Property agent Dee O’Connor (pictured) was slammed by the administrative tribunal for falsely claiming a renter was hoarder
A Sydney property manager who once slammed governments for not doing more to tackle the homeless crisis falsely accused a renter of being a ‘hoarder’ before trying to evict them.
The tenant of the Pyrmont apartment, Ryan Anderson, represented himself at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal which last week upheld a previous order in his favour that more than $2,600 in ‘excessive’ rent be repaid to him.
The dismissed appeal was over an October 2023 ruling by NCAT in which senior member Philip French described the behaviour of property manager Dee O’Connor of Little Real Estate as ‘vindictive’ after Mr Anderson complained his oven didn’t work.
Mr Anderson had tried for three years to get a faulty convection oven and dimmer lights fixed and eventually complained to NSW Fair Trading.
Ms O’Connor then wrote to the agency saying that during a routine inspection with a colleague and three tradespeople a few days earlier, Mr Anderson had been ‘rude’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘made them feel unsafe’.
‘Due to the tenant being passive aggressive in nature, no pictures were allowed to be taken.
‘I believe this is due to the hoarding where he does not wish for anyone to be privy to the situation unfolding.’
But Mr French said in his ruling: ‘The detailed response Ms O’Connor provided to NSW Fair Trading displays considerable animus towards the tenant and attempts to portray him as passive aggressive, obstructive, threatening, and as a hoarder’.
‘I am satisfied that these allegations are false and malicious. They are an attempt to characterise the tenant’s reasonable assertion of his rights as various forms of abuse from a person with a psychological problem.’
Mr French described the response as ‘vindictive’ and ‘childish’ and said her behaviour was ‘deplorable’.
Mr Anderson was issued with an eviction notice shortly after his complaint to NSW Fair Trading.
Ms O’Connor has previously advocated that more should be done to reduce homelessness, saying that her native Ireland could learn a lot from Finland about ways of ‘assisting people to keep their homes.’
Ms O’Connor previously advocated more should be done to help people ‘keep their homes’
A tenant in an inner Sydney apartment building in Pyrmont (pictured) has been awarded $2,600 in ‘excessive’ rent charged by a landlord amid a three-year-long dispute
According to court documents, Mr Anderson first made a complaint after a new convection oven was fitted in the apartment in 2020 that he said could not reach 200 degrees and ‘does not become hot enough to cook anything’.
He also complained about non-working lights which were eventually replaced with LED fittings that failed to work properly because of the unit’s dimmer switches.
Mr French said both of the issues were a breach of the landlord’s duty to keep the property in a reasonable state of repair.
With the two issues still not fixed by May 2023, Mr Anderson contacted NSW Fair Trading and the following month he was given an eviction notice.
Mr French said the notice was ‘retaliatory’ and that the landlords, Vince and Patricia Fimmano, used their ‘superior title in the property to defeat the tenant’s legitimate right to repairs’.
They were ordered to pay more than $2,600 in rent deemed ‘excessive’ because of the property’s unaddressed maintenance issues.
Mr Anderson was also awarded $112.80 in printing and binding costs to prepare his case.
Daily Mail has contacted Ms O’Connor for comment.