‘I’m worried we’re going to fall through’: Springfield McGrath real estate told to pay compensation

A leading real estate agency has been taken to court after tenants were given a notice to vacate within one day after the renters notified them of a rotting timber deck.

A well-known real estate agency has been ordered to pay thousands to an Ipswich couple after the renters were given just one day’s notice of their eviction.

McGrath Real Estate Agents Springfield was ordered by court to pay Redbank Plains renters Tamika and Christopher Roberts $2,042.67 after the pair was wrongfully given one day’s notice to vacate their rental after issues with the property’s back deck.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal court heard the tenants were contacted by the real estate agency about the condition of the back deck and five days later received a notice to leave.

According to court documents, the Tribunal was told the support timber of the deck was rotting and its support structure had come loose from a strut.

During one correspondence, Ms Roberts wrote the following: “The tiles are all cracked at the top of the deck as well where the wood has fallen it’s all rotten. I’m worried we are going to go through the deck with the rain we’ve had”.

The court heard the pandemic had caused trade shortages which impeded the real estate from carrying out the work in an acceptable amount of time.

Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation (Act 2008) Adjudicator Elizabeth Gaffney said she concluded that, “the deck contained a dangerous defect, which compromised the safety of the entire property, where a wholesale replacement of the back deck was required to fix the defect in circumstances where it would be months before that could occur”.

“(However) the RTRAA imposes a duty on the lessor to issue the notice to leave within one month of the premises having been made completely or partly unfit to live in, and… that duty is taken to be included as a term of the lease - it was breached by the lessor,” Ms Gaffney said.

Redbank Plains is one of Ipswich’s highest populated areas and a number of housing estates are in the works for the booming area. Picture: Belmonde Property Group

The court heard the notice required the pair to leave the property on the same day it was received causing the Roberts’ financial loss as they were forced to take time off work and sell a collectors card to fund the hasty exit.

The couple told the court they asked to access their bond to help with the move but the agency refused.

The self-represented pair asked for: $4,142.67 in compensation which included their bond, overpaid rent, work leave, court costs, and rent reduction for living in an unsafe property.

The pair ended up handing the property back 19 days after receiving the leave notice and by the time of the hearing in December 2021, the overpaid rent and bond was repaid.

Real Estate Agents Springfield was ordered to pay the following compensation amounts; $688.55 for time off work to move, $70 trailer hire, $287 for the collectors’ card sold for bond money, and $997.12 for long service leave.