent for a few months before the authorities politely ask you to vacate some time in the next month. END OF RANT.
 
I would just go round and manually turn off the water, then pull some fuses from the main power board and then have a torchlight vigorous discussion with the tenant about helping them to move out tomorrow.

I really don't think this is a good idea. My understanding in NSW is that the tribunals are very heavily in favour of the tenants. Antagonising them like this will be turned around on you. You'd be seen as the bad guy and will end up paying for it. I can imagine they'd refuse the notice to evict, tell the tenant to pay $20 extra rent per week until they catch up, then fine you for removing essential services.
 
I really don't think this is a good idea. My understanding in NSW is that the tribunals are very heavily in favour of the tenants. Antagonising them like this will be turned around on you. You'd be seen as the bad guy and will end up paying for it. I can imagine they'd refuse the notice to evict, tell the tenant to pay $20 extra rent per week until they catch up, then fine you for removing essential services.

I agree.

I have little faith in the system and try to arrive at fair result on my own terms. I have told tenants in the past that I will be turning up in one week with a removal van to collect the keys. Forget the outstanding rent and get out immediately before I move you. It takes a while to get to this point so don't think I am too harsh but I refuse to be walked over. Once you start down the tribunal route this is no longer an option.

I know people will say this is not the way to do it, but I don't care.
 
lesson I learnt from a very successul businessman. When you go to court, dress down, buy some clothes from the op shop, no makeup, drag a couple of kids along with you if you can, and just sound like an ordinary mum & dad type investor .

+++ 1000!

Years ago I had a magistrate almost side with non payers just because they had small (ratbag) kids. That was until we told the magistrate we were ourselves poor, renting students. So much for acting upon the evidence!
 
Certainly seems the tribunal fall for the sob story of the tenant. Many of them are pushing the hardship loophole.

Tenants are far more educated and know how to milk the system.

I had a judge say to me. So you are going to kick a single mother with 2 kids out on the street?

A landlord can afford it..... referring to loss of a months rent.

I couldn't believe it..
 
Certainly seems the tribunal fall for the sob story of the tenant. Many of them are pushing the hardship loophole.

Tenants are far more educated and know how to milk the system.

I had a judge say to me. So you are going to kick a single mother with 2 kids out on the street?

A landlord can afford it..... referring to loss of a months rent.

I couldn't believe it..

I imagine the court was simply trying to find out what hardship there was for both parties. And to be fair, what would be worse? - losing a month's rent, or losing your house?

I imagine it would be the latter, all other things being equal.

So it will always be an uphill battle for a landlord in arguing against a suspension of termination orders. The key is to know this and shape your evidence and arguments to address this.

ie. Landlords getting educated and "milking" the system themselves
 
I imagine the court was simply trying to find out what hardship there was for both parties. And to be fair, what would be worse? - losing a month's rent, or losing your house?

I was a poor student renting and always thought that landlords are 'evil' :p
but even so, it's not the tenant's house since they don't own it, and especially if they don't pay rent per agreement.
 
Because your rules are a bit different, I don't suggest you do what we did last year.

We had a tenant move in, and stopped paying rent immediately. Her lease said she was responsible for water. This means we don't need to pay for any of it. So when her eviction notice expired, and she refused to leave, we disconnected it from our name. That means the water was shut off. In our province the water companies will not hook up water in the tenants name. (not our rules, not our problem)
Tenant took us to tribunal, and the tenant won a judgement from us of $600 for discomfort.
We appealed and just received the verdict last week. We won, and don't owe anything. Water isn't included in the lease, and it is a utility just like electricity.
Tenant was evicted long ago. We have set a precident :)

Yes, we push the envelope a lot here.
Even the head RCMP told us we are not like the other landlords...like when we go in and remove all the exterior doors of our property...just to convince the tenant to leave.
 
Peppin, a hard lesson learnt. You serve notice to terminate and apply to the tribunal at the same time. Why?

The tenant is in default by 2 weeks, you have given them another 2 weeks grace before applying to the tribunal. The tribunal date is still 2-3 weeks away. You are bleeding 6-7 weeks rent + a little more by the time the order for possession comes from the tribunal. You only have 4 weeks bond so will loose out by 2 or 3 weeks.

In NSW you cannot turn off the water supply (but you can fail to pay your bill and if you are lucky they might restrict the water supply but it will take months and may ruin your credit rating).
 
Yes it is a hard lesson learned, but a valuable one because we will better self protect ourselves in the future. I appreciate all of your comments and let you know how it all unfolds.
 
Not sure is WA but in VIC cannot be done. must wait for the postage period on the notice to pass (3-5 days depending on day the notice is posted) then you can make the VCAT application
 
Back
Top