Staff members from South Australia’s consumer affairs agency, Consumer and Business Services (CBS), are soon to be meeting former tenants around the State to reunite them with bond money they were entitled to but didn’t claim when they changed addresses.
CBS said that every year it refunds millions of dollars in bond money to tenants who have ended a lease, but some people don’t receive their money.
“For a range of circumstances, approximately $19.2 million has remained in the system,” CBS said.
‘Thousands of current and former South Australian tenants will soon be contacted by South Australia’s consumer affairs agency as part of renewed efforts to reunite them with their unclaimed bond money,” it said.
The Service said that to help make it easier for people to re-claim the money, the process was streamlined last year for people to check whether they had outstanding bonds.
It said as of now, when historic bonds remain unclaimed, and contact details are available, CBS will contact tenants directly to encourage them to apply.
“The conventional wisdom is to ignore unsolicited emails or text messages telling people they are owed money, and this still remains the case,” CBS said.
“But staff from CBS will be contacting people via text and email to advise them that there may be an unclaimed bond in their name,” it said.
“While people still need to be cautious, we encourage them to check the website if they have been tenants in a rental property at any stage.”
CBS said the messages would not ask for personal banking details or other information and won’t ask people to click a link.
It said they will simply be advising people to check the CBS website to see if money is outstanding.”
To find out if you are owed money, contact the CBS at this PS News link.
