Another attempt at communication

We have just sent the following letter to the landlords, via the agent, and hope to receive a response from them....

We are writing to acknowledge having received a copy of your application to VCAT, and to request once again an opportunity to get together with either yourselves or (name omitted to protect privacy of agent) to discuss and resolve this matter informally and amicably.

As a way of indicating our commitment to this resolution, we wanted to let you know that we have a third proposal we invite you to consider and give us your thoughts on (see below). Our understanding is that your concern is what will become of the garden when we leave. We hope you'll find that this option would give you the peace of mind of knowing that when we leave we will leave the garden in a state acceptable to you.

We would greatly appreciate your getting in touch, either directly or through (name omitted to protect privacy of agent), to let us know what you would like to see happen by way of working this out. We're sure you agree that the sooner we can all put the matter aside and get on with our lives, the better!

Respectfully yours,

Cat Moore

Adrian Wedd

Dan Palmer

Proposal Three

We raise and set aside in a dedicated third-party bank account an amount that we, as permaculture designers, estimate would be required to 'reverse engineer' the garden prior to terminating our tenancy: To carefully remove the plant systems we have set up, and to leave the garden in a state acceptable to you, be that bare lawn, or, we sincerely hope, something more productive and ecologically sound (while at the same time low-maintenance, aesthetically pleasing). Here, rather than the plants we have lovingly tended becoming landfill, the plants would go both to the food gardens of our gardening friends in the local community and to our own future garden or gardens. In addition, the process would be carried out with utmost care and respect for the land upon which the garden currently stands.