Carta v Tilley (No 2)

[2019] QDC 235

DISTRICT COURT OF QUEENSLAND

CITATION:

Carta v Tilley (No 2) [2019] QDC 235

PARTIES:

PAUL CARTA

(plaintiff)

v

CHRISTOPHER TILLEY

(first defendant)

and

CLARE LEONIE TILLEY

(second defendant)

FILE NO/S:

BD3878/19; M0055820/17

DIVISION:

PROCEEDING:

Civil Trial

ORIGINATING COURT:

Magistrates Court at Brisbane

DELIVERED ON:

29 November 2019

DELIVERED AT:

Brisbane

HEARING DATE:

4 November 2019

JUDGE:

McGill SC DCJ

ORDER:

Plaintiff’s claim dismissed.  On counterclaim, judgment that the plaintiff pay the defendants $2,690.04, including $650.04 by way of interest. 

CATCHWORDS:

LANDLORD AND TENANT – Tenant’s obligations – whether particular damage responsibility of tenant – whether some rent payments made – bond recoverable.

Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 s 188.

COUNSEL:

S K Long for the plaintiff

C Upton for the defendants

SOLICITORS:

Celtic Law for the plaintiff

GTC Lawyers for the defendants

1. The defendants were, prior to 14 April 2014, tenants of the plaintiff in a flat in Vulture Street, South Brisbane.  By this action the plaintiff claims $7,300.00 unpaid rent from the defendants.  The defendants dispute that this is owing, and alleged by counterclaim that there has actually been an over-payment of rent, which they claim, and that the plaintiff has failed to refund a rental bond of $1,400.00 paid to the plaintiff in cash at the start of the tenancy.  The plaintiff alleges that he was entitled to forfeit the bond, or at least most of it, to cover the cost of repairs to the front door of the unit after it was damaged by the police breaking in during the tenancy. 

1. The proceeding started in the Magistrates Court at Brisbane, and came to this court in the circumstances outlined in my earlier judgment, dealing with an appeal against an order that the proceeding be transferred to QCAT.[1]  After I allowed that appeal,  I was concerned that, if the matter was simply returned to the Magistrates Court, the parties would be put to further delay while the matter worked its way through the system again, and, with the consent of the parties, transferred the matter to the District Court under the Civil Proceedings Act 2011 s 26(1) and listed it for hearing before myself on 4 November. As a consequence, it became the last civil trial that I conducted before my retirement from this court.

   [1][2019] QDC 186.

1. It is common ground that the defendants rented a flat at Vulture Street from the plaintiff in 2007, having previously rented other premises he owned next door.  The rent was $350 per week, and never changed. There was a bond held by the plaintiff of $1,400.  Initially payments were made in cash, but from June 2011 were made by direct deposit to the plaintiff’s bank account, until the defendants left the premises on 14 April 2014.  At the time they left, the defendants were behind in their rent. 

The plaintiff’s case

1. The plaintiff said that the defendants did not regularly pay the full amount of rent as required; it was paid in different amounts, and at…