 Hello and welcome to today's webinar and thank you for joining us. Today's webinar topic is the three R's, Rent, Repay and Refund. The core responsibility of the RTA is to administer the tenancy laws for Queensland and provide information for all people involved in a tenancy. My name is Lynne and today's session is going to run for approximately 30 minutes. With today we'll be going through rent, I'll be going through payments, rent ledger, increase and decrease of rents. We'll be looking at repairs and maintenance, urgent and non-repayers and less or intended obligations. We'll also be looking at the refund of rental bond, so this talks about bond claims, disputes, money over and above the bond and we'll also be looking at rent refunds. With an additional R, I've also decided to touch on records and the timeframe in which you need under the residential tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, what records you need to keep and what are those documents and for how long. If time permits, I will answer questions submitted, however be aware that we do have over 800 people registered for today's event, so time may not actually permit those questions. But to submit one through, you just need to expand the small box on your screen and you can type in where I've got the arrow as a demonstration there on the screen. If I'm unable to get to your question and you do need an urgent answer, please don't hesitate to contact our call centre on the 1300 363 11. So the first of our R topics today is about rent, so let's start with rent payments. Rent can be paid in the listed approved ways, which is cash, check and please be mindful that check is just that, a check and not a bank check, it can be a personal check. Deposit into an account or bank account, credit card, F-POS, a deduction from a pension or benefit or any other agreed way by the lesser agent and the tenant. The approved way of paying rent must be stated on the tenancy agreement. Remember you must give a copy of the proposed tenancy agreement to the prospective tenant before they are committed into that tenancy or before they do pay you any money. If an unapproved way is preferred or an agreed way, the tenant must be given a choice of at least two other approved ways in paying their rent. If a particular method of paying rent involves any of those fees or the tenant must be advised of the fees that go along with that particular method, I'd like to point out some of the examples that I have seen on tenancy agreements that do not comply. So if you have a tenancy agreement that offers bank check, money order and a rent card system, then that is actually not compliant. If you are offering one of these, then you would be offering two of the approved ways, which one can be check and maybe one can be a deposit into a bank account. A money order is not listed as an approved way. Remember too, if there is a change of rent payment methods during a fixed term, both the lessor agent and the tenant need to agree. And where this comes into play is particularly if a rent roll has been sold and they've got fixed term agreements in place, if the tenant and the previous agent have agreed to a particular method of payment, then that needs to continue through. And again, if the tenant agrees to change, then that's fine, but otherwise both the lessor agent and the tenant need to have that agreement in place. With rent arrears, while most tenancies will run smoothly with little or no problems, when a tenant does fall behind in rent, there is a process that you need that you are able to follow. And whilst we encourage communication between the parties, if it is a one-off situation, we then encourage lessor agents to contact the tenant to find out what has gone wrong. And for tenants, we also encourage them that if there is a problem, to talk with the lessor or the agent and let them know why the rent has been paid and work out when it will be paid or what will be happening. As majority of today's audience is general tenancy, I will be focusing on that timeframe. If the tenant is seven days behind in rent, then on the eighth day is when you can issue a Form 11 notice to remedy breach, given the tenant a clear seven days to rectify the breach. If it's not rectified in full at that time, you then can issue a notice to leave on the grounds of failing to rectify the breach for rent arrears and giving a seven day time frame. Remember, you need to allow service time for delivering the notices. So if your business practice is to post notices, then there are several methods. So you can have priority posts, registered, express or a standard mail. Please refer to the Australian Post website, I'll put those details up there which is auspost.com.au to see how long it would take on each of those time frames. So for an example, if I decide to use priority mail and it's stated on the website that it was two or three business days to be delivered, then I would need to add that time frame onto my notice. We have seen an increase in having notices served by email and this is fine, providing the tenancy agreement at the start, both parties have agreed to issuing and receiving of notices by that method. One of the questions coming in is, can you hand delivery? Absolutely, there's nothing stopping that, that again is hand delivering to the address on the tenancy agreement. Time frames for other tenancies, as you move all dwellings and ring recombination do differ. So please refer to our publications or website for that information. Just to be clear on the remedy breach notice, and this has also been due to some of the tribunal rulings as well, the amount owed in section five of the remedy breach notice is the amount that is due at the time of issuing the notice. You'll note that there is an asterisk in that section that states any new rent due during this breach process must be paid on time. Where we have seen errors has been where people have added up the arrears due at the time of serving the notice and