Many bonds that went into dispute during Covid are still unresolved, leaving some tenants waiting on thousands of dollars.

Kelsie Gaffey is a Melbourne-based tenant and has been waiting for a resolution on her bond for nearly two years after her $1200 was withheld in February 2021.

Some tenants in Victoria have been waiting two years for their bonds to be returned. Picture: realestate.com.au

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After leaving her rental during Covid, her landlord claimed bond as he said she had not been paying per calendar month.

"I moved into a rental with a private landlord. This was my first rental and there were some discrepancies on the initial agreement that they had sent me which we hadn't noticed.

"The payable rent was listed as $900 per month payable on the 14^th of each month," Ms Gaffey explained.

"When I gave notice to vacate, the landlord claimed that I was supposed to be paying rent per calendar month, which was not noted in the initial agreement. Because of this, he said he was keeping my bond as unpaid rent."

However, Ms Gaffey said that when she went to VCAT to dispute the case, she found out her landlord had never lodged her bond.

"We wrote to VCAT and they made him lodge my bond, but since we have both disputed it, it still hasn't been released or gone into a hearing..apparently there's a 12-24 month backlog," said Ms Gaffey.

"The situation is unfair as it causes stress for tenants moving into their next place. A bond can be a large sum of money to a tenant and to have to sacrifice that for a two-year period can be really stressful.

"The situation is then made worse by having no idea as to when we will be eligible to have a hearing in the first place."

Concerned about your rental situation? Here are three steps to getting your bond back.

Read more about your rights as a tenant.

No solution in sight

Agata Wierzbowski, director of client services at Tenants Victoria said Ms Gaffey's story is a common one at the moment with tenants waiting at least 12 months to as long as two years for a hearing date in Victoria due to Covid backlog.

"We’ve had renters repeatedly tell us that they’ve been waiting far too long for a bond dispute and compensation claim hearing to take place," she said.

There's no end in sight for Victorian renters waiting on their bond. Picture: Getty

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"The length of time being taken to resolve bond disputes, let alone get a timely hearing, remains a real sore point for renters here in Victoria."

Ms Wierzbowski said that despite VCAT implementing a pilot mediation service for backlogged bonds and compensation rental matters at the start of 2022, the results have no yet flowed through.

"On the ground level we have not seen yet the significant improvement we’d like to see in wait times for a hearing in these type of tenancy matters. It’s an ongoing challenge that needs to be addressed."

As the cost of living and rental prices increase across the country, many tenants, especially those on low incomes, need their bonds back in order to move into a new home.

While Victorian tenants are most impacted by the long wait times, tenants in other parts of the country are not impacted at all.

"We haven't seen a significant change in time taken for bonds being returned in NSW. There have been very significant delays over COVID in Victoria and while there were disruptions, in general, NSW didn't see the same sort of delays," said Mr Leo Patterson Ross, CEO of Tenants Union NSW.

"From the Rental Bond Board statistics in NSW, I can't see any indication this has slowed - they're showing over 99% of claims within that 1 business day.

"In our Bond Loss Tracker which uses open data released from the Rental Bond Board, we can see that across the state 63% of bonds were returned in full to tenants in the 12 months to the end of September."

The bond release process

If you're new to renting it's easy to be overwhelmed by the process but you don't need to be. Here's what happens:

1. Tenants give written notice

Once written notice has been given that the tenant intends to vacate the property the end-of-lease process kicks into gear.

2. The property's condition is inspected

Both the tenant and landlord assess the condition of the property upon vacating.

If the rental is up to standard then they lodge their agreement and the Rental Bond Board release the bond within one business day.

3. If the property doesn't pass the inspection

If one of the parties doesn't agree, then either of them can put in a claim for what they believe should happen.

The other party then has 14 days to put in an application to the tribunal or the original claim will be paid out.

At the tribunal stage, a decision will be made as to who receives the bond money, or part of the bond money. However, Mr Patterson Ross said it's rare for it to escalate to this stage.

Tenants in NSW are not as impacted by the lengthy waits as they are in Victoria. Picture: Getty

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"In NSW, less than 2% of bonds released go through the tribunal. For non-eviction matters, the tribunal has an objective of resolution within eight weeks for 80% of matters.

"For 2021-22 they met the eight-week target in 69% of matters, but it's hard to know how much longer these cases went than the eight weeks, or if they were about bonds at all.

"Around 6% of landlord applications and 42% of tenant applications to the Tribunal are about the return of the bond. Though it's worth noting that landlords make three times as many applications as tenants do."   

Read our how to rent guide for more information on the rental process.