Hi, I have been sent a message to say I have a matter attending vcat...
I'm a mother of two who are in my care full time. We do not have our own place therefore was staying at a so called friends in a caravan, Sunday night my children and I got locked out of the house. No reason why.. anyway I saw the female inside the house and knocked on window to tell her the back door was locked and she replied with not my problem mean while my daughter had been knocking on door to be open due to needing the toilet. In the end I had to ask a lady across the road if my daughter could use her toilet... ended up calling police, they didn't open the doors till police had spoken to them. She lied about a few things to them about what I had apparently said. Now due to them treating my kids and myself this way I had told them I wasn't paying them any money. Can this be a matter for vcat? What can I do part from the obvious and take what I need to the hearing? My name isn't on the rental list at the property and I believe that I shouldn't have to give them anything due to how my kids and I were treated.
14 Replies
Move along, pay the money, don't put yourself under the stress of VCAT and a hearing. You can open a whole lot of other doors about not providing necessities for your kids by living in a caravan with no access to clean water etc. (because it isn't that other person's responsibility in any way and the system has a way of turning everything around to you).
You don’t have to have a lease or be on a lease to be considered a tenant. So Yes it can be a matter for VCAT. You go, you state your case, listen to your friends case.
Otherwise they can rule against you in your absence.
The adjudicator (can’t remember the official title) will rule. It might be a combination of what you both want or it might go one way or the other. It will depend on the details and what grounds the person lodged with VCAT.
Just leave. If you have no access to a toilet you can't possibly live there they would have no recourse.
Stop focusing on them, focus on getting a place for you and the kids.
Just pay and be done, you don’t need the drama in your life, you have enough to worry about finding suitable accommodation.
Good luck, you’ve got this.
It’s obvious you have over stayed your welcome. You need to move on and try and find a place for yourself. She’s right. You could always hire a porta potty for yourselves to use. If it’s your caravan you can organise to move it to a caravan park. Maybe your kids have said something, maybe you offended her. But you need to leave. If you’re not on the lease and she doesn’t have permission to have you live there then you need to move on.
Non issue. Just leave. They also can't demand money when they haven't offered the service u pay for. So if it were me, I'd pay nothing, and go. They won't win in court.
We are no longer there, left the next day and I do have services helping me to find a home for ourselves. I haven't paid them and I won't.
Maybe your attitude/stubborness is the reason they chose to lock you out :/
I think you should pay whatever the agreed amount was at the beginning, up until the day they locked you out. Pretty poor form of them to do this without explanation but I don't believe 2 wrongs make a right. Pay what you owe and move on knowing you were the bigger person.
There were no issues. Only issue was is that I had told them that I needed to figure out how much I would have after paying to stay somewhere else as they had asked me how much I was paying.... My stubbornness is from what they had done to my children, I couldn't really care if they had told me to stay out but why take it out on children? They had harassed me that whole day about paying them which I had every intention of paying, just needed to work out the money... people can not expect to treat others badly and still have what they want, they did not once feel guilty about the way they treated my children at all so why should I even pay them or even feel an ounce of guilt for not paying them?
Respect goes both ways.
Keep in mind I had also paid them 500 the fortnight before, obviously couldn't afford that this time knowing I had another place to pay for to stay at. I'm a really understanding caring type of person and they knew that so not sure what the problem was and atm not really my focus anymore, I just wanted an opinion on weather this would actually go to vcat and if anything would come of it from others experience. Thanks for your input though much appreciated.
Yes it can absolutely go to VCAT. But it’s not a quick process and you’d receive formal notification from VCaT.
Anyone can go to vcat if they have a disagreement/dispute about a tenancy. You don’t have to sign a lease to be a tenant.
Your best bet is to intact VCaT yourself about the situation. Explain in detail what happened and what was said before you moved in about payment, how long you stayed there etc.
If the message you received was just from the person you were staying with don’t worry until you receive something formal from vcat.
If it does end up at vcat try to negotiate (there is a mediation session first). Don’t dig your heels in because of ‘your children’ the adjudicator won’t be impressed with that.
If vcat rule that you need to pay something, you need to pay it as it can effect your ability to rent in the future if you don’t.
Don’t make your life more difficult than it needs to be over this.
Yes but how long were you there? 3 people using their power and water is a lot of extra money on them when the bills come in. If you're not paying I don't blame them for booting you out. You can't expect a free ride in life.
So you didn’t pay them the money you owed, so they locked you out of the house.
There is always more to these stories....
Exactly right.