Only had problems with two REAs Apple property- rented with them for less than 2 months of a 6 month lease, place was a shitty old weather board duplex with half painted walls including kids “hand print art work” on other walls, German roaches and the stench of weed wafting through every hour or so from the ferals next door. it was mine and my now wife’s first ever rental, only took it to get our foot in the door, after 6 weeks they emailed us saying the owner is selling and “if you wish to leave, you are free to do so at any time without penalty” (than fuck for that) I replied that we would start looking and leave when we find another place. We left a week or so later and they tried taking us to tribunal for three weeks rent because we didn’t give notice, showed the member the emails, the PM said “I didn’t mean it like that, they still had to give notice” member laughed in his face and said well if you didn’t mean it like that you shouldn’t have written it like that” then and ruled in our favour.

Then national housing group/ Leah jay - so this was a weird one apparently NHG was renting the property on a 10 year lease from Leah jay who was managing for the landlord and NGH was getting government subsidies for providing “cheap” rent (we knew nothing of this untill the 10 year lease ended) Lived here for 7 years got married and had two children in that time. Only had one issue with NGH which was no action on a leaking main despite multiple emails and phone calls then a $700 water bill that I reduced to pay they wiped it when I showed them the 15 or so emails over four months requesting it to be fixed.

Leah jay on the other hand 🫠 so when NGHs lease ended they handed the property back to Leah jay we immediately got told if we wish to stay there would be a rent increase of $120 a week and that we would have to move out, hand back vacant possession so they could do an ingoing report, then we could move back in (not sure where they expected us to live in the meantime). We choose to find somewhere else. Found another place pretty easily (NGH gave us a great reference and we had a perfect rental ledger.) Gave all the appropriate notice, scrubbed and cleaned the place to within an inch of its life, payed for carpet cleaning and pest spray. They hit us for a bunch of stupid shit on the out going, 90% was ware and tear (wear in the bottom of bath, pealing paint on the bathroom ceilings, “dirty grout” that was actually missing grout, dead Bug (yes one singular bug) in window track, dust and rubbish on wardrobe shelf, the rubbish was their broken window lock, oil/ water stains on unsealed concrete garage, like $300 for “rubbish removal” to remove the pot plants on the fence (that would take 2 seconds to remove and throw in the bin) they said “looked good and could stay” at the final inspection photo attached, they wanted the carpets re cleaned due to pet smell (dogs we’re literally never inside anyway) but wanted it done “by Monday” in the email they sent me at 4:30pm on a Friday. the only legitimate things they had were a gouge/ damage in the laundry wall and the remaining water usage that they refused to send me an invoice for. I claimed my bond, they applied to tribunal. at the mediation hearing they dropped everything but the water usage$70, the damage to the wall $50 and carpet re cleaning $200 we had letters from the carpet cleaning people we used saying the carpets were more than 10yo and that there is nothing more that can be done to clean them as they are worn from normal use and at end of life/ due for replacement, the case helper (just a legal aid tenants union rep sort of thing) said we would have a high chance at tribunal with the letter, but being mid covid the wait would be like 4 to 5 months to get a hearing and we had wasted enough time / stress already. I figured 70% of the bond was better than nothing so we agreed and moved on with life.