Tenant wants to take us to VCAT - Help pls

@wylie i wouldn't think it come to this as it is not exactly 20 people crammed into 5 rooms. it is just one indivdiual. Prosecution is normaly done by the council, and the large fines would come under a pre-meditated intention to rip off the system such as cramming many people into property to gain a financial benefit. With this instance, i just think it is more like a boarder renter situation, i would even avoid mentioning rooming house or granny flat. You are legally able to rent out a room when you are staying as a residence, the issue with this it is sort of a granny flat which has specific rules around it.

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Personally, there are different laws in WA, NSW and QLD. i would be more inclined to speak to someone who is local in victoria. like vic legal aid etc.

 

I'm aware of the differences. In a former role I was a tenancy solicitor working on residential tenancy law reform across the whole country.

There's also no free or low cost service available to legally advise someone in the OP's situation (victorian legal aid won't do it), so frankly and with the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm probably the best bet by far.

 

The whole things sounds totally dodgy and I doubt you're going to get anywhere at all. The best you can do is back-track as wylie suggests above.
There are certain standards that are taken for granted when you lease a space which is why there are laws and tenancy agreements. Looks like you tried to make money out of a sub-standard situation without realising how incredibly and accumulatingly frustrating it is when landlords are constantly in a tenant's space. My guess is that you tried to get away with this, thinking that you are in a position of power as the landlord. That's why there are laws and agreements. You need to get some awareness happening. You won't win out of this.

 

Well didn't realize you were offering free services - glad to know it is readily available. Hmmm i think you are incorrect - vic legal aid does do advice and representations - they had some duty lawyer on standby. i was faced by one of their representatives in VCAT 2 years ago when my tenant did not wish to pay rent for 2 months. but this would be more for tenant as opposed to landlord.

 

I have to disagree with you here. We are not trying to rip anyone off: leased out a part of our living house, charged rent at heavily discounted rate (30%) to reflect the inconvenience with sharing common area with owners, now trying to protect ourselve from being kicked out of our premise and paying tenant for living in our house. Is it dodgy by us?
Our MASSIVE mistake though was not to have all of the arrangement details reflected in the written contract. There will be some costs we have to wear but we are happy to take it as a learning curve for us. There are also a number of valuable comments and inputs we are taking onboard but yours is definitely not one of those, sorry.

regards

 

You only take on board comments that bolster your position. Good luck getting out of this one.

 

No not really if you've read all the responses carefully. Several ppl pointed out we have low chance of winning which we took on but why I just can't swallow yours?
Anyway I save my energy to save problem not to cause more
PS: thanks for your wish anyway

 

@Pumpkin that exactly what we wanted to do and rent is in equivalent to one room charge but didnt think thru while we drafted the contract. Now its too late but lesson learnt

 

@wylie I have taken your and others advices to offer tenant some $ incentives as well as option to end lease for xyz amount. Will see what the response is

 

Contract Law 101, always put it in writing. It's a pity you didn't know beforehand but at least you know now. Of course, only one aspect is that it is in writing and the other is that the clause of the contract is legally binding. So if you want to DIY a contract in future, be aware that courts have the power to strike out clauses in contracts for various reasons. I have been through the whole DIY contract thing before. I wrote the contract and then hired one of the very best specialist contract laywers in that field in Perth to completely check it before I used it. We tidied it up and it was good to go. Of course there were issues with the contract I wrote that needed to be rectified but it was cheaper to DIY what I knew then get him to fix it. You don't know what you don't know.

 

Hi again,
First of all, I'd like to send a MASSIVE thank you to everyone on this forum who responded to the thread esp @thatbum. I appreciate every single response and have taken some onboard to try to offer tenant some $ incentives to settle outside court.
Unfortunately tenant has rejected and would like to take it further to Vcat. This means we have to be well prepared and try our best to present what we believe is right in our views incl. the actual ads, verbal agreements (text sms to prove verbal agreements exist), discounted rent charge vs market rate (appraisal letter).
Is there anything else we should refer to to support our view? Any real experience at Vcat would be much appreciated.
regards
tina

 

Honesty, Documentation and calculations and you should counterclaim (x,y,z). as well. There is no point going with the sad story as all they want to know is there a cost associated to it and how did you come about with the calculation. You also have to submit your documentations to your tenant as well. I have been to vcat, magistrate a number of times and islamic court as well overseas, the last with a tenant in 2014 which was ruled in my favour with calculations. Anyway all the best.

 

I've got a call from city council officer yesterday saying there's a complaint about us running an unregistered rooming house. Had to duck home to give the coucil officer a walk through our place and everything seemed to be fine by us.
However what the officer told me afterward concerned me a lot. She said about three weeks ago someone turned up at Council office to file a complaint about our premise. However the person ran off as soon as a customer officer came down to discuss further. After the inspection, she pulled me outside of home 'where a tenant cant walk by' (her wording) and asked me if I checked tenant history and I should have a property manager screen through tenant history. I asked what she implied and she said there're repeated complaints who legitimately rent, cause trouble and leave for another address. I tried to get more specific info about the person putting a complaint at our premise but she said she's not allowed to release his ID.
It seemed to me she pointed at our tenant. If so
- What sort of info about tenant that a property manager has access to and we dont? Is it worthwhile to get a property manger checking tenant history after lease is signed?
- What should we do if our tenant is a scammer? Should we go to council to complain about the complaint?

regards,
Tina

 

Thanks Melbournian. Did you mean put in our counter-offer for the amount tenant claimed and back it up with our calculation?

 

Not counter offer it means you also wish to claim against the tenant.

For e.g.tenant X wants $800 and landlord X counter claims $1200 due to stress, loss of rent, opportunity, damage, parking to attend tribunal, loss of day's work. So for e.g. if you earn 100K a year, how much is your salary per day if you took time off (annual leave) to attend the tribunal, parking, if you got stressed have to see a doctor (medical certificate) etc. You can claim anything but it needs to verified and articulated. there is no point claiming $1000 damage when the quotes to get it done is $300. The member would want to see quotes for repairs etc.

 

Counter claim for what? I can't see any real grounds for one. And you can't claim for time off work or stress in any event - you would probably get told off for even trying.

 

I have no idea what the council person was alluding to, but my advice would be to proceed as normal. I don't even know what the 'scam' is that the renter is apparently doing. Red herring.

 

Not for every situation, but if the tenant has caused damage, hasn't paid rent etc, why shouldn't you claim etc?. for time off work, yes you can - done it many times before. prepare your calculations before hand and then present it.

 

If it was this tenant who went to council, it appears to me that he is attacking us on multiple fronts, first consumer affair/vcat and now council. If he was genuinely concerned about quiet enjoyment then it had nothing to do with council/rooming house complaint.