Bond Claims. Any notice of claim on a payment or performance bond or public works bond shall comply with the requirements of ORS 279C.605.
Bond Claims. Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2010, when a Landlord wishes to make a bond claim you cannot do so for any old reason, as much as some Landlords would love to. The process is basically: the Tenant vacates, the Agent carries out the exit inspection, and then at that inspection there may be some cleaning or some damages or some items that need to be taken care of that are the Tenant’s responsibility. The Tenant can agree for those items to be paid for out of the bond, or they may dispute them. Once the exit inspection has been conducted, you have carried out the cleaning or repairs, or you have quotes for the work required, you can then make a claim on the residential bond through Rental Bonds Online, or by submitting paper documentation to the Bond Board through NSW Fair Trading. The Tenant can choose to agree to that, or they can dispute it. It’s very simple for them to dispute it; they just don’t sign the form and it goes to the Bond Board which issues a notice to the Tenant saying, “Are you happy for this claim to go ahead, or would you like to take actions or steps to go ahead and dispute?” Then at that point they can take the Tribunal path. Agents can easily log on to Rental Bonds Online, view all of your bonds, confirm that there are bonds being held on properties, look at bond numbers and make sure that bonds are held or paid out. Especially when you’re going through at the end of the month and you want to make sure that all the bonds are paid out or all the bonds were received, you can log on and do a quick bond audit. All parties involved also need to know the difference between what we call ‘fair wear and tear’ and ‘accidental dam- age’. Fair wear and tear is best described as damage which has accumulated over time, such as marks on carpets caused by foot traffic, or weather damage where outside furniture was placed. Fair wear and tear is not subject to bond claims. Accidental damage is best described as damage being caused by a sudden and unexpected event. This might in- clude spilling red wine on the carpet or the breaking of a window. Accidental damage can be subject to bond claims.
Bond Claims. When a tenant signs a tenancy agreement, they are required to pay a bond. The bond is the tenant’s money and exists for the purpose of repairing damage to the property or professional cleaning required once the tenancy has ended. The amount of bond is typically the equivalent of four weeks’ rent. It is not held by the landlord or the Real Estate Agency in the trust account but with the Office of Rental Bonds. The rules surrounding tenancy bonds can be found in the Residential Tenancies Xxx 0000, part 3. xxxx://xxx.xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx/x/0000-00/xxxxxxx/xxx/0000-00.xxx What you don’t want is for a property to be misused or mistreated in any way and then be responsible for footing the xxxx because you haven’t ensured that a bond has been taken, you haven’t completed the right paperwork, and the owner would have every right to take legal action against you as the agent or you as the property manager to recover those fees. A lessor may only require or accept as a bond an amount of not more than the first four weeks of rent payable under the residential tenancy Agreement. You can’t accept more than four weeks. It’s generally good practise to take that full amount but you can accept less if need be. Steps the Landlord is required to take in order to claim against the bond for repairs or cleaning of a property following a termination of a lease would be they will first need to complete a condition report at the end of the tenancy. If the tenant agrees to the details within stipulating the need for a bond claim, you as the property manager need to fill out a claim form and lodge it with the Office of Regulatory Services via Access Canberra. The amount can be split between tenants and agency if need be. It is best if the tenant agrees with the claim and signs the form as well. That way the bond can be paid without delay. If this isn’t possible, you should lodge the form without the tenant’s signature as soon as possible with the Office of Rental Bonds and send evidence of the claim to both the board and the tenant. It is then up to the board to decide on what action needs to be taken.
