The Tenancy Tribunal found Rebecca Jane Allcock required tenants to enter into prohibited transactions relating to clauses in tenancy agreements, failed to lodge bonds, and did not supply the required insulation, healthy homes and insurance statements with tenancy agreements.

The Tribunal heard that a property management company run by Ms Allcock entered into tenancy agreements to lease four properties which were then sublet to tenants on a room-by-room basis. 

In February 2022, a Compliance Officer from Tenancy Services started a proactive audit into properties managed by the landlord. In June 2022, a referral was made to an investigator in the Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT) following concerns that the landlord had breached the provisions of the Act. TCIT conducted investigations into multiple properties managed by the landlord, including the four which are relevant to this application.

In October 2022, the landlord advised TCIT that she did not accept that she was a landlord for the purposes of the Act, as the tenants were in a flat sharing arrangement. However, in a decision made on 14 June 2024, the Tenancy Tribunal found that Ms Allcock did not reside in any of the premises as she had claimed and therefore was required to meet her obligations under the Act.

The tenants signed tenancy agreements that contained multiple clauses that contravened the Act such as the parties agreeing not to lodge the bond. In addition to this, Ms Allcock was found to have committed unlawful acts by not providing the required insulation, Healthy Homes Standards (HHS) and insurance statements in the tenancy agreements. 

The adjudicator, Hannah Cheeseman, said there is a public interest in holding landlords to account and ensuring that the safeguards built into the legislation to protect tenants are upheld.

“She was put on notice of concerns the Tribunal had as far back as 17 September 2021, and encouraged to seek legal advice. The landlord chose not to do so, instead choosing to use the Act when it suited but deny jurisdiction when it did not.

“Being a landlord is a business. Business operators have an obligation to know the law and to ensure that their business practises comply with the law."

TCIT National Manager Brett Wilson said that landlords cannot simply ‘opt out’ of the Act that they are covered under. 

“Being a landlord means you have an obligation to be aware of and comply with your responsibilities under the Act, it is there to protect both landlords and tenants to ensure people are able to live in warm, dry and safe homes.” 

Rebecca Jane Allcock was also issued with a 3-year restraining order by the Tenancy Tribunal to prevent future breaches of the Act from occurring.

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