non lodgement of rental bond

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shazza56

Member
20 September 2017
4
0
1
I had private rent for 18 months, had great relationship with property owner, rent always paid, property always cleaned and not damage of any kind. One day she texts and says she received a letter from the council saying there was high water use at our property, could we please let her know if there were any wet spots etc. we were away at the time, but when we returned we did look for her and none could be found. They had also entered the property and looked and sent a plumber who could not find the leak for two days.

Then she mentioned that she had received a $2,353.00 water bill from the council. On the tenancy agreement the question 12.2 does the tenant have to pay water the answer was ticked NO.

We decided to move gave the two weeks notice via text and she sent back a thumbs up and appeared to be good with the date.

Then on the day i was dropping off the keys she said she was happy with the house, the yard etc, but was keeping half my bond for the water bill. I could not argue with her at this time, so she took my bank details and I left. I then rang the RTA and asked the question regarding the water etc. and discovered that she had not lodged the rental bond for our tenancy agreement. I then texted her and upon the advice from the RTA asked her to lodge the bond. She then refused to give me half the bond, instead threatened me with a solicitor etc. I have googled the consequences of not lodging bonds and it a serious issue with very high penalties.

Alas still no bond received and she refuses to talk to me, I have since lodged a form 16 dispute form, also the investigation forms.

I would like to know if there any other steps i should be doing to move this along or shall i trust in the RTA to work it out.

What she is doing is illegal, one its not her money that she is holding, I have all my receipts for rent and bond, texts confirming she is now going to find things wrong after i handed back the keys and her saying it was very clean and she was happy, and new tenants moving in the same day i moved out.

Feeling very ripped off and deflated and definitely upset with myself for not finding out if the bond had been lodged, i m now more on the ball with the new house and its through an agent which is extremely efficient.
 

Rob Legat - SBPL

Lawyer
LawConnect (LawTap) Verified
16 February 2017
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2,894
Gold Coast, Queensland
lawtap.com
Leave it with RTA. It can take a while. If you think it's not moving along, give them a call - but be aware that public servants generally don't like to be pushed and can creatively find ways to bog it down.
 

shazza56

Member
20 September 2017
4
0
1
UPDATE:+ The owner has now lodged the bond with RTA which is a step in the right direction, and now she has claimed the whole bond for some manufactured things, like cleaning, gardening, repairs & maintenance, what a cow, but I have ten witnesses willing to go to court if need be to confirm the house and yard where spotless, i also took photos of the clean house. What she doesn't know is that it was my birthday on the house cleaning day and for my present, everyone of the 10 plus people, were there to clean as my present, and I asked each of them to walk the house and yard and pretend they were a very OCD landlard. So every corner of the yard and house was inspected, that"s how I know it was spotless. It just seems from the get go she wanted to keep my bond, firstly for the water issue,which she now knows she cant get me for, so she threatened in an email,that she would find other issues, by the way there was no entry or exit report. I am way more onto this now, I have made sure the bond has been lodged, got a copy of entry report, and asked clearly about the water and taken lots of photos of every paint chip, scratch etc. I hope other can learn from this and hopefully get a positive outcome.