SA Rental agent claimed full H/T bond despite agreeing to less

[Neon]

Hi,

My wife and I left our rental place to move into our own home a few months before the rental contract expiry. They found a new tenant, and agreed not to charge the two weeks rent gap because the owner came into the house while we were out, without informing us.

In an email, the agent said they'd take the water bill and carpet replacement for one room out of the bond.The agent said this specifically in an email to me but is now claiming 2 weeks ($900) rent plus cleaning carpet in another room. He claimed the full $2,700 bond and hasn't explained what it was for.

I have politely emailed him and his business partner to ask exactly what he claimed for. He has ignored my emails, but I have Outlook 'read receipts' for the questions. Housing SA won't provide a copy of what he claimed, however they will let me 'view' it in their office only. To Housing SA, I've signed the document and that's all they need. We were not offered a copy of the document we signed.

What steps can I take now to pay only for what was agreed via the email trail I have?

Thanks in advance. Please let me know if you require any further information.

 

[Timnuts]

Who is the real estate business?

 

[Neon]

Who is the real estate business?

Thanks for your response, I don't quite feel right naming them until we've received judgement against them, then it will be a matter of public record.

 

[Neon]

*Update*
I registered with Registry Online and filed a Final Notice. I put the reason I was filing and the amount. If you've never done this, the Final Notice gives them 21 days to respond to me before I take legal action. Its an official warning, basically. The Final Notice was emailed to me as a PDF, which I forwarded to the 2 owners of the real estate agency along with a snippit of the email conversation where they detailed what would be taken out of my bond. I also mailed the Final Notice to them.

The paperwork they lodged to get the bond back didn't have a listing of the items they were claiming. I was not given a copy, and I believe that the amount was added after my signature.

I now wait to see if the promise of legal action gets them to organize payment or if I need to take it to the next level. Although I hope they just pay me the money they took, I am happy to go to court for the experience. It helps that I have an email trail that shows what the agreement was.