ChatGPT Is Fuelling Tribunal Claims - Landlords Must Get Ready

If you’re a DIY landlord, dreading the day your tenant takes you to the Tenancy Tribunal with a 50-page complaint courtesy of ChatGPT, there are a few things you should be doing now to prepare.

Firstly, expect your tenants to already be using it - LLMs like ChatGPT are enormously helpful when it comes to interpreting tenancy legislation. We’re bracing ourselves for the most informed generation of tenants in history.

However, what’s proving rather problematic is the growing number of tenants who are using AI tools to inflate small issues and then escalate them directly to the Tenancy Tribunal. 

This is turning the Tribunal into a dumping ground for frustrations that could (and should) be resolved at a far lower level.

How did we get here, you ask?

Well, we got here because we were all handed a tool that made us feel very knowledgeable and very powerful, very quickly. Naturally, we all experimented, including tenants. What was a useful tool then became a mechanism to hide behind and use to gain advantage.

And now the system is clogged, with serious claims from tenants buried in the slop and no efficient mechanisms to afford them priority.

A complaint that once took the Tenancy Tribunal 20 minutes to assess now arrives as a 12-page document filled with assertions, dates, legal language and compensation claims. Every point still must be checked against the tenancy record. Every repair request, inspection note, email, invoice and phone conversation may need to be reviewed.

In time, the Tribunal will get faster at weeding out claims lacking in substance and evidence, but in the meantime, it’s important to remember the Tribunal looks for evidence, proportionality and whether the legal threshold has actually been met.

AI might make a weak complaint from a tenant sound strong on the surface, but it can’t create evidence that doesn’t exist. 

Having a sophisticated system for pulling data from inspection reports, maintenance logs, rent records, email trails, contractor invoices, photo evidence and documented processes is becoming increasingly important. 

At Lodge City Rentals, we’re investing heavily in this area but rather than using AI as a weapon to fight back, we’re using it more as a filter for clarifying misunderstandings and helping find workable resolutions.

Relationships are still central to what we do, but acting as a professional intermediary adds real credibility.

If you’re a DIY landlord still thinking you can’t afford a property manager, the question you should consider is can you afford not to?