rent arrears

Hi I am new here, and joined as I have a problem that I dont know where I stand. Its kind of embarrassing. We had some tennants in a property for 3 years at $700 per week. They feel behind, and caught up several times. Over the past year, they feel behind again, and paid dribs and drabs and we did a pathetic job of managing things with the tennant constantly saying we will catch up soon. They also said they had a contract on a property they owned, and would make good then. With other things going on in life, and having asked him several times to sign a new lease at a higher rate to pay the arrears over 12 months, he decided to vacate leaving us with a debt of about $20k. Yes that is about 6 months in arrears. He of course signed over his bond, however we are still owed about $17k.

I have been thru QCAT twice with various matters with other properties, won both and found that as useless as tits on a bull. People just pay what they want, and screw the landlord.

So I contacted a reasonably well know property lawyer in Qld, and got a reply back by email from an assistant that was basically "go to QCAT we arent interested".

If someone could kindly provide some advice, or suggest a solicitor that may be interested to provide us with genuine advice what we can do would be great. I am not after criticism. I am angry with myself that matters got to where they did. Sometimes its better to cut your losses early than let them multiply.

Thankyou all!!!!!!