VERTO CEO, Ron Maxwell, today officially opened VERTO’s South West Tenants’ Advice Service office in Goulburn.
Mr Maxwell said he was pleased to welcome representatives from a number of local Goulburn businesses to a morning tea to celebrate the opening of VERTO’s new office at 155-157 Auburn Street (located in the same building as the Mission Australia Employment Solutions office). “We are proud to offer free tenancy advice to tenants in Goulburn, Queanbeyan, Cooma, Jindabyne, Crookwell and Yass,” Mr Maxwell said.
“We are the only tenancy advice service based locally that offers free advice to tenants in Goulburn and surrounds.
“VERTO’s team of eight trained tenancy consultants across New South Wales (NSW) help tenants to understand their rights and responsibilities, provide free confidential telephone advice, arrange consultations, and represent tenants at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
“We relocated our South West Tenants’ Advice Service office from Queanbeyan to Goulburn in March this year, and we are really pleased we have continued to achieve some great results for tenants across the combined regions,” Mr Maxwell said.
From January to May 2014 Miranda Robertson, VERTO’s tenancy consultant in Goulburn, provided 169 tenants with advice, represented 61 tenants at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, made 39 referrals to other support services, resolved 47 tenancy related disputes through mediation and saved 32 tenancies from termination across both Goulburn and Queanbeyan. Ms Robertson has also helped to return over $17,000 in compensation owed to tenants.
“We are proud of the service currently being offered by VERTO and the outcomes being achieved for tenants in the Goulburn area by Tenancy Consultant, Miranda Robertson,” Mr Maxwell said.
Mr Maxwell also said that VERTO’s free tenancy advice service is also available to all residential tenants living in and around Albury, Bathurst, Orange and Wagga Wagga. VERTO also provides outreach to cover all residential tenancies in South West NSW. “From January to May this year, our South West Tenants’ Advice Service as a whole provided over 1300 tenants with advice, represented 378 tenants at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, made 305 referrals to other community services, resolved 64 tenancy related disputes through mediation and saved 64 tenancies from termination. “This is an outstanding achievement over a five month period. These numbers reflect real lives that have been positively influenced by our service across South West NSW."
“I would like to thank the Goulburn community and our local partners for supporting our service.
“I look to forward to hearing about more good outcomes that have been achieved for tenants in Goulburn and surrounds,” Mr Maxwell said.
The South West Tenants’ Advice Service is funded by the NSW Department of Fair Trading, which uses monies from the Rental Bond Board and Property Services Statutory Interest accounts.
