Eviction notice help required Sydney

tower08

Hey lads how's it going, just looking for a bit of help or advice after being served an eviction notice this morning after moving into our new property in Sydney!

Basically we just signed a short term lease yesterday for a house in the eastern Suberbs. The lease was to run until the end of January.
It was through a letting agency who was subletting properties for UNSW (university of Sydney). The property belongs to UNSW.

We signed the lease yesterday evening at 5.30pm after our applications had been accepted and moved into the property around 7.30pm.
Yesterday morning at 11.20am before we had signed the lease we were sent txts saying there would be an landlord inspection of the house the following morning after 9am. We asked about this in the afternoon when signing the lease an was told this didn't apply to us as we were just moving in and they told us there would be an inspection every 2wks with 24hrs notice.

This morning when I was at work my flat mate said a woman called at 9.15 to inspect the property after we were told there wasn't an inspection in the first place but anyway She came before the required 24hrs notice as we didn't get notification of inspection until 11.20 yesterday.

She came back with a letter of termination of lisence agreement as it was found we had been smoking in the premises an they had a strong suscpicion marijuana had been used on the property. There was two ash trays an a smell of smoke from cigarettes fair enough like but surely this is a bit harsh after being in the house less than half a day and not given adequate notice of inspection.

We have been given 48hrs notice an must be gone first thing Monday morning. We were told we couldn't ring them about the issue , only written correspondence allowed. We are getting our security deposit back but not the weeks rent we paid for in advance.

Is this notice of eviction arguable and legal? Fair enough if we got a warning an a fine or something but this seems very harsh. They told us constantly before we moved in that any party's an we'd be thrown out an never mentioned anything about smoking but it was in tho lease so we took a chance, stupid I know.

Just looking for some advice as don't want to be homeless for Xmas in Sydney!

sponge_bob

card board boxes and newspapers are very much sought after items by the homeless community because of their insulation propeties.
see if you could organise a shopping trolley from a supermarket aswell be foreyou get too dishevelled looking, very handy for putting your stuff into and gathering your tins and cans in.:)
Happy Christmas...


in reality i suppose you could argue the fact that the earliest possible time for an inspection would have been 5:30 ie. 24hrs after signing the lease.
but you did break the rules within a few hrs of setting foot in the place, and smoking in a place where there is supposed to be no smoking is a big deal, smoking just stinks the house out. so i think they have a pretty valid point tbh. as for being a bit harsh after being in the house less than half a day, from their point of view what way will it be in a weeks time if you lot keep breaking the rules like this.

myflipflops

Did your housemate let the women into the house when she arrived for the inspection or did she let herself in? Did you keep a record/have proof of the timing involved?

It doesn't look to me like you have much of a case here. I don't have too much sympathy either, breaking a pretty important condition of your lease on the first day was a pretty poor decision.

I'd start looking for a new place.

tower08

We have proof of timing from txt messages, phone records etc.
She left herself into the property..

But ya I know, our own fault really and pretty stupid in fairness. We have another place to move into now in another area already so were not too bad but just really wanted to stay where we are.

They said we would of got a warning if it was one of their own properties but as it belongs to the university is why they have to be so strict!

Lesson learnt now anyway!

Pisco Sour

Pretty idiotic to go smoking marijuana on your first day staying in somebody elses premises. A bit inconsiderate. I have no sympathy.

tower08

04072511 wrote: »

Pretty idiotic to go smoking marijuana on your first day staying in somebody elses premises. A bit inconsiderate. I have no sympathy.

I don't take any drugs and I work on a government job where I get regularly drink and drug tested. I said they suspected us of it not that we actually did.

castie

Usually places make it very clear that theres no smoking.

If this was the case then you have blatantly broken the terms of the lease and damaged the property in my opinion.

I know if I went to look at a place and it smelt smokey I wouldnt even consider renting it.

Mellor

The elase stated that there was no smoking.
You were smoking.

You breached the lease.

You haven't got much of a leg to stand on really.

amybabes

I'll be in my apartment 2 years in March and I've had 2 inspections in that time.

Inspections every 2 weeks would be such a pain in the ass!