Application to VCAT

[stretch]

Hi All,

Not sure where my question should go - so Mods if you think it should be somewhere else please move it.


Sorry this is a bit of a long one too its a question but also a bit of a vent!

Q: Has anyone ever taken their Landlord/Agent to VCAT before?

Reason being... We have a maintenance issue (our pergola {has now Fallen} needs repairs.) We first listed it as a concern on our Condition report in April last year when we moved in (wasnt too bad then)

In September last year we had a 6mnthly review thing, and listed that the pergola (which had now got worse) needed repairing.

We had a handyman come and have a look at it, said it was unsafe and needed repair he would write a report for the RE . I heard nothing from the Realestate so contatced them again in October, to be told that they have to get another quote as the first one was too expensive.

2nd quote done (in November), and still nothing has been done about the Pergola.

I have spoken to the RE many times and the last time I spoke to our property manager (last time being early Jan)- she said that the LL had approved the first quote and they were now waiting on the Handy Man.

I contacted the Handy Man in late January (some 4 months after the issue was reported!!) and he said it was all approved he would contact me the next week to organise to come fix it. As of 10th Feb he had not contacted me again so I called him. He said he was waiting on approval from the LL before he could start, as he had to requote again (3rd time) - I need to contact the RE.

I sent an email last Friday to the RE which they did not respond to. On Sunday night (we had some pretty strong wind) the pergola collapsed and we had to call the SES out to make it safe. (well as best they could anyways)

I did all the right things before contacting the SES - I called the RE emergency number which just went to a voicemail so I left a detailed Msg.

Come Monday morning I would have expected the RE to be straight on the ph.... but No they werent...... I had to call her at 9.30am.

We have still had no response. She keeps saying that she needs to get hold of the LL... Surely its not THAT hard?!

(SO vent over now) has anyone ever gone thru VCAT to get things done? And if so... Does it get reported against your rental history? Does it/Will it/Can it affect your applications for rentals?

Hope someone can help me out here?!

[Erin21]

we be going through same thing but the owner ended up ringing me and i told him about the leaking toilet now and he didnt even know .over 12 months its been broken i would call a building inspector and maybe tell real estate ur going to ring them.....

[teacupbunny]

Well this is what you can do. I kinda skimmed but I got the jist of what your saying.

Make sure you explain your situation to people over the phone to vcat, then they will send out application forms.

Speak to your real estate agent and explain the siatuation(obviously you have), write EVERYTHING down and date it! (evidence), take photos!(again date them). So baisically the more evidence you have the better the case will be.

Let your realestate agent know that if these things arent fixed because they wre urgent you will be taking the LandLord to vcat because they are breaking the lease by not doing their part as a LL should be.

In most cases the real estare agent will try and negotiate soemthing ad strongly suggest that the LL fix it asap. If they don't post it off to vcat and then they will deal with the LL from there. They may get fined or the lease may break and you may be given so amny days notice. I'm not 100% sure but I'm just going by my own personal experiance here.

Just ring up vcat and get your facts straight first and re-read your lease agreement to make sure your able to catch them out on them breaking the terms and agreement.

I hope I've helped!