Tribunal

Vacant possession

The moment you return the keys/devices to the landlord or their agent, you have given them “Vacant Possession” of the rental property. We recommend you complete the exit report and take as many photos as possible prior to giving vacant possession.

Tenants believe will be informed of anything that needs fixing then given the opportunity to remedy the issue by returning to the property. If they don’t allow you to return then you may have a strong mitigation of liability argument.

Retrieving your bond money

Tenant lodges a bond claim  – as soon as vacant possession is given, process your claim for the bond money to be refunded. The landlord can release the claimed money or dispute your claim by making an application to the Tribunal. 

The other party lodges a bond claim – if the landlord or their agent process the claim first (without your consent), they must supply:

• A completed copy of the outgoing/exit conditon report that is signed and dated by the landlord or their agent
• Estimates, quotes, invoices and/or receipts for anything they are claiming. The legislation states this evidence is required within seven (7) days of the claim being made if it has been processed without your consent in accordance with s. 165 of the Act.

At this point, process our Bond retrieval 1^st letter to start your negotiation process as well as being:

• Free so we can show you a little of what we do
• For members only, so please register your details (please ensure you enter the vacated property details not the new property)
• Available for tenants only as we don’t operate as a third party to the dispute
• Completely confidential

If you aren’t logged in when you process the letter, the form that receives your responses will not be presented. It offers multiple choice answers and you must select the response that suits your circumstances to ensure your letter matches your situation. We will merge the letter and email it to you, once you are happy with it, forward the letter to the landlord or their agent. 

Become a member

Applications – lodge or receive

Lodging the application will make you the Applicant and the Respondent is the other party.

The other party is the landlord as that is who you signed the tenancy agreement with. If you are dealing with an agent, they have their own agreement signed giving them the right to manage the property, so when you lodge an application with the Tribunal, the landlord listed on your tenancy agreement is the other party. If dealing with an agent, list their address for the landlord as:  C/- Real Estate Company.

After an application is lodged, a confirmation will be issued by NCAT. This document will provide important information about your matter before the Tribunal, PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY.

Notice of conciliation and hearing by telephone with directions (tenancy)

Using the Notice above as an example, it informs you of the following:

1. The date set is both a conciliation and a hearing and it means the dispute could be settled on this date.
2. This will be conducted via telephone (the aboveclip was taken during Covid when telephone hearings were common however “In Person” face to face hearings are normal now).
3. 15 minutes has been allocated.
4. With directions means the Tribunal will direct the parties on what will happen.
5. An Order could be made on the day resolving the dispute or another date will be set for a hearing (a new Notice being issued). 

If a hearing date is set, a document bundle (we refer to it as the Court file) must be given to the Tribunal and the other party by the dates set out in the Notice.

The date you must provide your document bundle by will depend on whether you are the applicant or the respondent. Check out what is required for a NCAT Hearing.

Act quickly! You may have 14 days to supply your document bundle!

We have several ways of assisting you:

1. Purchase our Evidence Gathering booklet for $4.95 and prepare your own submission along with any evidence or comparisons that may help your dispute; or
2. Invest in the DIY Negotiation package for $40.00 and have all the information you need on hand; or
3. Invest in the DIY Conciliation Conference package for $50.00 and we will prepare a summarised submission along with booklets to help you prepare the document bundle for a hearing, in the event your matter is adjourned for a hearing; or
4. Invest in the PAS Tribunal package and we will prepare the significant events submission matching your evidence as well as disputing the claims being made against your bond money. 

All packages can be upgraded to a PAS Tribunal package and a Plus package can also be added where you can prepare the submission and Aussie Renters will do additional searching for your matter. We can find so much information about the tradesperson listed on the tax invoice/receipt etc. Have a look at our Packages page, an advance apology for the heavy reading...

Counterclaim

If you or the other party wish to involve other tenancy issues that are not directly related to the bond claim, a counterclaim should be lodged with the Tribunal. Some of our members have lodged counterclaims and this has allowed them to present their entire tenancy, making compensation claims against the landord for things that happened in the past. 

It is extremely important that you contact TAAS and/or the Tribunal for assistance when lodging a counterclaim and/or making any compensation claims. Legal advice can be sought from TAAS about any claim or counterclaim. 

Aussie Renters have developed a report (within the Court file) to make any claims/counterclaims however we do not offer any legal advice about how to make these claims, this is something you need to discuss with a legal respresentative.

