Woman's $5,000 triumph after landlord's 'ridiculous' reason for not giving bond back
Housing investors can often get a bad name – and stories like this are the reason why.
After suffering through months of living in a flooded rental property with algae growing on the verandah and mould growing in the bedrooms, all Charisse wanted was her bond back. But the landlord refused.
The audacious denial sparked a near two year battle to secure the bond as well as further compensation from the homeowner. In the end, she was "vindicated" with the judge awarding her the $2,800 bond as well as four weeks worth of rent in extra compensation.
It was a win, but her case highlights the exhaustive measures tenants have to go to in order to seek justice when landlords fail to rectify substandard living conditions that breach state law.
For close to 10 months Charisse and her husband lived in the Victorian property, along with her elderly parents, despite the "nightmare" conditions they found themselves in after heavy rains and plumbing issues caused water to backwash into the bath, shower and toilets, sending a foul-smelling odour throughout the house.
"I have 48 separate emails to the real estate agent mentioning the flooding but they just kept ignoring it," Charisse told Yahoo News Australia.
The flooding issues began on the very first day they moved into the property in Officer, about 48 kilometres south-east of Melbourne's CBD, in December 2021.
They initially thought it was caused by blocked gutters. "The only thing they did the whole time was unblock the gutters, but it made no difference," she said.
Despite sending a "delightful" handyman "who barely spoke english" and a small procession of uninterested tradesmen, nothing was done. Meanwhile water pooled around the house and seeped into the living areas.
"We had permanent standing water on the verandah from literally the day we moved in to the day we moved out," she said. "The water seeped in through the bricks and there was mould coming through the walls. The carpet got mouldy.
"We had to move out of our bedroom and my husband and I slept in the lounge room."
They ultimately found another property and were able to move out towards the end of 2022. According to Charisse, her elderly father passed away three months after they left the property. "A black mass was found in his lung – unfortunately it wasn’t identified but the medical examiner said it may have been related to mould."
Tenants rewarded compensation after lengthy VCAT battle
Under the state's Residential Tenancies Act, Victoria's minimum standards for rental properties mandates, among other things, the absence of mould or dampness caused by the building structure.
In fact, recent research conducted by Tenants Victoria and the Consumer Policy Research Centre found that about 15 per cent of properties (at least of the 100 rental inspections they covertly analysed) were in breach of the Tenancies Act, for things such as maintenance issues, visible mould and inadequate heating.
While Victoria actually has some of the strongest rental rights in the country, when the research was conducted earlier this year Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge lamented that too many properties failed to meet "even basic standards".
Do you have a story about rental rights you would like to share? Nick.whigham@yahooinc.com
Charisse was denied the return of her bond for "ridiculous" reasons such as the lawns not being mowed – something she said was not even true. So she was determined to seek proper justice.
"We’d taken excellent care of the place and they hadn’t taken care of us," she said. "He could of just let us have our bond back and there would have been no issue, instead of it carrying on for two years."
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The couple had also seen a number of their possessions ruined by the damp conditions and incurred vet bills from their horses standing in a waterlogged paddock. She made a claim for three months worth of rent and reimbursement for vet bills and lost possessions.
Advice for renters looking to take on landlords
Charisse was armed with nearly 200 pages of evidence but her case was postponed seven times by the tribunal before it was finally heard this week. In the end the judge firmly sided with the couple and awarded them their bond and four weeks worth of rent to be paid in compensation.
For others renters considering taking claims to the tribunal, Charisse says it is "absolutely" worth it.
Despite the drawn out process, she would encourage other aggrieved tenants to pursue their rights.
"The thing that worried me is that after going through all of it, even though we knew we were in the right, that the process wouldn't be fair and that we would've wasted all this time and energy. But that's certainly not the case," she said. "We found that it was very fair and it was very comforting actually to hear that the judge believed we had been treated very unfairly."
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