VCAT: Residential tenancy disputes ‘cracking’ under coronavirus restrictions in Melbourne
As the coronavirus pandemic worsens, desperate landlords and tenants are at war with the state’s consumer watchdog having been contacted almost 100,000 about disputes in the past six months. And it’s expected to get worse.
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The state’s consumer watchdog has been contacted almost 100,000 times about tenancy disputes since the announcement of the eviction moratorium.
The Leader can reveal Consumer Affairs Victoria has been contacted 93,000 times about tenancy disputes since the six-month moratorium on evictions started in March.
According to the watchdog, the majority of these complaints were resolved on the same day, with other disputes taking an average of five days to close.
So far, 2842 cases have been referred to Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria and 8742 to the VCAT
It comes as the Real Estate Institute of Victoria says thousands of rental dispute cases are experiencing a backlog at VCAT, with property managers calling for more resources to be injected into resolving matters faster.
According to the REIV, disputes were “cracking” under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic, with a backlog of 4000 rental cases at the VCAT and almost 1000 disputes still to be resolved through the DSCV.
One complaint received by the REIV included a tenant who had not been impacted by the pandemic going on a ‘rent strike’, with $22,000 in arrears.
It’s understood VCAT issued a warrant in March and then withdrew it because of the moratorium.
The case has been back to VCAT three times and keeps getting adjourned because the tenant makes promises that are not kept. The matter was last listed in June and is still unresolved.
Keysborough’s OBrien Real Estate property manager Jane Biskup said there were several homeowners “struggling” as a result of the pandemic.
“Some homeowners haven’t been receiving rent, therefore they can’t pay their mortgages and this impacts them immensely,” Ms Biskup said.
“Then are delays when you have to go through the system at Consumer Affairs and then getting reference numbers.
“It’s taking three to six months to almost get a hearing, it’s making things very difficult.”
Ms Biskup said once a hearing date was confirmed, rent arrears had built up significantly for several months.
“The owners are out of pocket and I had an issue where tenants didn’t move in due to COVID and the property is sitting there empty, so I applied for a termination order through VCAT,’’ she said.
“But I was unable to apply for the bond at the same time, instead I had to wait 14 days, which creates a further backlog of at least two months until the matter is heard.”
She called for more resources to be injected into VCAT and other government bodies to cope with the demand.
REIV chief executive Gil King said once VCAT made an order they were often not enforceable until after the end of the moratorium period, which was now a further three months away.
“This means that property owners are left in an untenable situation where they cannot protect their investment,” Mr King said.
“It is totally unacceptable to have a system that was meant to assist in negotiations has thousands of unresolved disputes.”
A Consumer Affairs spokeswoman said almost 32,000 rent reduction agreements had been registered with Consumer Affairs Victoria without requiring dispute resolution assistance.
“We encourage tenants and landlords to work together to come to an agreement on any issue they may have. If parties are not able to reach an agreement, they should contact Consumer Affairs Victoria for assistance,” the spokeswoman said.
VCAT declined to comment.
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