Document bundle (NCAT) 

Responding to the claim is different to making the claim. If the other party is the applicant, they will suppy a document bundle to the Tribunal and you will receive a copy. Valuable information is supplied in this document bundle and you must read it thoroughly, making notes for the hearing day. Aussie Renters has used some of this information in the past to support the tenant, so if you decide to invest in our PAS Tribunal package, please ensure you email or upload this document.  

Tenant lodged the application – you need to prove why the bond money should be refunded to you and the other party will be arguing and proving why the Tribunal should Order the bond money be released to them. Anything you submit to the Tribunal must be given to the other party at the same time. They will have an opportunity to respond to your application.

We could only hope the other party sent you copies of invoices and/or quotes but many send an email with a figure and try to persuade you to release your bond money without any evidence. Our Bond retrieval 1^st letter has been designed to help you receive the evidence they will be relying on and a paragraph is included requesting the evidence. If you haven’t received any proof of the amount they are requesting, email them requesting this information and state that you requested this in your submissions. See s. 165 of the Act for details of what is required. 

Your submission should be written using minimal words, if you can number each paragraph it will make it easier to refer to at the Tribunal. Include any pictures showing the condition of the property at exit and if you were able to re-enter the property and fix fix any issues, include these pictures too. 

Did you organise and receive quotes for any damage caused? If so, include this in your submission and provide a copy in your document bundle. Was damaged caused intentionally or due to negligence? If the answer is no, write in your submission that the damage wasn’t intentional or due to negligence.

The other party lodged the application – you need to disprove their claim for your bond money. Fair, wear and tear occurs when normal living happens however if the damage was intentionally caused or due to negligence then you will be ordered to pay compensation. If it was accidential, explain this in your submission, provide some pictures and include any quotes you received. 

The Tribunal is developing it’s online service and have produced a video to help users. 

Conciliation conference, your 1^st date

These 15 minutes can cost you greatly if you aren’t prepared! If the other party have supplied everything and you have had plenty of time to prepare, your dispute may be over quickly and an Order made. 

Being prepared can be very beneficial, especially if your matter is small. A favourable Order will see you more financial instantly, your stress levels reduced, no more preparing and worrying, taking time off work.  

Depending on how many individual claims being made, the Tribunal may decide to set another hearing date. If you are ready to dispute a large number of claims, you could very well receive an outcome instead of an adjournment. Our Conference packages could make you prepared to finish that first date with a favourable outcome!

Right now you have to decide how you will approach this matter.

It is very hard to determine what will happen at the Tribunal but if you are prepared to dispute the claims, a resolution on the 1^st date can occur. Providing the Tribunal with enough to make an informed decision can help retrieve all of your bond money but if you have to part with some of it, hopefully, it will be less than the other party was originally claiming.

We do not offer any guarantees except the knowledge that every member has been happy with our service and what we supplied to help retrieve their bond money. Some were ordered to pay compensation but it was less, a fairer amount than the original amount being claimed.  

If you have no evidence to offer, you will struggle to dispute the claims. We have been able to find some helpful evidence in the other parties document bundle but the Tribunal did not look at it favourably, they acknowledged this too. If you are not thoroughly prepared, you may be at a disadvantage. 

At the same time, you need to consider the costs involved with preparing an adequate file for the matter. If the claim was $12k and the Tribunal ordered compensation of $2k be paid then our fee of $600 saved you $10k? The first two members we helped 5 years ago had these enormous claims made against them. 

Other things to weigh up here:

1. Your ability to present the dispute briefly as possible, leaving the passionate story out
2. Referencing your evidence so it can be located in 100+ pages quickly
3. Presenting the document in a Tribunal friendly format, making it easier for the Member to read
4. Are you confident enough to prepare a small submission and argue the matter on the day
5. Your knowledge of the legislation and the use of different section wording

For these reasons (and no doubt many more), we offer several  different packages and at the same time, made them affordable. We have  staggered our payment system so you pay for what you need. As you progress through the bond retrieval process, the information is gathered in stages, once we have the data (and evidence) in our system, we can use it differently in several reports. 

Conciliation package

Decision time! 

To help with your dealings with the Tribunal, we offer several packages. Now is the time to decide how you want to tackle your conciliation conference/hearing. 

