I bought a property in South Eastern Suburbs (approx 15K radius from Melbourne City) in 2010 for subdivision.
This is s big corner block with an exsiting 4BR/2Bath house in it..We were going to build a new house next to it with a seperate entrace, keeping the exsiting house as is.
When the tenants moved in to old existing propery, I had clearly mentioned to the Real estate Agent to convey the fact that we would start construction of the new house by Nov 2010. Agent confirmed she spoke to tenants about this and they were OK with this, upon which the lease agreement was entered in to.However, Agent hasnt put a clause about the sub division taking place in Nov 2010..Despite me asking her to (in one e mail) clearly requesting to convey the fact that we were goning to start construction offically..The present situ is that the new house construction is 95% done..But The Tenants went to VACT yesterday saying they never knew about the subdivision taking place and claimed 10K as compensation due to inconviniecs caused by constrution..The VCAT Awarded 6K as compensation to them..
V CAT Hearing Member clearly mentioned that this confusion is caused due to the muck by RE agent and that I could do a civil claim against them once he gave his decesion, if I wanted to.
1) As I have atleast 3 e mails to the agent mentioning about us starting costruction and she has really messed the whole situ by not telling to the tenants and not including it as a clause in the lease agreenment..Can I claim these damages from the Real Estate Agent..?
2) If so, how do I do it..? Do I have to go to VCAT against the Agent or file a civil claim for their professional neglegence..?
I can’t believe that tennants got 10K for this. I can’t believe they were motivated to either. You think they would just move out. I would not be renewing their lease and going over the property when the exit with a fine tooth comb to find faults where you might be able to get some of their bond.
And getting the money for the RE.
What sort of inconvenience was there?
Absolutely gobsmacke!!!!
Bend the agent’s professional indemnity insurance. The initial judgement is against you as owner however you may be able to prove a case in negligence against the agent and to claim the same + costs.
Thanks v much Freddo and Scott for you comments..I think when in V cat, the members always try to give something to tenants..That was visible from the beginning…I have spoken to the RE Agent's partner today but he said he will ty to see what he can do..
The funny thing is the tenants kept quiet for 12 months and extended the lease by a further 1 month and they lodged this claim 2 weeks before them finishing the extended lease..The Member should have a bit of common sense to understand that the whole purpose of tenants extending the lease by one month was to claim compensation..If Im so inconvinienced at my house,
I woudnt hang around for 13 months there..Also..just heard from the RE agent who gave a reference to them to lease a property that they have moved again to a property that's being sub devided..May be thay found an easy way to make money while the poor owners swaet out to make a profit from his sub div…Very Bad Precedent by….
A lease is a legal document, an agent wouldnt be allowed to add clauses unless probably allowed by the residential tenancies act.
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
There is plenty of room for special conditions provided they don’t contravene the RTA.
Something as simple as ‘…the tenant acknowledges that the owner has received development approval & may commence construction without further reference or compensation for disturbance to the tenant’, could probably suffice.
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