Summary of What's Happened So Far
Due to all the wonderful folks visiting this site, emailing, calling us, and otherwise getting in touch with suggestions and support, we thought we'd sum up all that has happened so far - lay the process out on the table as a resource for others.
It must have been about two or three weeks after our last 6-monthly rent inspection when, last Monday April 24, we received a notice to tenants suggesting that we had breached our tenancy agreement by altering the garden without the landlord's consent, and more specifically in causing a loss or damage to the property, in that we had replaced "approximately 70 percent of lawn and put it under intensive permaculture with associated ponds and mulch supply." The notice stated that our options were either "restoring the lawns to their original condition and having ponds and mulch supply and rubbish removed. or pay me $2100 compensation" (this amount having been quoted to them by a gardening contractor as what it would cost to “use a mini excavator to remove all vegetation, mulch and plant remains, re-level existing surface, re-sow with grass seed”). The notice then stated that if we "do not comply with this notice," "the landlord may apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for a compensation or compliance order; or, if S249 applies, may give notice to vacate."
A few days later we sent out an email to pretty much everyone we could think of, sharing the issue, requesting support and ideas and letting people know about the open day we are planning for Sunday May 7 to share our garden, raise awareness of issues of this type and if necessary to raise any funds needs to resolve this matter. Read a PDF of that email here.
In that time we also spoke with the Victorian Tenancy Union who were very supportive and gave us useful advice (to be added shortly). One thing that was clear was that we needed to formally respond to the landlords before the 14 days was up.
Accordingly, yesterday, Friday April 28, we sent a letter of response (using registered mail) to the landlords, acknowledging the notice and stating our wish to cooperatively reach an alternative solution agreeable to all involved. After setting some context with several considerations we thought relevant, including what we've done to the garden, our agreement that we have added to the premises without the landlord's consent, the issue of whether what we've done is arguably not a "loss or damage," and our need for clarification of whether we could keep living here with the garden if the $2100 was raised, we suggested two proposals for their consideration and feedback.
Our first proposal was working together in close consultation with (and regular visits from) the landlords to evolve the garden towards a low-maintenance food-producing garden based around perenial trees and shrubs. This would ideally address the landlord's concern about the garden being a possible disincentive to prospective future tenants, while enabling us to continue living with the garden and leaving behind us what we consider a considerable improvement over lawn and agapanthus. As an extra incentive for this proposal, it being our preference, we expressed how happy we would be to allocate the landlords a weekly or bi-weekly share of the garden's food current surplus (yum! who could resist that!).
Our second proposal was that of honouring our prior verbal agreement with the landlords that we would take the garden and topsoil with us when we left and, in the words of the Residential Tenancies Act Section 64(2)(a) "restore the premises to the condition they were in immediately before the installation, renovation or addition, fair wear and tear excepted." Actually, we have already had one person with an agapanthus surplus who can help on that front!
We asked that the landlords get back to us within a week (by Friday May 5), which would let us know what their approach will be prior to our open day on May 7, which in an ideal world will be a celebration of some solution worked out between us and the landlords.
In the few days since we let people know about this matter, we have had much appreciated statements of support coming in, along with some great suggestions for how the issue might be resolved in the most positive way for all involved. We are collecting all these and plan to eventually post them (omitting all personal details unless the sender lets us know they're happy to be identified as the warm, supportive person they are!). It is kind of surreal how fast and how far the message has gone, with people phoning in from Western Victoria, Brisbane, and people leaving comments from overseas! There has also been a fair bit of interest in attending our upcoming open day. We were especially touched by the response of Nelson Campos, president of local community group Codemo when we asked if they would like to participate in our open day: "You can count on full support from all members of Codemo - we support permaculture and we support our friends."
All interested folks are invited to join us here at 16 Thomas Street Clayton from 12 noon - 5 pm on the afternoon of Sunday May 7th to celebrate suburban permaculture, to highlight the question of whether tenants should be able to grow their own food where they live, and, if necessary, to raise funds towards saving our garden and reaching an amicable resolution with our landlords. We're still working out the exact details (we've no shortage of ideas), but we are currently thinking garden tours, a South American food stall (and knowing CODEMO members probably some salsa dancing), a poetry reading, an auction, a talk entitled "The Living Soil: Making the Invisible Visible," a screening of the documentary "The End of Suburbia," music of some kind (any volunteer bands out there?) and related fun along these lines. We also welcome any group interested in edible gardens, sustainability, food security or permaculture to come and have a presence. There will be plants for sale, wheatgrass juice to drink and brand new baby chicks to cuddle. We're personally inviting our whole street (and of course our landlords) and looking forward to a fun day sharing our place with the community. Finally, we are also thinking of taking the advice of many who have been in touch and maybe contacting a few local newspapers to see if they might consider coming along to cover the event. We would be just delighted if this day could contribute to raising wider public awareness and debate about the issues involved.
Okay, it must be time to get outside and pick some lunch, so thanks again for all your support, and until the next update (we will try to post something at least daily and are doing our best to reply personally to all emails!).
All our best,
The Thomas Street Crew
Adrian posting off our letter of response yesterday.
