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If you’re a renter living in Victoria, you’ve probably heard of VCAT – they’re folks who resolve disputes between landlords and tenants.
At Anika, we strive to provide all our clients with personalised, online legal support that is 100% free. Whether it’s getting repairs done or negotiating a payment plan to help you catch up on late rent, most of our cases result in a successful outcome – however, sometimes things don’t always go as planned. And that’s where VCAT comes in.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) is a tribunal (less formal than a court) that resolves legal disputes in Victoria. VCAT is different from CAV (Consumer Affairs Victoria), who is a consumer issues regulator but does not have the power that VCAT has to make decisions and rulings.
Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) are the government body who give general and trusted information to renters without being in a position to 'intervene' or make decisions about who is wrong or right.
CAV has inspectors that can look at your issues, determine whether they require repair by the rental provider and produce a report that you can use to assert your rental rights. They can also handle complaints about rental providers, and provide rent increase assessments.
Generally, people go to CAV to get an 'inspection' of the repairs they need carried out. CAV then decides if a repair is urgent/non-urgent/non-existent. From there they will provide an official report which can be used as very compelling evidence for VCAT (who ultimately have the power to make more binding orders).
CAV can also provide rent increase assessments if your landlord has issued you with a Notice of Rent Increase, and you think the increase is too high.
The VCAT Residential Tenancies Division deals with matters involving:
VCAT can help with
VCAT can't help with
What to expect when you contact VCAT
You can visit the VCAT website for more information.
Anika is a free online legal service for Victorian renters. If you or someone you know could use assistance with repairs, we want to help.
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