the amount for the rent that's due in the future to the end date of the breach and put that amount in this area. That would be an error. So please remember, it is the amount that is actually due at the time you are issuing the breach notice. It is the amount that's due. We do see clients mentioned separately that maybe in a touch letter that further rent is due during this period, which is outlined again just reiterating the fact that there's already an asterisk on this notice that says new rent must be paid during that process. With the rent ledger, it's a recording of the tense history of rental payments. The date that the rent was paid, the amount, the period that it covers and that it is for rent. It would be encouraged that if there is a dispute over rent arrears to produce this and talk with the tenant about what payments have been received and where the arrears have actually occurred. Sitting down with a tenant and a calendar and maybe going through this ledger and also the tenant's payments and trying to work out while making sure that there's no errors on either side. Quite often we hear tenants say at the end of the tense that we are two weeks in advance at the start and that there's money owed to them at the end. In most cases, this is not quite accurate. It is that the first two weeks rent has been paid and then as the tenant lives there, those days tick along and are used. When the two weeks run out, that is when the next two weeks are due. I'm just going to point out because this actually might answer a couple of people's questions that have come through. Remember, you cannot ask a tenant to pay rent for a period of time that has already been paid. I'll just reiterate that. If a tenant has already paid rent in advance, you cannot be forcing them to pay for rent for a period that has already been covered. If you do have a claim at the end of the tense before rent arrears or you need to go to the tribunal for a warrant of termination order on the grounds of rent arrears, you are going to have to produce a rent ledger showing the paid to rent dates. Also too, if a tenant does ask for a copy of their rent record, then the less or the agent must provide that within a seven-day time frame. Someone's just asking what's the maximum rent we can ask for. In a periodic tenancy, it's two weeks rent and for a fixed term, the maximum you can ask is one month. So just have a talk here about rent increases. The Act requires the less or agent to give tenants two months' notice in writing to increase the rent for general tenancy for a fixed term or a periodic agreement. So in a fixed term, you can only increase the rent if there is a term allowing it and you cannot increase rent under a six-month period. The time frame allows the tenant to not just be informed about the upcoming increase, but to also prepare for any adjustments that they may need to make for their rental payment. So if they were doing a direct payment, then they'll need to adjust this directly with their bank. Just by putting the term in the fixed term agreement is not doing the notice when the tenant signs the agreement at the start. You will still need to give the minimum of the two months' notice in writing, notifying of that increase. Quite often we are asked, is there a formula on how do I know how much to increase the rent? There is no set formula and it's always best to know your rental market and what the conditions are. So whether it's a slow market or whether there's a large or an oversupply of that type of accommodation in your area, there are no hard, fast rules about this, but again, best to look at each case or each tenancy at an individual level. However, I'd like to point out that under section 92, a tenant may dispute a rent increase if they believe it to be excessive. And with this time frames do apply and the tribunal may take into account the range of market rents usually charged for comparable properties, proposed increased rent compared to the current rent. The state of repair of the premises, the term of the tenancy, that is the length of the tenancy, the period since the last increase if there has actually been any, and also anything else that the tribunal considers relevant. It is recommended to have a comparative rental information. So for example, you could go to many of those real agency rental sites on the website and use a comparison on the type of property that you have compared to other properties. In relation to, you could look at adverts in the local newspaper or other properties that you manage or own in that particular area that might be something similar. If you are increasing a rent between tenancies, and again, the tenant feels it's excessive under what we call significant changes between agreements, the tenant may dispute the increase. However, time frames exist if they do want to dispute it and the tenant would need to also sign the agreement and then follow that process. If you want to know more information about significant changes between agreements, please go to section 71 of the Residential Tenancies and Room Accommodation Act. So one of the questions coming in in relation to the increasing of the bond when there is a rent increase, you can do that. Obviously, there is maximum amounts that you can charge for a bond, no more than four times the weekly rental amount if it's $700 and under, if it's over that it's negotiable. But also, please keep in mind, you can only increase a bond no less than 11 months in between. So now I want to actually have a talk about rent decrease. And during the tenancy or between tenancies, there may be a reason to decrease the rent. Section 94, I've actually listed some of the reasons that you'll find under that section, and that is that the premises are destroyed or made completely unfit to live in, loss of a service, facilities or goods to be provided, or the amendable standard of the premises decreases substantially. Another reason may be that you negotiate to decrease rent while