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Hi everyone - thanks to all that answered my previous thread, we were able to get out of the FTT although in mediation - we should have taken it to court, but we thought we would be nice about it, our mistake.
So now, we had our final inspection booked the day before the end day of our tenancy - however, problems, problems, problems, the property manager who was doing the inspection could only offer me 1 time slot which I couldn't make (I wanted to be present at the final inspection) I offered to be flexible with my time and rearrange but she was firm with this 1 time slot.
Ok, so I would have to go do my own inspection... but then our landlord didn't send her a key for access to the property so she demanded that she had to use ours - I was willing to be flexible about this but since I had already moved out of the property I could not drive back over 20kms to drop one of the keys off - I offered her to pick up from my work on the day but she said she didn't have time - not my problem - I offered another pick up point a little bit closer or for her to organise a courier to pick it up but she said she shouldn't have to pay for it and then all of a sudden she could do the inspection at another time (wasn't advised when) - so I kindly organised a key that evening left for her and that same evening our flatmate dropped one too.
In the morning she text me to say she would do it the same time, however, again in the middle of the day I could not leave work for over 2 hours. She said she would be at the property until around 2pm (our tenancy ended at midnight) - I had not heard back all day, so I emailed the landlord and asked if there was anything wrong with the property and if not I would leave the keys for hand back at 8pm. No response until 10pm that evening when she said that she hadn't heard from the property manager doing the inspection and would let me know - I assumed everything must be all well... I assumed wrong.
The following day after our tenancy had ended I finally got an email to say that the bathroom down stairs was not up to standard - annoying for us as we could have fixed this between hand back and final inspection. So she offered for us to organize the cleaning or pay the bill for their cleaner - however, to do our own cleaning we would have to pay a re-inspection fee but if they organised it that fee would be included. We replied saying that we could not be charged a re-inspection fee (it was never agreed) and so we would organize our own cleaning but not pay this fee. We received a response saying that because we wouldn't pay the fee we could not organize the cleaning ourselves anymore and they would proceed with their own cleaner which would cost $120 to us max, we had no choice.
What can we do about this? We want to sign the bond refund form as we are afraid that if we don't they will try to bring up more things to take money for but they will not want to hold this in dispute?
- We would have arranged a cleaner, for much cheaper - up to $60 who would have guaranteed their work AND sent photos in lue of a re-inspection
- We feel we should have been told immediately after the inspection (since we could not be there) of any issues while we still had possession of the property, we would have gone in and cleaned ourselves!
On top of this, the property manager or landlord told the building contractors where one of the keys where (we did not authorize their use of our keys) and so they happily waltzed into the house to use power (we had notice that work would be done, but were not told they needed to get inside the property), they left the door wide open with one key on the floor and one in the door - property manager text me to say this when she arrived at the property. I asked her that both keys that were borrowed for access only for the final inspection were left in the same place so we could photograph all the keys as proof we had them all at the end of the tenancy but she still only left one and took the other with her against my say so - it's not my responsibility to provide her with a key.
Advice here please - should we sign the form and then try to claim the money so she doesn't try to take more bond money?
Should we just move on - and if so, is there anyway to make a formal complaint about the tenancy?
We feel this is totally unreasonable, and while it's only $120 it's completely not fair after the deal we cut with them in mediation instead of taken it to tribunal hearing (they got the better side of the deal, we found them new tenants and agreed to pay all monies in arrears even though the landlords were the one who originally wanted to cancel the tenancy and threw everything in the air!) and we don't feel the way they have treated us has been fair especially since we've been bouncing from dealing with the landlord, to a property manager, to not the property manager etc!
So now, we had our final inspection booked the day before the end day of our tenancy - however, problems, problems, problems, the property manager who was doing the inspection could only offer me 1 time slot which I couldn't make (I wanted to be present at the final inspection) I offered to be flexible with my time and rearrange but she was firm with this 1 time slot.
Ok, so I would have to go do my own inspection... but then our landlord didn't send her a key for access to the property so she demanded that she had to use ours - I was willing to be flexible about this but since I had already moved out of the property I could not drive back over 20kms to drop one of the keys off - I offered her to pick up from my work on the day but she said she didn't have time - not my problem - I offered another pick up point a little bit closer or for her to organise a courier to pick it up but she said she shouldn't have to pay for it and then all of a sudden she could do the inspection at another time (wasn't advised when) - so I kindly organised a key that evening left for her and that same evening our flatmate dropped one too.
In the morning she text me to say she would do it the same time, however, again in the middle of the day I could not leave work for over 2 hours. She said she would be at the property until around 2pm (our tenancy ended at midnight) - I had not heard back all day, so I emailed the landlord and asked if there was anything wrong with the property and if not I would leave the keys for hand back at 8pm. No response until 10pm that evening when she said that she hadn't heard from the property manager doing the inspection and would let me know - I assumed everything must be all well... I assumed wrong.
The following day after our tenancy had ended I finally got an email to say that the bathroom down stairs was not up to standard - annoying for us as we could have fixed this between hand back and final inspection. So she offered for us to organize the cleaning or pay the bill for their cleaner - however, to do our own cleaning we would have to pay a re-inspection fee but if they organised it that fee would be included. We replied saying that we could not be charged a re-inspection fee (it was never agreed) and so we would organize our own cleaning but not pay this fee. We received a response saying that because we wouldn't pay the fee we could not organize the cleaning ourselves anymore and they would proceed with their own cleaner which would cost $120 to us max, we had no choice.
What can we do about this? We want to sign the bond refund form as we are afraid that if we don't they will try to bring up more things to take money for but they will not want to hold this in dispute?
- We would have arranged a cleaner, for much cheaper - up to $60 who would have guaranteed their work AND sent photos in lue of a re-inspection
- We feel we should have been told immediately after the inspection (since we could not be there) of any issues while we still had possession of the property, we would have gone in and cleaned ourselves!
On top of this, the property manager or landlord told the building contractors where one of the keys where (we did not authorize their use of our keys) and so they happily waltzed into the house to use power (we had notice that work would be done, but were not told they needed to get inside the property), they left the door wide open with one key on the floor and one in the door - property manager text me to say this when she arrived at the property. I asked her that both keys that were borrowed for access only for the final inspection were left in the same place so we could photograph all the keys as proof we had them all at the end of the tenancy but she still only left one and took the other with her against my say so - it's not my responsibility to provide her with a key.
Advice here please - should we sign the form and then try to claim the money so she doesn't try to take more bond money?
Should we just move on - and if so, is there anyway to make a formal complaint about the tenancy?
We feel this is totally unreasonable, and while it's only $120 it's completely not fair after the deal we cut with them in mediation instead of taken it to tribunal hearing (they got the better side of the deal, we found them new tenants and agreed to pay all monies in arrears even though the landlords were the one who originally wanted to cancel the tenancy and threw everything in the air!) and we don't feel the way they have treated us has been fair especially since we've been bouncing from dealing with the landlord, to a property manager, to not the property manager etc!
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