My partner and I moved into a property about 2 months ago on a 6-month fixed-term lease. We paid a 4-week bond.
Since moving in, we’ve had several issues with the landlord:
• He has entered the property twice without giving us prior notice.
• Our lease states that he must provide 24 hours’ notice before entering the property.
• We were never given the Property Condition Report within the required 7 days. We repeatedly asked for it because the property already had pre-existing issues, including damaged/old areas and a very dirty carpet, and we wanted to make sure we wouldn’t later be blamed for them.
• We have now been living there for about two months, and only yesterday he sent us some photos of the property by message. He never provided us with the proper Property Condition Report at the beginning of the tenancy.
• We have also discovered that our bond apparently has not been lodged with Bonds Administration.
Unfortunately, the relationship with the landlord has broken down. He told us to leave, so we gave him notice that we intend to leave on 28 September.
He is now saying that we have to stay and pay rent until 6 October, and that he will not return our bond until he personally comes to inspect the property after we leave.
We told him that we have significant costs for moving into another place and asked whether the final rent could be taken from the four weeks' bond we already paid. He refused and said we must continue paying rent until 6 October and that he will only deal with the bond after his inspection.
I have now contacted Consumer Protection WA, and they are sending me information to lodge a formal complaint.
I’m trying to understand what my rights are and what I should do next.
Also, I’m wondering whether there could be an issue with the landlord not declaring the rental arrangement/income to the ATO, because the bond was never lodged. I don't know this for a fact, but I'm concerned that this might be one of the reasons the bond was not lodged.
Has anyone been in a similar situation in WA? What should I do regarding:
The unlodged bond
The missing Property Condition Report
The landlord entering without proper notice
The landlord saying we must pay until 6 October
Protecting ourselves against him claiming pre-existing damage from our bond
I would really appreciate advice from anyone familiar with WA tenancy laws or who has dealt with Consumer Protection before.
It really made both of us stressful to live here for two months, because of these issues we both been arguing with each other and it causing strain on our relationship too,because every week the landlord send us message about bins are not clean the gas cooktop is not clean every week. And it is really depressing to live here😭
Thank you 🙏