you're waiting for an item to be repaired. So again, an example might be if it's taking eight weeks to get parts to fix an air conditioner or a stove, you may consider reducing the rent for that period of time as the goods supplied with the tenancy have been lost during this period of time. So it's best to get in early and negotiate rather than leave it and have a dispute further down the track or there's a request for a higher amount of compensation for the loss of the item. So again, a rent decrease or potentially you could be offering a compensation amount. Remember, any changes to the rental amount needs to be put in writing and agreed and signed by all the parties to that tenancy. With rent increases and decreases, the best thing to do is to know your rental market before you even promote the rental property. So now moving on to our second of the R's in today's webinar, we're going to be looking at repairs and maintenance. The legislation is very clear in relation to the lessor's obligations under section 185 and that is at the start of the tenancy, the lessor must ensure the premises and inclusions are clean, fit to live in, good repair and not in breach of any health and safety issues. Whilst the tenancy continues, they must maintain the premises in a way that remains fit to live in and the property and the inclusions are maintained in good repair. If you are aware of any issues dealing with health or safety of the premises, they should be addressed in a reasonable timeframe. Whilst the Act does not provide a definite timeframe to carry out those repairs, it is recommended to do these again in that reasonable timeframe based on the individual situation and the individual repair. At the start of the tenancy inform the tenant what your process is for notifying you about maintenance issues and time and time we have seen as tents progress from either from a landlord who manages their own property to an agency or agency to agency, not everyone has those same practices. Remember there are urgent and non-urgent repairs under the Act and I will talk about those shortly. Make sure you have a nominated repair listed on your tenancy agreement for those urgent repairs as well. Whilst the lessor has the obligations, I am just going to quickly touch on the tenants' obligations as well. They are generally found under Section 188 and it states that the tenant must keep the premises inclusions clean and not damage the property. At the end of the tenancy, they must leave the premises in the same condition it was at the start, there is fair wear and tear. Fair wear and tear is always that area that is open to interpretation. It seems everyone has sometimes a bit of a different interpretation or what the understanding of it means. But you do as landlords and agents have to allow that when a tenant does vacate that to expect that there will be an amount of fair wear and tear. So example that the scarf marks from everyday living in the property may be considered that whilst a hole in the wall or significant damage to the wall is not. Fair wear and tear may also be caused by the environment and also from time. So example might be some damage, might make an item brittle or may fade over time as well. I'm not saying that big stones on carpets and holes in walls are fair wear and tear but again sometimes some of the small things from everyday use is deemed to be that fair wear and tear. Section 217 talks about the obligations of the tenant notifying the list or agent about any damage or repairs it's required. And the notification you need to understand can be by way of phone call. It could be an email, fax if you've got that situation or a letter or the tenant may just issue you a notice to remedy breach to the list or the agent informing them of the repair. It's important to let the tenant know at the start what's the best way they should report problems and also to make sure that they have those contact details particularly if something does happen after hours. Remember your routine inspections that you carry out as part of your business practice during a tenancy is a great opportunity to identify any current repairs or future maintenance that may be required further down the track. Fact outlines what is an emergency repair under section 214. So without reading the every item listed here it's deemed to be a serious fault, damage or failure or breakdown of essential services to the premises. It could be a fault or damage that makes the premises unsecure or insecure or unsafe or insecure I should say or likely to be injuring a person. So examples might be that the toilet or the hot water system's not working, it could be a burst pipe in the wall causing flooding or a serious gas leak. So common sense approaches usually required have that conversation with yourself or what happens if I don't attend to this immediately what may actually happen or does this problem fall into what is listed in the legislation as an emergency repair. This may actually help you determine the urgency of that particular repair as well. The security and health and safety of the people living there should also be taken into account and again this is why the legislation has outlined a lot of that what is deemed to be emergency repairs. If the tenant cannot contact the lessor agent or their nominated repairer listed on their tenancy agreement they can organise a suitably qualified person to carry out the repair to the maximum value of two weeks rent and the lessor will need to pay that bill or reimburse the tenant. So again the tenant can also apply the tribunal for an order about the repairs. This is now that the RTA has seen an increase in general in relation to the calls to our call centre and also in our dispute area in relation to repairs in general. So as always the RTA encourages open communication between parties in a tenancy and that both sides do this in a respectful way. Dealing with any matters in a timely manner and keeping those lines of communication open