A south coast Aboriginal council will not have to pay for repairs to a property it has leased to a man since the late 1980s after it won an appeal on Wednesday.
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The dispute, which has wound its way through Canberra's courts and tribunal, surrounds a home on a 403 hectare parcel of coastal land the federal government gave to the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council in 1986, with the intention of creating a self-contained and self-regulating community.
On the land is Wreck Bay village, which is comprised of a number of homes and administration buildings and community amenities.
The properties are owned and managed by the council, and the homes are leased to council members and their families.
In 1989, the man involved in the dispute, a member of the Wreck Bay council, entered into a lease with the council to rent the property.
He paid rent of $35 per week for 12 weeks but has not paid any rent since, and the council did not pursue payment.
The man lives on the property with his family.
Over time, the house fell into a state of disrepair, and the man lodged an application in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal asking it to order the council fix-up the home.
The council challenged the application, and the dispute wound its way through the tribunal and the ACT Supreme Court, ending with a hearing before a full bench of the Court of Appeal.
Ordinarily under ACT laws, which also apply to Jervis Bay, a landlord who has leased a residential property must keep the property in a state of reasonable repair.
But the federal law that gave the land to the Wreck Bay council, which also gives the council the power to grant leases, also says any ACT law will apply to the land only to the extent it is capable of operating concurrently.
At the heart of the dispute was a question about whether the two sets of laws were capable of working concurrently.
More specifically, the issue was to what extent the power of the council to lease property under the Commonwealth grant of land is subject to the ACT tenancy laws.
A full bench of the ACT Court of Appeal, comprised of Chief Justice Helen Murrell, and Justices John Burns and David Mossop, allowed the council's appeal from an earlier decision of the ACT Supreme Court.
The judges found the tenancy laws were not capable, in certain respects, of working concurrently with the land grant law.
The effect of the court's decision is that the council will not have to foot the bill for the repairs.
It was a win for the council, but the appeal ruling does not address the question of who is ultimately responsible for the maintenance of the properties, which are now about 30 years old.
The federal government funds the council, and it also receives income from the lease and use of Booderee National Park - which the council owns and leases back to the government.
