Background of the Notice

Blackacre Associate Lawyers,

PO Box 205

Brisbane.

11^th March 2022. 

Mr. & Mrs. Bligh,

3 Sigh Lane,

PO Box 4243,

Brisbane

Dear Sir & Madam

Re: Notice For Repair And Mowing Of Property Pursuant To Tenancy Agreement.

Hello, we are acting on behalf of our client (Mr. William Singh) who happen to be the landlord of the property that you are currently staying. The following issues have been brought to our attention based on the complains that have been issued by our client in regards to the conduct that you as his tenants have exhibited while residing on his property that is deemed to be a violation of the tenancy agreement signed between you and our client.

1. Failure to mow the property as agreed in the tenancy agreement.
2. Expanding the door crack damage and failure to repair the damages to make the property to be in a habitable condition as it was prior to renting the apartment.

The two violations amount to a breach of tenancy agreement pursuant to the residential act and therefore, failure to adhere to the provisions of the act provides the landlord/service provider with a right to apply to the tribunal to seek termination of the agreement on ground of excessive hardship whereby as tenants, you have failed to adhere to the agreement. Your actions of extending the cracks at the door is deemed as a violation of section 18 of the law that gives tenants the obligation of not to maliciously damage the property or allow any other person to damage the property as underlined in Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, Section 377 and supported by cases such as Leach v Thomas [1835] and Warren v Keen [1954]. Further, it’s a breach of provision of this section under subsection 2 which requires that tenants should ensure that they keep the premises and its inclusions as clean as possible and have a regard to the conditions that the property was in prior to them resuming their tenancy. That is, the duty to mow the surrounding and keep the property in a good state is your responsibility as tenants and failure to do this as its claimed you have been ignoring is a breach of the act which bind your tenancy agreement as shown in section 188 (2)(3) of the act.

The fact that our client has been informing you on the need to repair the property but you have failed to honor the requests is deemed as a breach of the tenancy agreement and as a result, this should not be encouraged as you are breaking the binding agreement hence creating room for legal suits to follow. As a result of the two incidences, we have taken over the issue on a serious note and therefore, we are issuing you with a maximum period of 7 (Seven) days to comply with the tenancy agreement requirements or we issue notice to remedy breach (Form 11) which will initiate efforts to terminate the tenancy agreement by forwarding the issue to the tribunal with our client holding that your tenancy agreement should be suspended or cancelled on grounds of breach of tenancy agreement and subsequent destroying of the property without taking any necessary steps to repair the glass pane whose crack has been widened an indication of damaging of the client property.

Having communicated these issues, we are urging you to take this issue seriously and consider making the necessary adjustments within the 7-day period offered or risk cancellation of the tenancy agreement on ground of breach of tenancy agreement provisions as enshrined in the aforementioned act. We look forward for continued collaboration and goodwill in implementing the recommendations that we have offered within reasonable time.

Best wishes,

Bill.

(Blackacre Lawyers). 

From: James (Associate Supervisor)

To: Mr. Bell.

Date: 12^th March 2022.

Subject: Amendments And Changes Enacted In The Letter.

Hello, having gone through the proposed letter that you had drafted for dispatch to Frank and Caroline, have made some changes to the letter which are deemed to be necessary to make the letter to be ethically correct and within the confinement of the law and be in an official line. First of all, I can say that the letter is okay but not to satisfactory levels. I urge you to revise it and take note of the following changes for future use in legal writing for such cases whenever they arise.

1. Make the letter official by writing the law firm logo and other official credentials such as post office and contact address so as to make the letter to look formal and also, address the respondents in an official manner to maintain register and ensure that they will not feel offended with the titles given in the letter even if they have breached the tenancy agreement. An official letter commands certain respect and attention as compared to less formal letter. Therefore, the letter should be modified to have an official command that can enable the letter to be embraced with respect by the respondents who have been targeted by the letter.
2. Start the letter by highlighting the issues involved and further, describe to them in a brief statement why your intervention has been sought and what repercussion exist for such a breach of tenancy agreement. By informing the receiver of the letter what they have breached, they will be able to connect the dots and understand the consequences of their breach to their tenancy in the property will amount to. In so doing, the respondent of the letter will be in a position to understand what violations they have violated and how such violation is likely going to cost them in terms of their tenancy in the property.
3. Outline to the respondent the various law act breaches such as section 377 that they have engaged in and how such breaches can amount to having them held responsible. It’s in the same juncture that you will outline to them the consequences of such a breach as provided in the law.
4. End the letter with a note on what remedy exist if they would like to amend the breach. Give them a realistic time to amend the breach and sign off the letter in an official capacity with signature and rubber stamp with conclusion statement which will show them that the letter is authentic and official instead of the previous offered letter which appeared like a note.
5. In regards to writing to a client who has failed to honor an agreement with your client. First of all, it is important to inform the other party that such a letter does not amount to legal suit but, it is a letter made to inform the other party of the purpose that the letter will serve to their case intervention and it is not meant to compel the party to the agreement who has failed to comply to the agreement in any way. As a result, therefore, room should be provided for necessary adjustments to be done which will offer a sense of direction by telling the parties what they stand to lose from the contract if it fails to be implemented in accordance with the law.
6. First of all, there is no point of giving the respondent a period of seven days to pay if they have not been allowed adequate time to raise their claims as to why they are not honoring the deal of making the environment to be a habitable as they found it to be when they rented the facility. Therefore, in future make an effort of first of all allowing the respondents time to respond to the claims that were raised so as to determine the root cause of the problem and on whether they can be allowed more time or they can be allowed to engage in further discussion with the landlord to rectify the compound.
7. At times, there must have been differences between the parties that eventually resulted into the dispute to break between the parties and therefore, often make an effort of seeking out of court settlement first by calling upon the parties to allow out of court settlement of their cases and in an event that they fail to acknowledge the out of court settlement then now you can consider forwarding the case further to the court to hear and deliberate on the case presented. Therefore, first of all make a habit of allowing out of court settlement of the case failure to which you can now make an arrangement of forwarding the case to the court of law after mediation has failed to take effect.

I hope you will take these issues into considerations and improve in future how you respond or draft legal letters to maintain professionalism and official tone. Moreover, do not operate with an assumption that the other party is to blame without first of all getting facts from both parties and then use the information generated to ascertain whether the accused is indeed acting in the wrong path or not.

Yours sincerely,

James (Associate Supervisor).

Reference List

Leach v Thomas [1835]

Warren v Keen [1954] 1 QB

Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, Section 377

Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, Section 188 (2)(3)