He pays his rent with 1 cent less and drives his landlord “crazy”
In real estate, a trifle can quickly irritate one or the other actor. This is the story of a clash between a tenant and a landlord. The facts take place in Australia. There, the rents are most of the time paid weekly and not monthly as in France. The tenant pays his rent but deducts a penny of Australian dollars. A derisory amount. But the facts lastsince several weeks“, reports Yahoo News.
According to the contract signed by both parties, the tenant is supposed to pay a rent of 1200 Australian dollars, or around 740 euros, per week for a…More That is the equivalent of almost 3000 euros per month! Instead, the tenant pays AU$1199.99. A shortfall of a penny that knocked the owner out of his hinges. “There’s something to go crazy about“, he testifies. So much so that the landlord created a group on Facebook to seek advice from other landlords. “I’m asking for your help on how to deal with a tenant who is obviously having fun at my expense.wrote the owner who affirms that “there have been no major problems in the past“. We are now at 3 months of rental, on a 12 month lease“.
Reparations at the origin of the grievance
For him, the gesture is deliberate “because before he (the tenant) paid the full rent“. But then, what prompted the tenant to no longer pay the exact amount? In response to an email from the annoyed landlord, the tenant replied that he was only applying the rule set by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the equivalent of the Repression of Fraud in France. This is as follows: if payment is made by check or credit card, which appears to be the case in this case, “there is no need to round the total value of the transaction“. Therefore, why not have applied this rule before? If the rent was fixed in writing at 1200 dollars, this measure does not hold. Unless the tenant can argue that the landlord rounded the rent in the lease.
The reason for this gesture judged “pettyby Internet users would undoubtedly be linked to a grievance between the two parties. Because, in the same message, the tenant added that the accommodation would require several repairs: “the linen closet door creaks», «the cold water tap in the kitchen has too high a pressure” or “the air conditioner duct in the second bedroom makes noise“. In return, the owner replied that he would not renew “obviouslynot the tenant’s lease which ends next February.
In France, the law provides that a tenant cannot decide, on his own, to pay part of the rent due or to stop paying it, “even if the owner does not carry out work for which he is responsible“. Only the judge can decide to temporarily block the payment of rent (excluding charges) to the owner, pending the resolution of the conflict. Non-payment or partial payment of rent and charges may result in termination of the lease by the landlord and eviction of the tenant, unless the latter is not involved.
