Victoria rent relief grant

PChinna on 08/09/2020 - 07:28
Last edited 08/09/2020 - 08:13

Hi,

Due to financial hardship I have applied for Victorian government rent relief grant. After arranging the rent reduction with my agent/landlord, my request for rent relief grant has been approved last week. However, it takes 14 days to deposit in my real estate agent account.

Government website states that "The payment will be made directly by the Department of Health and Human Services to your landlord or real estate agent as a credit towards your rental payments. The grant should be treated as a deposit amount to the rental balance and has the same effect as if you had made a rental payment." It also says that" The grant should not be used as a top-up for the landlord to make up the difference between the previous rent and the reduced rent agreed as part of a rent deduction."

From these two sentences I understood that the grant amount should be considered as my rent for coming months (up to $3000) and I no need to pay any rent to landlord.

Even after referring these messages to my real estate agent, still she is asking me to pay the reduced amount. I'm not sure if she is thinking (she may be correct also) that rent relief grant amount is compensate landlord's loss due to reduced agreement.

Here is the link for Government website:

https://www.housing.vic.gov.au/help-renting/rentrelief
Do I need to pay rent as per new agreement? Am I missing anything?

I also read on the same website that "If there is a credit at the end of a tenancy it should be credited back to the tenants as legislation requires." However, this message is missing after recent update. Is it still valid? ( If I get a job and if it demands to move to a new place).

I will appreciate your advice on this?

Regards

General Discussion

Comments

  • whooah1979 on 08/09/2020 - 07:56
    +1

    Please link the whole policy instead of snippets.

    • PChinna on 08/09/2020 - 08:13

      Hi, link is updated in description

  • ThithLord on 08/09/2020 - 08:08
    +3

    The REA is trying to pull a swifty. They're scum. It's a deposit to your rental balance, as such you won't need to pay rent until that $3000 has run it's course.

    • [Deactivated] on 08/09/2020 - 13:53
      -4

      Please stop the personal attack of the agent, its not required.

      • ThithLord on 08/09/2020 - 15:07
        +1

        Yeaaah, nah

        • [Deactivated] on 08/09/2020 - 15:38
          -1

          I feel personally attacked now, and i have reported you.

      • thatguyfromthatplace on 10/09/2020 - 01:35
        -1

        You've never had to deal with an REA, have you.

        • [Deactivated] on 12/09/2020 - 19:02

          Well done, earned yourself a report to the tribunal. Why are you so mean?

  • bobbified on 08/09/2020 - 08:53
    +4

    The $3000 is your money, but it gets paid directly to the real estate agent towards your rent (the reduced rate, not the original rate!)

  • popsiee on 08/09/2020 - 08:57

    All the landlord's here will love the US situation of banning evictions for the rest of the year :)

  • Serathis on 08/09/2020 - 09:03
    +3

    It is not on top of your rent. It should be used to credit your reduced rent.

    Say it was previously $1,500 a month.
    You negotiated with landlord and agreed to a new reduced rent of $1,000 a month, for 6 months.

    The $3,000 is to credit into the agreed reduced rent of $1,000 a month for 6 months (essentially $6,000)

    Therefore you will only pay $3,000 to landlord for the next 6 months; the $3,000 from CAV will be paid directly to landlord.

  • dbui8743 on 08/09/2020 - 09:16

    Mind if i ask how long it took to get approved for your application?

    Thanks,

    • PChinna on 08/09/2020 - 14:51

      4days

  • Candour on 09/09/2020 - 17:31

    ring the govt dept and seek advice on how to proceed and let the agent know you rang them

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