 The broadcast is now starting. All attendees are in listen-only mode. Hello and thank you for attending today's session. The RTA is presenting a series of educational webinars to help you understand Queensland tenancy laws. These webinars will include a series on the tenancy essentials, the basics, and we will also be doing webinars on key topics based on feedback from previous webinars. The core responsibility of the RTA is to administer the tenancy laws for Queensland and provide information for all people involved in a tenancy. That's whether you're the landlord, agent, tenant or a resident. My name is Lynn Smith and I'm the Senior Community Outreach Officer with the RTA. My role involves raising awareness of the RTA's services and educating people on tenancy laws and tenancy processes. I'd like to acknowledge that we do have a variety of clients in today's session ranging from very experienced property managers to new landlord investors. This tenancy essential series today is all about the end of the tenancy. We will be looking at the overview of the life of a tenancy. Look at the basic rights and responsibilities for both the lessor, agent and the tenant. I'll be going through the paperwork at the end of the tenancy. Discuss how a tenancy can end in accordance with the legislation and what if there's a problem at the vacate inspection. I will also look at bond disputes and what happens if the tenant does not vacate. Feel free to submit your questions throughout the session. You can type these in. I will try and address them during the session or at the end of the session today. This webinar has been split into two segments. In this part, we will be looking at how a tenancy can end, what if there's a problem, looking at bond disputes and what happens if the tenant does not vacate. So how a tenancy can end in relation to the Act, the tenancy can end by the lessor, agent issuing a Form 12, a notice to leave, a tenant issuing a Form 13, notice of their intention to leave. You can have mutually agreed, termination order from QCAT, death of a sole tenant, mortgage in possession, which is Form 19, and abandonment, Form 15. All notices should be in writing and if you do have mutually agreed, any agreements should be in writing and signed by all parties. Remember, time frames do apply when you are giving notice. If the lessor, agent asks the tenant in writing to supply their forwarding address when the tenant, then the tenant must tell them of their new residential address unless the tenant has a reasonable excuse for not telling them. This section can be found under section 205 of the legislation and also as part of the standard terms of the general tenancy agreement under clause 39. If the lessor, agent and the tenants all agree how the bond is to be paid at the end of the tenancy, then all parties sign and complete the form for the refund of rental bond, including your bank account details and forward that to the RTA. You can submit a fully signed refund form online. Just go to the RTA's website for more information. To submit online, the form has to be fully completed and signed by all parties and include an Australian bank account for all parties. This is the quickest way to get the refund. However, what happens if the tenant and the lessor, agent does not agree? How much agree on how much money each party should get? Either party can lodge a form for with the RTA without the other party's signature. This will start what we call a notice of claim process. Lessors or agents should only ever claim the amount that what is actually owed. So if you are seeking to claim for cleaning or another amount, you need to do an external amount of the amount that to be claimed if you do not have receipts or invoices at that time. Do not claim the whole bond if you do not require the whole bond. The notice of claim process, if the tenant or lessor agent has sent a refund form to the RTA without the other person's signature, we will write to them and ask them to whether they wish to dispute the claim or not. The timeframe allowed for their response is currently 14 days. It is important to make sure the RTA has your current address and email and phone details. So if you move or your agents or your L for your agents, if your staff changes, ensure the RTA is always informed. If you do not know the tenant's forwarding address but have a phone number or an email address for them, put those details on the form. If the person disagrees, they will need to complete a form 16, a dispute resolution request, and lodge that with the RTA within the notice of claim timeframe. Once we receive the form, the RTA will continue to hold the bond until the matter is either resolved through the dispute resolution process or if it's not resolved in orders made from the tribunal. If there's no response from the person whose signature is missing on the form 4, the RTA will disperse the bond money according to what has been received on that first form 4. Should there be a dispute about a bond claim, then the RTA offers a free dispute resolution service. The RTA deals with a different variety of disputes from bond disputes to tenancy and compensation claims. 76% of disputes are resolved where parties will participate. Once we receive a dispute regarding a bond claim, we will write to the lessor agent and ask them to provide the RTA with more information about the claim. So for an example, we will be seeking a breakdown of those costs. So if someone is claiming $300, it may be a breakdown of carpet cleaning, $140, two days rent, $60 in general cleaning, $100. So the total claim is $300. Once we get that breakdown of claim, this will actually advise the conciliator what the information is to pass on to the tenant. If you're involved in a bond dispute, please get those claim details to the RTA as soon as possible. This will help progress the dispute. Remember if you have invoices or information about the claim, you can share that with the tenant and we would highly recommend that you do so. Remember communication is the key to resolving a lot of those disputes. The role of the conciliator is impartial. They're not there to take sides, but to try and help parties resolve their matter. It's a voluntary and confidential process, and although we cannot force parties to participate or negotiate, we highly recommend that they do so. There are many benefits in participating in the conciliation. You can save time avoiding the tribunal. It's a free service. And there's also a level of flexibility and satisfaction. You have your say in the outcome rather than a decision imposed on you. The majority of disputes are dealt with by way of telephone conferencing where the tenant and the less agent are on the phone at the same time. Last year, the last financial year, the RTA received over 25,000 disputes across Queensland. Early next year we will be doing a webinar solely on dispute resolution. If you have gone through a dispute resolution for a bond matter and it's still not resolved, the person who has lodged the Form 16 dispute request will be issued with a notice of unresolved dispute to proceed to the tribunal. An application must be made with the tribunal within seven days, and the notice will have a date when the application must be made by. You must also notify the RTA in writing of the tribunal's details within the seven-day timeframe as well. Remember