Two Sydney landlords has been ordered to pay a tenant more then $2000 after they were found to have acted “falsely and maliciously” following requests for maintenance.
Self-represented tenant Ryan Anderson had complained since 2020 about broken lights and a new oven that failed to reach 200 degrees and “does not become hot enough to cook anything”.
The lights were eventually replaced with LEDs, but these were incompatible with the studio apartment’s dimming switches so did not operate.
Anderson complained to NSW Fair Trading about the repairs in May 2023, and was served with an eviction notice one month later.
Senior member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal Philip French found that the landlords had failed in their obligation to maintain the premises in a reasonable state of repair. He also found the eviction notice an “abuse of power by landlords who are attempting to use their superior title in the property to defeat the tenant’s legitimate right to repairs”.
Property manager Dee O’Connor was also accused by French of falsely and maliciously portraying Anderson as a hoarder to NSW Fair Trading.
In letters to NSW Fair Trading, O’Connor had accused Anderson of not allowing photographs of the apartment to be taken “due to the hoarding, where he does not wish for anyone to be privy to the situation unfolding”.
French called this “a transparent and childish attempt to co-opt NSW Fair Trading’s customer service officer into concealing information from the tenant based on these allegations”.
Landlords Vince and Patricia Fimmano were ordered repay Anderson more than $2600, and the termination notice was found to be retaliatory and unlawful.
Anderson was awarded a further $112.80 in printing and binding costs.
He had asked for $15,000, but current tenancy laws restrict compensation to a 12-month period.
