Advice Sought - Breach of Tenancy Agreement

Hello Property Chatters, I've had a friend of mine go through a really unfortunate situation recently. I told him i'd post on here to get a few opinions with regards to advice on next steps. Any advice and guidance would be much appreciated!

• - Friend signs tenancy agreement (NSW) for 6 month lease which includes a detached garage. It's a granny flat so there is another tenant towards the front of the land.
• - A few days prior to moving they notice that there are locks on the garage (the locks werent there when they inspected the property before signing)
• - They email 4 days before moving in to find out what the locks are about - they are advised that the front tenant put them on. Real estate assure them that the front tenant understood that they had to remove the locks. This is before moving in. So they proceed to pack everything up and prepare to move.
• - Moving day comes, a Saturday, and the locks on the garage are still there, they discover this because they've arrived with their house fully packed in a truck.
• - They call real estate who then calls tenant. Tenants boyfriend comes out and argues with friend saying the garage is his - he is quite intimidating, and no confrontation is sought so my friend and his partner do not argue.
• - They call real estate agent and advise them again the locks have not been removed and they cant properly move in. They advise that they will be looking to terminate on grounds of breach of tenancy. Real estate try to contact front tenant and real estate advise my friend that they are not responding to calls.
• - A few hours go by with no resolution. Boyfriend has gone, and real estate call to advise they are sending a property manager out to the property.
• - PM arrives, has a look at locks - attempts to contact front tenant again multiple times to no avail, then she leaves a voicemail threatening eviction and police action on grounds of trespassing if the locks are not removed by 4pm that day.
• - PM leaves and friend and partner start to pack up the few items that had been unloaded into the house. While taking the fridge out the front door balcony, the floor collapsed! The real estate mentioned on the condition report that the balcony was quote "not strong enough to hold. soft in areas.") Thankfully no one is injured as a result.
• - On Saturday night an e-mail requesting termination due to breach of tenancy agreement is sent to real estate.
• - On Tuesday PM advised that if friend drops off key then she would also stop rental debit of $800. Friend drops off key at 5pm, with condition report and comments, PM advises that rental came out before she had a chance to stop it. PM states that she will refund the money straight away. She then also says she will talk to landlord (re termination due to breach of tenancy agreement) to see what he wants to do.
• - Next day Wednesday PM calls stating landlord is willing to give friend 5 weeks rent back (they originally payed 4 weeks rent as bond and 2 weeks advance rent, $2400) as they had the keys for a week, so $2000 would be returned to them. Friend told PM he would speak to his partner and will get back to PM tomorrow and the conversation ended

So - what do you guys think are options / recommendations? They are short one weeks rent and also a very painful amount of time (packing / unpacking), the moving expenses as well (truck etc).

I've condensed the events down. He has documented the events in a word doc (8 pages). I feel for him as from what he described the boyfriend was rude, intimidating, and had also modified the garage further (a metal plate installed on the bottom half of the door and 2 extra locks were installed on the door with padlocks on them - he had also installed an electronic alarm). From what was described to me there was suspicion that the garage had less than legal items stored in there...

Do you think they have any recourse?

 

Tribunal to get the other weeks rent and ask for moving costs.

 

Yeah it sounds like the landlord would be lucky to avoid paying compensation to the your friend, such as moving costs and general damages.

 

Thanks @wylie @Terry_w and @thatbum for the responses!

Update from yesterday:
The agent is saying that the $400 (one weeks rent) is a holding deposit and so regardless of what happens, after signing a lease that money is either towards rent or forfeited if the tenant chooses to walk away right after signing.

Is that correct?

 

Tell them to take a long walk off a short plank

 

Take it to tribunal your friend will more than likely get all monies paid plus compensation for the inconvenience. No wrong doing on tenants side.

 

No its not correct.

Tell your friend to get some tenancy advice before making their tribunal application - and probably needs to get the advice and the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

Get them to contact the state tenancy union or local tenancy advisory service.

 

No

 

There isn't really a right and wrong in this situation. The Property Manager has been negligent on a couple of counts, but at least she sounds like she's keeping on top of the situation to resolve it.

I don't believe your friends should have to pay a cent. In a tribunal case, it's likely they'll receive more than their initial payments back in compensation for the enormous inconvenience.

 

I'd say the landlord would have advised the PM to try and get something out of the money paid thus far. I'd be advising your friend to be firm in talking to the PM and making it clear that this is a breach of the tenancy contract that would easily be won at NCAT. Further to that let it be clear that your friend will also seek costs at NCAT. Follow this up with an email stating the facts and all that has been discussed with the PM.

It would not be worth the PM's time or the landlord for that matter to be defending a case at NCAT for a $400 amount, especially with one that has potential costs going against them. Going to NCAT can be a long and drawn out process, one that most PM's hate going through. Further to this the PM would be charging the landlord to defend the matter.

If the PM feels your friend is serious and that they know what they are talking about, my guess is that they will talk the landlord in to refunding the full amount with no further action being needed.

 

Just curious if the garage was up to code in case of a fire?

 

Hi guys, I'd like to thank you all for the advice thus far. I decided to make an account, I am the friend mentioned by Frazz.


I'm still currently going through this mess. Update on the current situation. I'd like to note they have not given me my $800 which I was told would be refunded to me for returning the keys on Tuesday last week (19 Sept) so once again, promises not being kept by the real estate.

I rang the real estate and told them I wasn’t happy with them keeping the $400, I said I would take their offer but would then seek the rest through tribunal process. They said I couldn’t do that, I’d either take their deal and be done or take the entire matter to tribunal which would mean $3200 would be at stake (Break down: 4 week bond and 2 week advance rent upon lease signing and 2 weeks rent paid for next 2 weeks on 19 Sept which was the day keys were dropped off).

I asked over the phone for the real estate to put their proposal in writing on the 21 Sept so that I could consider the offer. The agent said she would do that for me, however I never got an email from them, I emailed them reiterating their offer to me and asked for them to reply to me confirming that what I stated was correct, no response as of yet. (This email was sent on the 23 Sept, mid-day last Sat)

Today I contacted the tenancy advisory service as “thatbum” recommended, they will be getting back to me with advice on how I should handle this situation. Any more advice from anyone on this forum will be greatly appreciated. If I took the offer and lost the $400, can I legally seek it via tribunal later? I have a feeling the agent is just trying to scare me by saying I can’t do this.


I’m not sure if the garage was up to code in terms of fire safety standards.

 

+1
You shouldn't have any issues winning this at NCAT plus compensation.

 

If you take up their offer you have made an agreement.

As they pointed out you take their offer or you go to tribunal and claim all owing plus compensation for moving costs etc.

It is the same as if you were 4 weeks behind in rent and the LL agreed for 3 weeks only, they cannot go to court for the last week as a new agreement was made.

 

I would want a full refund plus compensation for alleged breach of duty of care (property unsafe and clearly poorly maintained leading to potential injury) plus moving costs.

 

Did I read this wrong ?

You rented a place that has a garage that you found you cannot use ?

Or were you renting a garage that is being called a granny flat ?

Why can't you properly move in ? a garage is for a car.

Because unless the lease says you have a lock up garage, I do not see how it can be all in your favor, but if it was advertised and on lease, then yeah, they do not have a leg too stand on & PM is prob trying to protect own rear end.

 

Your hunch is correct and you can *probably* get away with this. However, there is that small risk and I probably would wait for your specific tenancy advice before attempting it if I were you.