this is a two-part process. You need to lodge with the tribunal and advise the RTA in writing within the same timeframe. If a notice of unresolved dispute has been issued by the RTA and an application has not been lodged within the timeframe and or the RTA has not been notified of the lodgment, then the bond will be paid out as per the original refund form that we received, the refund form being the Form 4. Once the conciliation is over, the party is now informed as to what next step to be taken. If you are the one to lodge an application with the tribunal, do not leave it to the last minute to lodge your paperwork. Gather all your paperwork, your evidence, and start preparing your application. An application can be found on the QCAT's website, which is qcat.qld.gov.au, or you can phone QCAT on 1300 753 228. QCAT is the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal. There are two main types of applications under tenancy law, non-urgent and urgent applications. Non-urgent matters such as a bond dispute or a claim for compensation require a notice of unresolved dispute. For non-urgent matters, if it is a bond dispute, you have the seven-day timeframe to lodge your application. If it is a tenancy matter or compensation claim, you have six months to lodge your application from the date you were aware of the event or the breach. The word urgent and non-urgent does not mean to your application that your application is fast tracked or that the matter depends on your urgency that it's dealt with. Urgent applications can be made directly with QCAT without dispute resolution first. Urgent applications are listed under section 415 of the legislation and all other matters are non-urgent. Another way of defining urgent applications is usually when the tenant is still in the property. But again, I'll refer you to section 415 that outlines what is an urgent application. So an example may be that the tenant fails to leave or there is excessive hardship or for repeated breaches or another way of doing abandonment. So if you have issued a notice to leave and the tenant still has not vacated the property by the expiry date, you can apply to QCAT for a termination order and a warrant of possession. This is an urgent application and you go directly to QCAT. You'll need to complete the QCAT application form, provide copies of your paperwork, copies of the application and pay a fee to QCAT. All the information is available on the QCAT website along with the location of the tribunals. QCAT has also supplied a checklist on their website and I would highly recommend downloading that checklist to ensure that you've met all the application requirements prior to lodging your application with the tribunal. QCAT is self-representation, so there's no solicitors or barristers you represent yourself. Timeframes for hearing will vary depending on the location and so it's best to check with your local tribunal as to what those timeframes are. Ensure you have all your paperwork and evidence in relation to the matter. People often ask what do I take? My answer is always usually everything, copies of your lease documentation, notices, photos, statements, anything that you have that supports your claim in the matter. Remember, going to QCAT there's usually an outcome that is a win, lose or a draw. The adjudicator or member hearing the matter will make the decision based on what is presented to them. This is just a reminder that the lessor and agents are to keep the records relating to the tenancy for one year after the tenancy ends. Records may include the exit condition report, the entry condition report, tenancy agreement and rent payment record or the rent ledger. But we also recommend probably to keep copies of any written notices or correspondence that you do have relating to that tenancy. In summary, know what your rights and responsibilities are. Ensure the correct notice is given to end the tenancy. Complete the required paperwork and always keep a copy. Communicate if there is a problem. Ensure the RTA has your current details, your address, phone, email and bank account details. If you need any tenancy information at all, please contact us on the 1300 36311 number or the RTA's website is there with a lot of information. Now, do know that we do have a lot of questions that have come through so we'll just stop quickly and just answer some of these questions. One question that has come through, if I have to go to the tribunal because the tenant didn't leave, can I still charge rent? Yes, you can. Rent is owed until the tenant gives vacant possession or when the police activate that warrant of possession and you have access back to the property. Another question, if the tenant owes money over and above the bond amount, what do I do? If the tenant owes money greater than the bond, you have a few options. You can talk to the tenant and see if they'll do a payment plan or comes with some arrangement with the tenant. If the tenant owes above the bond amount, the tenant may not be communicating with you or you can complete a dispute resolution request and require a notice of unresolved dispute to take it to the tribunal in seeking the compensation claim. If the tenant does not follow the order made by the tribunal, you can reinforce that order by going through to the next stage, which is the magistrates court. Again, I would refer you to QCAT and the magistrates court for those processes. Another question, what happens if the tenant breaks the lease early? This is one of the common topics at the moment and we are looking to address this topic in a later webinar on the common issues. However, the tenant does leave early. The lessor or the agent has the right to claim compensation for the loss of rent and also costs that relate to the property being re-lit. So when claiming compensation, you must mitigate or minimise the loss of the other person. So what we mean is that you must try and re-let the property as soon as possible to minimise the claim on the tenant. As I said, we are going to be looking at holding a webinar early next year about this topic and other common topics that happen during the tenancy. If you have not had the opportunity to view Part 1, please do so. Part 1 deals with the overview of the end of the tenancy, basic responsibilities at the end of the tenancy and the paperwork that's required. Thank you for your attention during this webinar and I hope this has been helpful for you in your business as owning or managing a rental property. The post-survey will be available shortly, so please take the opportunity to complete this and let us know about what topics you're interested to know more about. We will be running future webinars on a variety of topics. This will be based on feedback that we received today along with more detailed topics relating to other issues. Future events will be mentioned in the Open House newsletter and also on our website. We are continuing with our information workshops and that will be across the state with plans for the early 2014 for the regions of Gold Coast and Cairns. Again, thank you for your time today. It's been my pleasure to speak with you. If I have not attended to your question during this session, I will make all attempts to try and get to them personally myself. Please take a few minutes now to complete this post-webinar survey and thank you for your attendance today.