The Block Australia 2022’s Rachel and Ryan Carr have received a small payout after a dispute with a real estate agent.
The Blockheads (currently competing in the show’s 18th season) was awarded $760 by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) after submitting a claim of negligence against Assured Real Estate director Britney Kraus.
According to News.com.au, the couple originally sought $5,392 due to unclaimed rent; however, they only received a portion of the funds.
“The parties agree there was a signed managing agency agreement,” the tribunal said in its findings.
NCAT did not pay the full amount because the “amount of rent owed is not in dispute”.
“The dispute is whether the respondent [Kraus] was negligent in their services provided to the applicant [the Carr’s] and failed to ensure the applicant had current landlord insurance and provide adequate services to mitigate the applicant’s rent loss,” NCAT said.
The report also found that the tribunal was “satisfied by the respondent’s failure to notify the applicant of the lapsed insurance notifications” and that the agent “had not acted with due care and skill and breached the guarantees provided by the Australian consumer laws in its services to the applicant.”
Why Did NCAT Only Award Rachel and Ryan a Small Amount?
While it was a small win, NCAT found that Kraus was not negligent “in their services to the applicant by failing to take any recovery action against the tenant during the tenancy”.
“The tribunal does not find any breach of the Australian Consumer laws by the respondent in their failure to take recovery action against the tenant on behalf of the landlord.”
In a statement to Newswire, Kraus said she had discussed the matter with Ryan, who said he did not wish to pay the insurance policy.
“We, therefore, did not pay his policy,” she said.
Kraus and her agency are now subjected to strict compliance monitoring after at least 171 complaints have been made by tenants and clients since 2017.
And, as reported by The Daily Telegraph, the realtor has generated at least 91 complaints, including ten between February and June 2022.
“A majority of the people that made a complaint to our office had their complaint dealt with and then after we dealt with their complaint, still made a complaint directly with Fair Trading,” she told the outlet.
Kraus and her agency were ordered to pay a penalty of $4400.
So Dramatic! has reached out to Ryan and Rachel for comment.
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