Tenancy Tribunral - have you done it? (NSW)

[BrightSparkles]

We moved out yesterday after bing in our house for 3 years.
I was present for the inspection this morning and the real estate are being difficult. They are carrying on about a couple of smallish stains in the bathroom drawers (probably caused by the water leaking in - which we notified them about on a number of occasions) and some holes in fly screens that were there when we moved in but have gotten bigger over 3 years and the weights not being in the blinds - which they weren't when we moved in - they were in a bag in the cupboard which is where we left them. The screens were noted in the ingoing report - but not the weights.
The owner is HUGELY padantic (sp?) but really - this is wear and tear stuff. I'm happy to take this owner to tribunral out of principal if she wants to fight me. What are my chances? Whats the process?

[AliBaby]

Yep definitely take them.

I once went to the tribunal. It was some things that were a little more major than the pedantic thing your owner is going on about but she can not take money out of your bond for things that you have previously notified them about.

Ie. Telling them about the water leaking and them not fixing it means they are then repsonsible for the water damage it causes.
Knowing that there were previous holes in the flyscreen and not fixing them. Well general wear and tare of a previous broken item is bound to happen.
Do you have any photos taken of when you moved in to show the weights werent there. Ask the real estate if they had photos. Normall they do take them. You might be able to get a glimpse of the blinds with no eights in them.

We took our landlord to the tribunal after him promising in the lease and advertising the brand new house as having ducted air, gas hot water/cooking, fenced back yard, carpet would be laid, etc, etc. There are some forms you have to fill out. Google search will bring it up and you lodge them and make sure you have as much evidence as you can. Also previous reports, dates of phonecalls and what you said, etc.

For our case, we had photos of everything, copies of emails to the Real Estate. copy of the advertisement of things promised.

Its a bit of a horror story but if you want to know why we took them read below.

The day we moved in there was no carpet so we couldnt put anything upstairs then had to wait 2 more days for carpet layers to arrive then get all our furniture moved upstairs (which would have been easier for the removalists to do 2 days before), the house was not cleaned at all. It still looked like a building site. Lawns were a metre high out the back, no fences, ducted air was there in the roof but not installed at the side of the house (idiot), their was no gas unit installed in the house (so no hot water, cooking or anything) , the recycled water for the toilets hadnt been connected or something (and were full of feaces from builders) - because we moved in on a Sat it was hard to get a plumber, we got one even thought the RE agent said we couldnt and he found that the water metre had been buried under a 1.5mtre pile of dirt and building rubbish!!!!!

Still with me?? It gets worse...

He digs it up to switch on recycled water and then flushes the toilet upstairs and then am absolute waterfall of toilet water leaks through the ceiling and breaks through the gyprock of the kitchen below and pours into the kitchen. Water switched off (still no hot by the way). Pulls out tiles in toilet upstairs to find that some moron tiler had cut through a pipe and just tiled over the top of it

Then the owner finally arrived and told us to just go to the toilet in a bucket or go down to the local maccas to use their bathrooms for the weekend and we could just not get dirty so we didnt need to shower!!!

I was ready to move out but had no where to go in the mean time so we took him (well the Real estate) to the tribunal and we won (obviously), we had reduced rent until all that was on the list was fixed and what was promised was delivered. The tribunal have a specific amount of what they think each thing is worth.

TBH I thouht we should have had more reduced seeming what we had to put up with but it's worth going. It doesnt cost you anything and it might be enough to deter her from wasting anymore of your time.

Tell your Real estate you are going to take this further as you think that the owner isnt being fair. Good luck hun

[Mum2Romone]

Im a PRO lol

We went once for our bond back and several other times for other things like compensation etc.

We found the best way of dealing with some situations is unfortunately to have to do all this

The Consumer Trade and Tenancy Tribnunal in NSW deals with this
Go to their website - to the residential tenancies section
Or call them - You need the forms to apply for a date at the Tribunal. They are located locally pretty much everywhere

The clause you want is for the tenant to apply for a refund/return of rental bond money.
on the form state in point form the reasons you are being withheldthe money and the proof you have to support your claim.

Then it cost $30 for lodging the form , or $5 if you are eligible for the pension

it takes about two- three weeks to get a date to attend the tribunal.
in that time you should get together all your proof
*Letters/emails to the real estate requesting things be fixed, that led to the damage (draws)
*All correspondence in relation to with holding the bond/why
*Photographs to show what it looks like now/ before if you have them
*Your lease (highlight the parts pertaining to general wear and tear and the part where it says the landlord will repair things within a cetain amount of time (24hours for leaking water emergencies etc)
* Any further corresponce with the real estate from here including writing down times and points of conversation for any phone calls you may receive.

Real Estate agents can be a pain Best of Luck and PM me if you need any help

[Lisa]

We're actually about to take our real estate & landlord to the tribunal.

Call up your local Tenancy advocacy service and have a chat to them... we have found them so helpful.

[BrightSparkles]

Thanks girls.
We have photos of some things but not things like the insides of drawers before we moved in
I have copies of most emails. In terms of inspection reports, i have requested them both by phone and email. They won't reply to me by email, but told me over the phone I wasn't entitled to them?? This makes me think they are trying to get away with doing stuff they shouldn't be?

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

That does sound suss, they should certainly be responding in writing. I'd bring copies of all the emails you've sent to them that've gone unresponded - maybe even turn on 'read receipts' and 'delivery receipts' on your email, and see what they're doing with your emails...

[Inertia]

In terms of inspection reports, i have requested them both by phone and email. They won't reply to me by email, but told me over the phone I wasn't entitled to them??

Not entitled??? Its in triplicate! And one copy is meant to be YOURS! Call up the advocacy, get onto the tribunal and apply for your bond back. Chances are it will go unchallenged due to you going to the tribunal.

When all that is over go to the tica website and follow the free access system to make sure they haven't listed you on there to be jerks. Sadly TICA and the like have let them start thinking they can act like prats and keep everyones bonds, threatening to list them on TICA. There is a lot more regulation over TICA now so you can not be listed (or remain listed) without verification of the real estate agents claims if you contest it.

[~Kaz~]

Just wanted to add (some great advice above btw) that from my limited experience, the tribunal tends to be a little biased towards the tennants and against landlords.