Blink Property Qld v Barnett

[2024] QCATA 71

QUEENSLAND CIVIL AND
ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL

CITATION:

Blink Property Qld v Barnett [2024] QCATA 71

PARTIES:

BLINK PROPERTY QUEENSLAND

(applicant/appellant)

v

DAVID BARNETT

(respondent)

JEANETTE BARNETT

(respondent)

APPLICATION NO/S:

APL004-23

ORIGINATING APPLICATION NO/S:

MCDT276-22 Caboolture

MATTER TYPE:

Appeals

DELIVERED ON:

3 July 2024

HEARING DATE:

12 June 2024

HEARD AT:

Brisbane

DECISION OF:

Member Howe

ORDERS:

Leave to appeal refused.

CATCHWORDS:

APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL – APPEAL – GENERAL PRINCIPLES – RIGHT OF APPEAL – WHEN APPEAL LIES – where tenants pursuant to a residential tenancy agreement claimed the bond from the lessors agent – where the bond had been paid out some years earlier by the RTA at the request of the agent to an unknown account – where there was limited evidence before the Adjudicator about the circumstances of payment or the unknown account – where the application to the RTA by the agent to pay at the bond was made midway through the fixed term tenancy – where the tenants were long-term tenants in the property for over 9 years – where oral evidence by the tenants that they had not received the bond was accepted – where fresh evidence was sought to be adduced without application beforehand – where the fresh evidence was not considered on the application for leave to appeal

Pickering v McArthur [2005] QCA 294

APPEARANCES & REPRESENTATION: This matter was heard and determined on the papers pursuant to s 32 of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (Qld)

REASONS FOR DECISION

1. The appellant acted as real estate agent for a lessor of residential property at Caboolture and Mr and Mrs Barnett were the tenants.

2. The lessor gave notice to end the tenancy in 2022 and the tenants asked for return of their bond paid at commencement of the tenancy in the sum of $1,560. The Residential Tenancies Authority (‘RTA’) advised they only held a bond of $40. The RTA said the rest of the bond had been paid out on 13 July 2018.

3. The tenants filed an application in the Tribunal for minor civil dispute – residential tenancy dispute against the agent claiming, amongst other things, the amount of $1,520, the amount missing from the bond. They claimed they had not received the money.

4. The matter came on for hearing before an Adjudicator and the Adjudicator ordered the agent to pay the tenants the sum of $1,550.70. The agent seeks leave to appeal that decision.

5. Given this is an appeal from a decision made in the Tribunal’s minor civil dispute jurisdiction, leave to appeal must first be obtained before any appeal proceeds.[1] 

   [1]Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (Qld), s 142(3)(a)(i).

6. Leave to appeal, where leave is required, will usually only be granted where an appeal is necessary to correct a substantial injustice to the appellant and where there is a reasonable argument that there is an error to be corrected.[2] 

   [2]Pickering v McArthur [2005] QCA 294 [3], cited with approval in Parr v Queensland Police Service [2021]…