if there's going to be a delay or if there's problems. Doing this can avoid a matter escalating to a dispute that may not necessarily have to have happened in the first place. So again that self resolution and keeping everybody informed if there is a repair to make sure that people know what is actually happening and again particularly if there is a delay. So now on to our third and last hours of today's session which is refunds and what we're looking at is refunding the rental bond and also to looking at refunding of rent. So let's just have a look at the bond refund side of things. Let's look at if it is money that remember what a bond actually is. It is money that is paid by the tenant at the start and it's used for financial protection for the less or should there be a breach of the agreement. Just to give you some idea of the RTA's stats of all the bonds refunded 68% were paid out as agreed refunds and this is where the tenant was getting the full bond or where there was a claim that was agreed by both sides. On average the RTA refunds about 1,000 bonds per day. So remember the RTA requires an Australian bank account to deposit any bond money into at the end of the tenancy and the quickest way to ease this way is to make sure that both sides of the tenancy that's the lesser agent and the tenant complete an agreed form and submit that to the RTA. So when the tenancy has ended or the tenant has vacated if everybody agrees how the bond is to be paid out complete a refund form, a form for and submit that to the RTA. If there is no agreement and again the tenancy has ended or they have vacated then either person can submit the refund form to the RTA. This is going to start what we call a notice of claim process where the other person whose signature is missing will be informed of the claim and has an opportunity to dispute it. This person is going to have 14 days to respond to the notice. If they disagree they can complete a form 16 dispute resolution request form and lodge that with the RTA within the timeframe. If they agree with the claim they can sign the notice and return that back to the RTA and the payment will be made. Or if they choose not to do anything or not respond to the notice the bond will be paid out at the expiry of the notice to the party who has done the claim. Again that notice of claim process is a 14 day process and again the RTA follows the rules in relation to allowing clear days so we would also be allowing time for postage as well. It is always important that the RTA has up-to-date information and so if you have any changes to your address, email or for real estate agents if there's changes in your agency for staff or your property managers please let us know. Make sure that we always have current information. If you want to know where to find information about the payments by the authority under the Act they're found in under sections 123 to 144. Just quickly touching on and this is why we probably have some of the bond disputes. So what happens if there's a problem at the vacate inspection? So what happens if you find that there's some clean to be done or that there's damage or that there's rent owed? Again reminding you that the tenant is to return the premises in the same condition they was it was at the start of the tenancy less bare wear and tear. And whilst the Act does not state that you have to give the tenant the opportunity to rectify any of the problems we know that previously under the agents under the property agents and motor deals Act there was a code of conduct to give the tent to the opportunity. But it has been seen since then to be that it is best practice to inform them of the problems and work out a solution to rectify. So if you're doing the inspection together with the tenant you can discuss it directly with them and get a resolution of what's going to happen. But if the tenant's not present we would recommend communicate the issues with the tenant reminding them their responsibilities under the Act informing them of the issues and negotiating the steps to rectify and to be able to move forward so that you can get an agreed refund happening. About 50% or half of our disputes that the RTA receives each year are bond related matters. So by communicating at the end dealing with expectations looking at those rights and responsibilities and sharing evidence such as your entry and exit condition reports, photos sometimes this can resolve these issues and does not require a dispute. So where possible the RTA always recommends self resolution in the first instance. So comes the important part that I really want to make sure everyone understands is the claiming on the bond. So if you are the less or the agent claiming on the rental bond only ever claim what you are entitled to claim. So example would be if there's a $2,000 bond and you have a claim that you know or that you estimate to be around $800 then only claim the $800 not the full amount. I put an example up here. So the RTA requires you to provide details of your claim in section four, the refund form and in that part it states details of claims slash amounts. The example I've put up there shows two days rent and the amount, general cleaning and carpet cleaning and the amounts. So again we've seen some claims coming with very limited information and this is not what is required. So again please look at your business practices and ensure that you do comply. We are looking for what the reason is and the individual amounts on each item. So again if you can look at your business practices to make sure that when we receive information at the RTA on a bond claim we know. Even if you do not know the exact amount but you have an estimate it is better to put something like that in rather than just leaving it blank. So following on from the notice of claim process if someone has disputed the claim within the timeframe then this will lead to a conciliation with the RTA dispute resolution service. The RTA needs to know information