Would love advice, can't get tenant out who has defaulted on rent

N

noisuf

Hi Everyone,

Would love your advice on the following situation. Property in Moreton Bay on QLD.

1) Tenant has not paid rent since mid Jan this year.

2) History of rent arrears so not just a problem since mid Jan.

3) Remedy breaches provided to the tenant before and after mid Jan.

4) QCAT case submitted. QCAT case last Monday 31 March ruled they had two weeks to leave.

5) It's been a week and they still haven't left. My PM says that now the magistrar has made the ruling it's now up to the Police to get them out?

How do we get them out? Is the Police suppose to intervene now? Or am I possibly now stuck with squatters and I have no rights?

Thanks heaps in advance!!!
 
I would guess as per point number 5, the magistrate has give you permission to take along the police as soon after midnight of the last day they are able to stay there.

We once had this happen (without the magistrate) and we had the local police more than happy to come around to the house at 7am with me to move them along if they were still there. It didn't come to that because they moved the day before.

Technically, though, we hadn't been to the tribunal, and the RTA told me that until these tenants gave back the keys, we had no right to enter or change the locks, but we did anyway.
 
Just contact the local police and tell them you have a court order for an eviction and you want to arrange for some police to go over and force the tenants to leave.
 
Also, they have "free" rent at your place for another week, so it is likely they will not be going anywhere until the very last day. Just have the police lined up ready to go the first day you are allowed to do so, as per the magistrate. Have a locksmith ready to come out too once you know they are well gone.
 
Your PM should really be managing the process for you. I did this in NSW, and basically, the PM took the order (it's called a warrant for possession here - not sure if it's the same in QLD) to the local sheriff's office, and they went around the next day with the PM and a locksmith. I didn't attend.

The tenants hadn't moved out and basically, the sheriff got them to leave and then the locksmith changed the locks. It was important that the PM stayed there during the whole thing because I didn't want the tenants doing any malicious damage and people can be unpredictable when they're angry.

Because the tenants hadn't moved any of their stuff, the PM went back over the next few days to supervise while they moved out (again to make sure they didn't damage anything). They still left a fair bit of stuff behind and we had a bit of a clean up bill, but it is not too hard if you have some good help from your PM.
 
Thanks so much to you all for your advice. I'll give the PM a call tomorrow to see if there's an update from the police and their involvement.

We've never had this happen to us before for any of the properties.

Will need to make a claim on rent default and will increase insurance premiums in the future......but it is good lessons have been learnt.
 
Hi all, quick update, police booked in for Friday 10am and even the police suggested bringing in the locksmiths.

Just one thing, the police said that if they leave and keep stuff there, we'll need to pay for they stuff to go to storage? I would have thought I could just dump everything?

Will let you all know how we go. REALLY looking forward to getting in decent tenants. Thanks once again!!!
 
As well as storing anything, take plenty of photos so that they cannot come back later and say there were things left that were not actually there. Photograph everything, with a date stamp (or a cop in each photo ;)).
 
We had this happen to us a few years ago, we are in Vic. We had the police turn up with us on the eviction day, tenant was long gone and had left a lot of his belongings behind. We had the locksmith come and change all the locks and we had to get someone from I think Consumer Affairs to come out and inspect the goods and give us the go ahead to dispose of them. We had to get them declared abandoned. We were then free to do as we wished with them. We sold some of it and skip binned the rest.
 
Yes, take plenty of photos. We had our agent take photos of everything in the house before we moved it in to the garage to await inspection so we could get the house cleaned.
 
Oh also we had to keep hold of any personal documents. We weren't allowed to toss those, gave them to the agent to hold onto.
 
Whatever happens, if there is anything left, photograph it and store what you need to by law. This may differ in different states. When this happened to my parents, we had to keep anything over a certain value and could dump things under a certain value. We took stacks of photos and boxed up anything that was not absolutely, unquestionably rubbish (still photographed what we threw out) and kept it for longer than we had to, just in case. There were some quite personal things, though nothing of high value.

Read the link Terry sent carefully and make sure you do it by the book.
 
Good luck for tomorrow morning Noisuf, hope it goes as smoothly as can be expected. Be careful taking photos of personal possessions. I'm pretty sure this isn't allowed in NSW, but not sure about QLD. Also, the QLD legal aid website gives this advice for tenants who leave stuff behind - you might find it useful.

What happens to my belongings if I leave them with my landlord when I leave?
If you finish your rental agreement and leave your belongings with your landlord the Residential Tenancies Act allows the landlord to sell them or throw them away if they are worth less than $1500, they are unsafe or the cost of removing and storing and selling them would be more than they are worth.
If that does not apply, then the landlord must store the belongings safely for one month or if they relate to a caravan for three months. If the goods have not been reclaimed at the end of that time the landlord may sell the goods by auction or get an order from the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to sell them or throw the goods away.
What if I leave documents or money with the landlord?
If you finish your rental agreement and leave documents or money with your landlord, the landlord must either return the documents or money to you or give it to the Public Trustee. It is an offence not to do this.
 
Cdro, i believe you might be thinking about the rules regarding the use of photos of tenants' possessions when advertising for sale or rent and the need to get signed authority. I cannot believe taking photos of abandoned goods for your own purposes and to protect your butt in the event the tenant claims they had items go missing would be a mistake or not allowed.

I just read the property is in Queensland, so a call to the RTA today would clarify this.
 
I've had to store the property of an evicted tenant who was a hoarder.

I had storage available on site, but the process of moving it all was awful, and a very big job.
 
wylie said:
Cdro, i believe you might be thinking about the rules regarding the use of photos of tenants' possessions when advertising for sale or rent and the need to get signed authority. I cannot believe taking photos of abandoned goods for your own purposes and to protect your butt in the event the tenant claims they had items go missing would be a mistake or not allowed.

I just read the property is in Queensland, so a call to the RTA today would clarify this.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...you may well be right. I am certainly no expert and could be getting mixed up. Actually I was thinking of the routine inspections that the PM does - I remember reading that they're not meant to take photos of personal possessions. So the rules could well be different in this case.
 
Legally you have to store it. However I would just dump it and leave it up to the tenant to prove that you did it. They aren't doing the right thing so I wouldn't feel the need to return the favour. If there was anything of value then I am sure the tenant would take it with them.
 
MRO said:
Legally you have to store it. However I would just dump it and leave it up to the tenant to prove that you did it. They aren't doing the right thing so I wouldn't feel the need to return the favour. If there was anything of value then I am sure the tenant would take it with them.
Click to expand...

Im with you on this.

Dump the stuff before you change the locks , report to police someone broke in
and stole it.

Get on with your life and not theirs.
 
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