Taking tenant to court

[heavyduty1340]

I own a small commercial building in my Super fund - we leased it out to a bloke who basically fucked it and I had to evict him.

I want to take him to court for some money - does anyone know if I can do it as a "Minor Claim" through the local court or do I have to do it some other way. As my super fund has coped a flogging recently I cant afford to hire a lawyer for it. He probably owes approx 8 or 9 k in rent.

[mr_mike]

i may be wrong but isnt small claims court $10k max

[Douche Bag]

^Yup and you have to self represent anyway. Costs $77ish?
Just note it takes forever.

I'm still fighting my case...

[cplagz]

Can you provide any more details? Recovering owed rent can be difficult, but if you had a "make good" clause in your lease and he caused damage beyond fair wear and tear you might be able to get some money quicker.

[heavyduty1340]

He did approx. 2k damage

Part of the initial lease gave him cheap rent in exchange for installing a reverse cycle a/c (he was using the shop to sell A/Cond) - the install is an absolute fucking mess and needs to be redone.

Rent owing is approx. 8k

Im happy just to get my 8k back and fix the damage etc myself

Had a very good lease drawn up but just want to avoid lawyers fees for the amount owing.

Cheers mate

[thrtytwo]

fingers crossed for you mate, but these things don't tend to favour the party that's out of pocket very often, at least not with out a lot of perseverance.

[c4fgt]

10k is worth lawyering up.

[TurboHead]

I have taken a residential tenant through court and won (9k) but it does take time (months)... Best advice - always be prepared with evidence, receipts etc, be calm and measured and hope the other guy behaves like a dick. Magistrate will get tired of their crap and hand you the win.... Just be prepared to accept $30 a week as payment.....

[heavyduty1340]

I'll take anything I can from the arse wipe.

He has ripped a few other locals off as well.

I will lodge the paperwork today if I get time.

Approx 6 yrs ago, I used this system to get some money from a rich Indian Pub owner down here - It was 5k, and when I gave him the bill the pingpingpingping tried to barter and offered me 3k saying it was all the job was worth - fuck you curry head. anyway, it took about 6 months to go to court, and he didn't turn up, but is manager did. The femle magistrate asked where the owner was, and why he wouldn't pay the bill. The foolish manager said the owner was off fishing for the day, and just didn't want to pay the bill.

Had to arrange a new date, and try to get the owner to turn up - this took another 3 months - once again the owner didn't turn up so we proceeded to court - 3 month delay, once again only the manager turned up. He couldn't defend his boss, and actually had enough of his crap, so he conceded - magistrate awarded me the win, and asked if I had any questions - I thought I'd be cheeky and ask for compensation for lost time for myself and 2 of my staff that were witness's because of this - she asked me to give her a figure - I plucked 2.5k out of my arse, and she rounded it up to 3k and gave them a week to pay.
3 or 4 days later the manger dropped check off, and also told us he had quit his job.

The pingpingpingping of an indian ended up fleeing the country last year after his little group of hotels went broke.