Meet Brittany, Rory and their three beautiful daughters Billie, Riley and Luka.
After months of thinking that they had finally found their dream home on the Gold Coast since relocating from Perth, they were once again on the hunt for another property to rent in October 2023. As a fourth house Sagittarius, it is essential to Brittany to live in a home environment that feels like an everyday retreat. So when she came across a unique treehouse not far from their previous home in a secluded cul-de-sac, an application was swiftly submitted and accepted.
Unfortunately the excitement and exhale of relief after completing the move was short lived.
A few weeks after residing in their new rental property ..
they discovered that the main bathroom had a plumbing leak. Not only did this mean that they would have to completely refrain from using the bathroom until it was repaired, it had caused a significant mould infestation in the adjacent bedroom that Brittany and their youngest daughter Luka were sleeping. This was not your average ‘mould in the shower grout’ kind of situation. This was an overgrowth of epic proportions that extended through the wall cavities, the gyprock between the bathroom, separate toilet and bedroom, and the carpet. This later resulted in Brittany and Luka contracting bacterial pneumonia caused by mould, and mould poisoning. Conditions that create chronic illness that can take years to fully recover from.
After the first rain event in their new home, they learned that the windows all throughout the home were not properly sealed, which meant that water would leak into the home. We’re not talking raindrops here, we’re talking puddles. Not only did the excess water exacerbate the mould issue, it also created an ongoing slip hazard which was particularly difficult with three energetic children.
The air conditioning system that was a non-negotiable when looking for a new home was also faulty. Their two-storey open plan house located in the hot Queensland climate turned from a treehouse retreat to a sauna during the Summer months were the internal temperature of the home reached up to 40 degrees during the day. This caused Luka to get a heat rash, made worse by the fact that their pool filter was broken, so the pool was unusable too.
We wish we could say that this was the extent of the issues ..
However it was these particular circumstances that led them to contact Well Nested for support on what action they could take in their situation.
After six months of no contact from their agent, and no repair items any closer to being rectified, they had been living in a home that was deemed by the Queensland Minimum Standards of Housing as uninhabitable. The home was not weatherproof and structurally sound, and it was not free of damp and mould, and posed safety and health risks.
During this six month period, they had continued to uphold their obligations as the tenant by paying the premium rental figure of $1,250 per week despite having an inoperable bathroom and air conditioning system, and an uninhabitable bedroom. They were diligent and patient in their follow up, but enough finally became enough.
Due to the emotional toll and understandable frustration of the experience to date, Well Nested acted in a representative capacity for Brittany and Rory, and began the process of liaising directly with the agent to generate some momentum.
Here’s what happened next.
Within one week of initial contact and follow up, we successfully negotiated a rental reduction of $400 per week due to loss of amenity until such time as all repairs were completed. The agent also agreed to our request to terminate the fixed term lease agreement which wasn’t due to expire for another 6 months.
This meant that Brittany and Rory were free to seek an alternate rental property without financial repercussions from breaking the lease agreement.
Upon further consultation, we also advised Brittany and Rory that they were eligible for backdated financial compensation for the six months they had already resided in the property and paid rent for a property of such poor condition. Based on our calculations, this figure equated to approximately $12,000.
But after weeks of attempting to seek a more than reasonable private agreement for this compensation with the agent and landlord, we were left with little choice other than to begin the process of filing a tribunal application to QCAT; an application that totalled 50 pages of evidence highlighting the negligence of the landlord and their managing agent. Once we shared with the agent that the application had been submitted, all contact from then ceased for over four weeks pending the upcoming hearing.
During this process of compiling the tribunal application, we discovered that there was no copy of the signed lease agreement on file and the bond of $5,000 which is legally required to be lodged to the Residential Tenancies Authority within 10 days of the lease beginning, had in fact not been lodged. We also came to learn through multiple sources that the agent and landlord were aware of these repair issues prior to leasing the property to Brittany and Rory, with was grounds for misrepresentation.
These three factors highlight the incompetence of the agent, and enabled us to force the hand of both the agent and landlord to finally reach a resolution after eight months. By doing so, we were able to avoid the tribunal hearing that would have required Brittany to postpone the first call of her epic new business program, Rory to take time off work, and organising childcare for their three girls while they commuted to Brisbane for the day. We were also able to avoid the uncomfortable circumstance of coming face to face with the agent who through their incompetence and lack of empathy caused eight months of grief.
The resolution was this — that until such time as Brittany and Rory vacated the property, they would no longer be liable for any future rental payments, and their bond was immediately released so that it could be used to finalise their new tenancy.
By working with Well Nested, Brittany and Rory were not only able to re-establish communication with their agent after six months of repair requests and unanswered follow up, the negotiated rental reduction and subsequent rent-free period equated to financial compensation of over $15,000.
At the time of writing this, it’s now been three weeks they’ve vacated the house of horrors. They have now started the next chapter of their property journey in a home that has already done so much to restore their physical health and vitality, at a price point lower than what they were previously paying each week.
Did I mention that it’s also five minutes away from the beautiful Gold Coast beaches?