We offer:

1. Evidence Gathering booklet $4.95 – this booklet is all DIY and will help you put togehter your own submission while presenting the sufficient evidence to help you succeed.
2. DIY Negotiation package $40.00 – this package contains a follow up letter with the information gathered from the Bond worksheet. The letter is a final attempt to negotiate what you are prepared to offer (or not offer) prior to the conference/hearing. A Claim against bond report will be emailed to you and you refer to the details during the 1^st date hearing. We include a booklet to help you write your submission if your matter gets adjourned for a hearing. 
3. DIY Conciliation Conference package $50.00 – this package offers an extra benefit of being ready for the dispute to be resolved. The report can be used as your submission (3 paragraphs) and the information is gather from the Claim against Bond worksheet. We also provide an Evidence worksheet to assist with gathering information about the claims being made as well as any expenses you had while vacating the property. Also included are two (2) booklets, how to gather evidence and how to prepare your significan event submission/statement, in the event the matter is adjourned to a formal hearing.
4. Plus package (prices vary depending on the amount of claims) – we will do a deep dive on the claims being made and hopefully find additional information proving the quote/invoice were falsified, made up, not true. We can also find comparisons, so you can present a cheaper alternative to the Tribunal and hopefully money being ordered.  

Our worksheets aare written using MS Excel or if you have a Google account, use Sheets.The booklets will show you how to use these worksheets.

If you feel your dispute can be resolved on your 1^st date, please consider option 3, the Conciliation conference package. If you know you can defend your bond without the extra benefit it offers, the booklet maybe all you need and if you start to struggle, perhaps the DIY Negotiation package.

Click the link to see all of our Packages available. If you decide on a package, please ensure you have registered as a member. You will need to be logged in to select the package. Please do not hesitate to contact us via email if you would like us to help you select the correct package.

If your matter is adjourned for a hearing, you can upgrade to the Tribunal package and there is a DIY available for members that can complete the Statement  and Claim against Bond report themselves, providng a significant saving. 

Tribunal Packages

Due to the tight timeframes given by the Tribunal, you may be required to provide your document bundle within 14 days. The Tribunal will need a statement offering the significant events listed in date chronological order so all those emails, invoices and receipts you wish to present need to be on hand.  

We offer a DIY package for members that have the ability to complete the Statement  and Claim against Bond report themselves using MS Docs for a minimal investment. However, if you feel you do not have the time or become overwhelmed, please use our Personal Administration Services. We will need to allocate the time to commence work on your Court file so if you decide you need us to take over, please contact us promptly. 

Our reports are structured and are written reflecting your significant events in a Statement of Evidence as well as a Response to Claims report. If you selected one of the DIY Packages, you will need to alter the paragraphs to finalise the document however if you invest in a PAS package, we will finalise your document for you. 

When presenting a PAS package, we will add more into your evidence bundle. For instance, we will use wording from the legislation as well as wording from other Tribunal hearings that received a positive outcome. Depreciation will be presented and the applicable legislation included. The Tribunal members hear other matters too involving different legislation (Acts) so we provide the sections for easy referencing. 

Our complete package from the first dispute letter to Tribunal package will show your efforts to negotiate a reasonable agreement. By the time the Tribunal has read your document, they won’t be asking you too many questions as everything they need will be before them. If you have been left to suffer at the hands of the landlord during your tenancy, consider your options and know we can support you and your matter to fight for fair!

Download our  Tribunal Depreciation Worksheet by clicking on our logo!

Ordering your Package

There are two different ways to organise our packages:

1. Find us when claiming your bond refund or when you dispute the claim against your bond money; or
2. When you have to fight for it at the Tribunal

If you found us from the start, order your first negotiation letter free of charge to start the process. If you think you can manage the matter yourself, the DIY Negotiation package is for you or select the Conciliation conference package to show the other party you know what you are doing. 

We require approximately five (5) days to complete your Court file (document bundle) while the Large and Excessive packages could take up to seven (7) days to complete. Aussie Renters will attend to your matter quickly however, you are required to read the draft and “add comments” to allow us to change/alter the document. You must make time to attend to this as quickly as possible to ensure the Court file is completely on time. 

You must supply every piece of evidence before we can supply the document bundle. We have found many members remember another email and another issue after they have read the first draft. Once we have merged your evidence, entering more later is time consuming and can cause many more hours manually entering the new evidence into the document bundle. To prevent any additional fees, please make sure you have everything you need to present to the Tribunal. 

Lastly, we can provide a quote for our Print’n’Post package but this cannot be quoted until the file is finalised and complete. The  Court file will be sent to your home address in an express post envelope. 

To order the packages from our website, you must be a member and be logged on when selecting the package. 

Become a member