Dear All,
My family and I are shocked by the level of Corruption & Misconduct within Victorian Government Departments (Dept of Housing , Victorian Ombudsman and VCAT). My family and I are very good Public Tenants (my Son has a disability Autism) but since our very valid complaints against Two Dept of Housing Problem Managers, we are experiencing discrimination, Maladministration and reduction in essential services by the Dept of Housing. The manner in which the Victorian Ombudsman and VCAT Mishandle our complaints is nothing short of Appalling Misconduct and Corruption. We are uncovering a deepset Lack of Integrity, Lack of Accountability and Lack of Transparency within each of these Government Departments, Laws need to be changed to Protect Public Housing Tenants but Also the General Public.
It is the job of Victorian Ombudsman to make the Dept of Housing staff accountable for their actions, but they have done nothing to resolve our complaints
- Dept of Housing are Discriminating against us and have stopped sending Automatic Rental Statements. Their policy states that Tenants are to receive statements every three months.
- Dept of Housing Refuse to send us an Account Reconciliation despite our numerous requests,which is also against their Tenancy Management Manual.
- Dept of Housing Breach the Residential Tenancies Act by Not maintaining our premises in good repair, No programmed works in Fifteen Years and also (leaving a 24 year old window lock faulty and unsafe (we had to replace it, and VCAT ordered Dept of Housing Reimburse us and 5 years later Dept have Not reimbursed us, leaving an old gas stove faulty (unsafe) and not servicing in 5 years, not repairing Storm damages in Years, ETC.
- Rude and Confrontational Dept of Housing Staff
- There are more complaints but they will exceed this page.
Until The Victorian Ombudsman Act 1973 is corrected, Vic Ombudsman staff will not bother to do their jobs properly. A report (full of errors) came back from a "Junior officer" at the Ombudsman office who stated she will not investigate our complaints. She got all the facts wrong. We escalated this to her manager who replied "Sorry but we have limited resources" The Law states that the Victorian Ombudsman decides whether to make enquiries or investigate complaints (two different things), when we ask for the details of the responses by the Dept of Housing to the Vic Ombudsman, the Vic Ombudsman refuse to provide this information as they state that the Victorian Ombudsman are not subject to Freedom of Information. So where is Transparency to allow us to correct Department of Housing Inaccuracies and Misleading Statements???
As for VCAT, from our experience they take the Cake for Misconduct and Corruption. In our last Tenants Application to VCAT against the Department of Housing, Senior Member completely Left Out of the Final Written Reasons all the repairs that the Dept of Housing were Requested to do by Consumer Affairs, also VCAT Senior Member convenientely left out most of our vital evidence, he also made numerous Errors for eg "Big hole in the roof finally filled after days instead of Three and a Half Years".
Our Family again have taken the Dept of Housing to VCAT but we are currently experiencing, Biased Members which we requested be Disqualified, also No fair hearing, No impartiality and gross Misconduct. VCAT have Prevented Three persons we Summoned into VCAT which is vital evidence to our case (One being the Junior Vic Ombudsman Officer who made nothing but errors in her report). All the Best to you All. mariem888
