Tenant short-pays rent, annoys his landlord

Tenant short-pays rent, annoys his landlord

Is that even legal though?

Person holding silver round coins
Person holding silver round coins/Pexels

Making sure that your basic amenities are paid for as soon as you receive your salary is a must. 

And more than that, making sure it is paid in cohesion with what is owed is of vital importance.

But it seems not everyone practices that rule.

An Australian landlord has taken to Facebook to express his dissatisfaction when it comes to his tenant. 

He said that his tenant consistently underpays his rent by 1 cent every week. 

So, the landlord, who decided to remain anonymous, asked his peers in a Facebook group for advice on the matter. 

"Apparently, the rent was set at AU$ 1,200 per week, but the person living in the house only pays AU$ 1,199.99. With 52 weeks in a year, it hardly seems like a massive loss for the tenant, but they claim to be losing their mind over the situation and are asking for advice in order to keep their sanity." (Oddity Central)

via GIPHY

The landlord shared how the property being rented out is a family home. They have been renting it out for the past four years. 

The new tenant is three months into their twelve-month lease and has started to short-pay the rental by 1 cent. 

The landlord shared his frustration with dealing with the tenant's deliberate disrespect and so his wife advised him to email the tenant to find out what's happening. 

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"In their reply, the tenant explains that they are merely respecting the rules they had found on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) website regarding the rounding of transactions.  They state that sums between 1 and 9 cents can be rounded up or down, and that they are doing nothing wrong by paying 1 cent less in rent." (Oddity Central)

The tenant went on to say that he is well within the law and considered himself paying the rental in full. 

He also firmly asked the landlord not to contact him again about this matter and went on to ask the homeowner about "some much-needed repairs".

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