The uninvited visitors - more specifically, allegations they had entered the property through damaged heating ducts - were behind one of a litany of complaints the tenant later made against her landlord.

She took the landlord to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, asking that it order the man compensate her more than $4800 on six grounds.

She was only partially successful.

In a decision published earlier this year, the tribunal ordered the landlord pay the tenant a total of $154.50 for delays in various repairs.

The woman had rented the Palmerston home in August 2016.

But she alleged there were problems, and in April the next year the woman made a claim for compensation for the landlord's alleged delay in repairs to the heating ducts.

A few months later she announced her intention to end the lease, which the landlord accepted.

But the landlord said he would hold $120 from the bond to fumigate the place when she left. The woman had kept three cats and that was a condition in the lease.

But she challenged him on that, saying her cats "don't have fleas", and there was nothing about a flea infestation in the final report.

The dispute over the bond was sent to the tribunal but before it was settled, the landlord chose to release the $120.

The saga did not end there.

In August, the tenant made an application to the tribunal seeking compensation for various delays in repairs.

One of six grounds was about the birds.

The woman argued that she had been entitled to compensation as she waited for repairs to the ducting, through which she had alleged the birds got in.

She said she had not been using the heating during the day to stop more birds coming in.

Over the next few months four tradespeople came to the property and made minor repairs.

But one person inspected the ducting and found there was no damage, meaning the birds could not have entered that way.

They also reported that the vents were too small for a bird to come through.

The tribunal said it was not convinced they had come in through the ducts.

"How the two birds came to be on the floor of the dining room remains unknown," the tribunal said.

It also rejected a claim for delay to repairs to the ducted heating, after the woman said there had been a lack of hot air coming into the lounge room.

The tribunal further declined to compensate her following allegations the property had not been clean enough when she moved in, and as a result had to spend two days cleaning.

But the tribunal did award $16 for what was a "minor breach" in the delay in fixing a dining room blind, which the woman had said meant people could look into directly into the living area.

The woman had also claimed for the delay in fixing the alarm system.

She argued that as a single person, living alone, the security alarm was important and that she should be compensated for the lesser security.

The tribunal accepted that the alarm needed to be repaired but found that it was not urgent. It awarded the tenant $80 for the delay.

It also awarded $38 for the delay in providing keys for certain doors and windows and, $20 for the delay in servicing the ducted vacuum cleaner.

The landlord was given 28 days to pay.