Skip to main content

Tribunal case packs

End-of-tenancy + arrears tribunal cases are the #1 disputed category in AU residential PM. The reason agencies lose them isn't the merits — it's the paperwork is weak. PMFriend's case-pack assembler is the biggest "I can't go back to PropertyMe" feature on our roadmap.

The before-and-after​

Before PMFriend​

Sarah's principal asks her to put together a VCAT pack for a chronic arrears + property damage tenant. Sarah opens PropertyMe and starts scrolling. She copy-pastes maintenance request dates into Word. Cross-references work-order numbers manually. Tries to build a timeline that matches what the principal wants to argue. Realises there are gaps in the records — some maintenance was done off-system. Re-builds the timeline from emails. Time to assemble: ~4 hours, and the pack is full of human-introduced errors.

After PMFriend​

Sarah goes to Case packs → Assemble pack, picks the property, sets a 6-month date range, picks "Rent arrears + termination" as the case type, types a paragraph of background. Hits Assemble pack.

8 seconds later: a chronological Statement of Facts with every maintenance request, work order, and tenant interaction listed in order, each with an exhibit reference. A relief paragraph asking for termination, possession, and bond release. A prominent legal disclaimer. Time to review: ~12 minutes. Sarah edits one section, copies the rest, takes it to the principal.

What's in a case pack​

When you assemble a pack, PMFriend produces:

A multi-paragraph Statement of Facts​

Written in factual prose, AU English. No marketing language, no emotional framing. Just: this happened on this date, that happened on that date, here's what was done about it.

"On 23 April 2026 at 10:30am, the tenant submitted a maintenance request via the app reporting a burst pipe under the kitchen sink. The request was triaged as PLUMBING / EMERGENCY (exhibit MR-8b278900). Watertight Plumbing Pty Ltd was dispatched the same morning under work order WO-bda130a0. The repair was completed within 4 hours at a final cost of $380."

A chronology​

A bulleted timeline of every event in the date window, oldest-first, each with a precise timestamp and an exhibit reference.

Exhibit list​

Numbered references — MR-abc12345 (maintenance request), WO-def67890 (work order), IR-xyz99999 (inspection report). Each is a real ID that exists in your database, so a tribunal member can trace anything cited back to source data if challenged.

Relief sought​

A pre-formatted paragraph appropriate to the case type:

  • Rent arrears + termination — termination of tenancy, possession order, bond release in part / full, recovery of arrears.
  • End-of-tenancy bond claim — itemised claim against the bond for damages, with each line item justified by exhibits.
  • Damage claim — recovery for damage above fair wear-and-tear.
  • Failure to repair — defending agency action where tenant alleges inadequate repair response.
  • Termination dispute — defending agency action against tenant's challenge to a termination notice.
  • Other tribunal matter — generic frame for one-offs.

Every pack ends with:

"This is a draft case pack only. Verify all facts, exhibit references, and statutory citations before submitting to a tribunal. PMFriend is not legal counsel and assembling this pack does not constitute legal advice."

How the AI is constrained here​

The case pack is the most legally-sensitive feature in PMFriend, so the AI is told some hard rules:

  1. The chronology is the only factual basis. The AI cannot invent events — every line in the timeline maps to a real database row.
  2. No statutory citations it can't justify. Where uncertain, the AI uses generic phrasing ("under the Act") rather than naming a specific section number that the PM hasn't verified.
  3. Verify before submitting. This is in the disclaimer, on the page above the disclaimer, and in the footer of every email containing the pack.

If the AI is unavailable for any reason, a deterministic fallback produces the same chronology + exhibit list with template prose. The factual content is unchanged.

Real-life impact​

Three concrete benefits we've seen agencies talk about:

  1. You stop losing cases on paperwork weakness. Tribunals look at evidence quality. A clean, chronological, exhibit-referenced pack beats a rambling oral history every time.
  2. You stop avoiding hard cases. When the prep cost is "Sarah's afternoon", you defer. When it's "8 minutes of computer time", you take the case to tribunal sooner and the situation resolves faster.
  3. Your principal stops being the bottleneck. A junior PM can prepare a draft pack in minutes, the principal reviews + signs off in 20 minutes — instead of the principal spending 4 hours building it themselves.

What's not included​

  • Advocacy / submissions / written representations. PMFriend doesn't write what your tenancy advocate will say in the hearing. The pack is the evidence file — the advocacy is human work.
  • Legal advice. PMFriend is not your lawyer. Read the disclaimer.
  • Photo evidence in the pack. Photos referenced in the chronology are listed; embedding the actual images into a court-ready bundle is a follow-up feature.

Going deeper​