A Victorian property manager has revealed the harrowing battle her terminally-ill landlord had to withstand after their tenants left them more than $6,500 in rental arrears. Hannah Taylor of Ray White Ferntree Gully shared the story with Yahoo Finance after an eight-month-long battle to have the tenants evicted was finally successful.
Taylor said her client – a father aged in his 50s – received a terminal brain cancer diagnosis. He then began to put his affairs in order, which involved selling his two investment properties to support his family.
One of these properties was a four-bedroom house in the Melbourne suburb of Clyde, tenanted by a family since 2020 who were charged $430 a week in rent, but were often late to pay.
In June 2023, the landlord chose to list the property for sale and the tenants were issued a notice to vacate which gave them 60 days to find a new property.
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However, they refused to leave and in September 2023 stopped paying rent altogether. It wasn’t until February this year, and a costly tribunal process, that they finally vacated.
“He was terminally ill, so there really was, unfortunately, no other option,” Taylor said.
“They had to sell, and obviously not receiving rent for a number of months really impacted them as well.”
“The renters failed to actually vacate the property, so we had to go to tribunal for a possession hearing.”
Landlord asked to prove cancer but renter’s ‘let off’
But the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) did not grant the landlord possession, forcing the owners to sell the property with the tenancy still in place. The tenants argued “they shouldn’t have to move because the property was their home and their children attended school nearby”.
“We had numerous VCAT hearings trying to get the arrears, but unfortunately the member just continued to side with the renters,” Taylor said.
“The landlord was going through treatment. We even had to supply medical documents to the courts to be able to prove that, whereas the renter didn’t supply a single document and was let off.”
The property was listed for sale but sold with vacant possession, meaning the tenants had to be out prior to settlement.
The tribunal then granted a warrant of possession, which must be executed by police, but when officers showed up the tenants were long gone.
The property settled the next day, but the experience left both Taylor and her client scarred.
“The stress of tribunal not giving us answers and siding with the renter; it all adds to the stress,” Taylor said.
“Even as a property manager, taking on that stress for them was massive. I had to take mental health days just to cope with it all because we were not getting the outcome that we needed.”
Aussie dad ‘let down’ as $6,500 rent never paid
Taylor said the landlord felt let down by the system, with the tenants able to walk away without having to pay a cent of the rental arrears.
“We see it so often, that the system really does a lot of the time side with the renter and they often don’t take into consideration the owner’s circumstances,” she said.
The landlord had mortgage payments to cover as they fought to get the rent paid.
To add insult to injury, he had to fork out almost $400 in tribunal application fees and $500 for the tribunal hearing itself.
They also had to cover the warrant of possession fees, a locksmith, cleaners, repairs and maintenance, along with legal fees resulting from a delayed settlement as the tenants would not leave.
In another financial blow, Taylor said the landlord’s insurance would not pay out the lost rent due to a “loophole”.
What can landlords do if tenants don’t pay rent?
Taylor said landlords need to make sure they protect themselves, and potential losses, by enlisting a reputable insurer.
They should also have a “buffer” in case they need to cover mortgage payments in full in case rental income stops unexpectedly.
“If renters are cooperative and contact us, we can guide them to places where they might be able to access support and can get funding,” she said.
“But there’s nothing like that for rental providers, their only option is to sell the property if the rent’s not coming in and they’ve got a mortgage to pay.”
She said tribunals need to consider both the tenant’s and homeowner’s perspectives equally, noting landlord should be able to evict a tenant for not paying “without having to jump through hoops”.
Many tenants have faced unprecedented rental hikes, shockingly-low vacancy rates and confusing state or territory differences in their rights, like no-cause evictions.
The push has caused landlords – many who have faced burdensome interest rate hikes – to feel theirs are starting to dwindle,
Landlords are leaving the market as they feel their rights are dwindling, Andrew Kent, president of the Australian Landlords Association (ALA) said.
“Victoria has reduced the rights of landlords quite considerably,” he said.
“Land taxes have gone up, tenants’ rights have increased and landlords have less control over their property and greater risk in terms of what could go wrong. It’s not a good combination.”
In a white paper released in March, the ALA called for national and state governments to “give property owners reasonable control of their property” and “reduce the risk for landlords by replacing rental bonds with a national rental insurance scheme with insurance fees based on the history of claims associated with the tenant.”