 Hello, I'm Valentina Dimosca. I'm a senior community education officer with the Residential Tenancies Authority in Queensland. The RTA is a government organisation that oversees the laws for renting in Queensland. Whether you live in, own or manage your rental property, you have rights and responsibilities. The RTA is there to assist you to better understand those rights and responsibilities and to assist in resolving disputes when and if they arise. Today I'm joined by Jade Roberts who will discuss in more detail how the RTA can be of assistance. Hi Jade and welcome. Hi Valentina. Jade, what are the specific services that the RTA offers? The RTA offers both the client contact centre and also the dispute resolution department. And how can people access the client contact centre? For the cost of a local phone call, anyone in Queensland can call up and we can offer an information service over the phone. We also offer email inquiries and assist at outreach events. And with the dispute resolution service, how can people access that? So by submitting a dispute resolution request form, a form number 16, they can submit that online by fax or by mail and we can set up that service for them. Jade, who can access these services? So with the client contact centre, basically anyone can call up and we can offer them information based on their inquiry. If that information is specific to a bond record, that's where we may require a letter of authority to give them that information on the other person's behalf. The dispute resolution service is generally done between people listed on a tenancy agreement. However, if someone is requiring a support person to act on their behalf, we can offer that as long as there's consent from the other party and a letter of authority is obtained. Okay, so with the client contact centre, that's available to anyone who wants information about tenancy laws in Queensland. Yeah, that's correct. And if they want specific information about a particular bond, it does need to be the person who's involved in that tenancy or they need to have the agreement of that person. Yeah, that's correct. Okay, and with the dispute resolution service, it is only open to people in a tenancy agreement. Yeah, so generally say tenants and landlords or tenants and property managers would generally be our typical sort of clients, but if someone is needing assistance or someone else to act, we can arrange that as long as the other party agrees. What if someone has trouble explaining themselves or understanding the information they're being given? So the RTA has access to the translating and interpreting service. We can access that for our clients for free. So if they're having any sort of difficulty with language, then we would use that service to assist them further. So with the contact centre, we do have some specialised client service officers that do have the capacity to spend a little bit more time with that person. So working through self-resolution strategies, just spending that extra bit of time with them to make sure they are understanding everything correctly. And they also have access to a long list of referral organisations that can provide further assistance if need be. And with the dispute resolution? So with dispute resolution, if you're needing someone else to act for you in that particular dispute, then we would just ask for a letter of authority and we would just need to confirm with the other party if they agree or not. Otherwise, if that's, I guess if the other party doesn't agree, then that's where we could offer shuttle conciliation, which is where the conciliator speaks one-on-one with the representative and with the other party to the dispute. Jade, how successful is dispute resolution? The vast majority of people that come through the dispute resolution department are able to reach an agreement. So generally they come to some sort of mutual agreement that they can live with and that service is also free. Jade, how can people get the most out of their contact with the RTO? Well, let's start first with the contact centre. So the first thing they really need to do is call us when the problem first arises. They can also access our website beforehand and get as much information as possible from that. And it's also a good idea to come into the call with all your documentation with you, such as notice to remedy breach, notice to leave your tenancy agreement, your entry condition report. All of those would be handy to have when you make the call to us so we can tailor our response to your exact situation. Thank you. And with the dispute resolution service, what would be your recommendations for making the most of that service? So we really recommend that you attempt to self-resolve with the other party before contacting us, but if that is unsuccessful, then the service that we offer is free and we definitely encourage you to utilise that service. So also documentation and information, so if you can have all of your information regarding the dispute handy at the time of the conciliation conference, that would also be beneficial. We've covered some important topics today, and I hope you have seen that problems in the tenancy do not have to mean the end of a tenancy. Please contact us as soon as issues arise. The RTA is there to assist, both with its contact centre and dispute resolution service. For more information browse through our website. To find out more about how to prevent and resolve tenancy disputes, click on the dispute resolution tab. This page includes helpful tips on how to resolve disputes and information on how to request dispute resolution at the RTA. The resources tab takes you to the RTA's publications, forms and videos page. Here you can browse, download, order range of publications, including information available in other languages.