about the claim on the bond so the sooner the lesser agents can get more information in through to us the quicker the conciliators can deal with the matter. So remember the role of the conciliator is impartial. They are there not to take sides but to facilitate the discussion and negotiations to see if the matter can be resolved. It's a voluntary process so we're not going to force parties to participate although we are strongly encouraging them to do so. The RTA has an 82% resolution rate where parties do participate in the conciliation process. So if a bond dispute is resolved then both parties will sign a refund form and return it to the conciliator within the timeframe that they're required and then the bond is paid out accordingly but should not one party return one of the forms then the matter's not resolved. So if it's not resolved what happens is the person who has issued the form 16, the dispute request will then have a seven-day timeframe to lodge an application with the local tribunal and also notify the RTA of the tribunal receipt. I have to reiterate again that this is a two-part process. You need to lodge within the required timeframes and you also need to notify the RTA of the details of the receipt. If the application has been made within the required timeframe then the RTA holds the bond till the outcome of the hearing and the direction for the payment from the tribunal. If no application's been lodged then the RTA is going to release the bond as per the original refund form that we've received. Remember, if you have to go to the tribunal do not leave it to the last minute. Gather all your paperwork, your evidence, photos, everything that you have ready to go and lodge within the required timeframe. Information can be found on the QCAT's website which is qcat.qld.gov.au. I know that we've got people have asked in questions but what happens if you don't know the bond amounts? I would make an estimate and hopefully that, you know, example might be if you think something to get repaired might be about $300 or $400 then you might be claiming $400 or $500. It's best to put an estimate and claim what you think you need rather than claiming a full bond amount that you know may not necessarily be required. So just continuing on, so I'm just a bit conscious of time so we may actually run a little bit over but I thank you for your questions that you are submitting and again this will probably actually help us put together a future webinar as well. So in relation to money owed over and above the bond amount. So what happens if this is the case? Again, it may be dealt with in the conciliation process with the initial bond dispute and if that be the case the conciliator there may be an agreement reached between the parties and a payment plan has been drawn up as part of a conciliation agreement. But if it's not done in a bond dispute initially and the bond's been finalised and already paid out to you then they may be still seeking money above that then you need to submit a form 16 dispute resolution request with the RTA advising that you're seeking compensation or the money above the bond amount and what those amounts are for and then look we can issue it look at issuing you a no-save-on-resolved dispute if it's not resolved and you proceed directly to the tribunal for an order. Just remember that because the matter has progressed to the RTA dispute resolution service does not stop parties from still trying to communicate during this process or trying to get a resolution themselves. Just quickly too just touching on the final hour of the refund side of it. This is just a reminder that if money has been paid for rent then it needs to be put towards rent. Under section 96 it cannot be used for other purposes such as water or cleaning bills at the end of the tenancy. Please note this section of the legislation which is number 96 does carry penalty provisions with it and that's 40 penalty points. So the other part that I want to bring up is the section 97, the apportionment. At the end of the tenancy, rent is to be appropriately apportioned and should the tenant overpay rent at the end of the tenancy then this needs to be refunded back to the tenant. Okay, I am conscious we are actually on time or we're actually behind time so I apologize for that. I'll just quickly go through just one more hour and I know that when I originally came up with the concept of the three hours I actually calculated about 10 hours but clearly we don't have time for that. So on the three hours just adding one more about the records and this is just purely a reminder that the lessor agents are to keep the records relating to the tenancy for one year after the tenancy ends and the documents that you need to include are the entry condition report, the exit condition report, the tenancy agreement, rent payment records or the rent ledger. Again, maybe also recommended too to actually have a copy of any written notices or correspondence. So again, we have a lot of information on our website and I know a lot of questions that have been submitted through have not actually related to today's topics. Just to give you an idea, I have been in touch with QCAT and I can say that probably we will be running a second webinar with QCAT in the near future to give you information. As for a copy of today's presentation, a copy of our webinar will be available on our RTA's website in approximately about a week's time. So please go there for a copy of it. If you need answers to questions today urgently, again, please contact our call centre. Thank you again for attending today's session and again, I do really appreciate it. We will be running future webinars and if you do have specific topics that you would like to know more about, feel free to give us an email and again to eventsrta.qld.gov.au and we will look at trying to address those in future webinars. Again, thank you very much for your time this morning. I really do appreciate it and the webinar will end now.