Landlords in Victoria are calling for property owners to be handed back more power in the case of disputes as stories of non-paying tenants continue to emerge in the state. Victoria has some of the strongest rights and protections for renters, but some landlords say they can be left out of pocket and with little recourse.
Mikaela Cowan, a 31-year-old nurse, is among those who have spent months trying to regain possession of her house from tenants who keep falling behind on paying the bills. “They’ve been put on four payment plans which they continue to fail to pay,” she told Yahoo Finance.
“We gave them a notice to vacate back in December and yet according to VCAT that means absolutely nothing.”
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Mikaela purchased the townhouse in the outer northeast suburb of Mill Park prior to the pandemic. But after a break-up in 2022, she soon decided to rent it out and moved into a one bedroom unit.
Tenants moved into the property in May 2023, and first fell behind on rent payments in December that year, she said.
Since then Mikaela, and her property manager, have had to accord with the decisions of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), which critics say can take an overly accomodating approach to renters in arrears.
Mikaela would like her sister to be able to move into the property and issued a 60-day notice to vacate in October last year. When that was challenged, VCAT sided with the renters, who recently had a second child, due to reasons including the timing being close to Christmas and efforts to adhere to a payment plan.
“They’re currently around $8,000 in arrears. Meanwhile I’m a single, 31 year old nurse on one income and paying two mortgages – which just keeps increasing with every rate rise we have been having,” Mikaela said.
“We just received a new hearing date which isn’t until the 19th of May, which is incredibly frustrating,” she added.
“We have also given the tenants another notice to vacate, citing I want to move back into the property due to financial hardship.”
But if that does prove successful, it still won’t be until mid June, some eight months after first requesting her property back.
“The whole system needs to be overhauled and common sense needs to prevail which VCAT do not seem to have,” she said.
