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Residential Tenancies Act 1997
37Entry for eviction purposes
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37 Entry for eviction purposes
(1) A person must not enter premises or any part of premises of which
someone else has prescribed possession for the purpose of recovering
possession of the premises or part except in accordance with a warrant
issued by the registrar, an order or a warrant of the ACAT or an order
or judgment of the Supreme Court.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), if a person enters premises in contravention
of subsection (1) (the offender), the ACAT must, on application,
order the offender to pay to the person who had prescribed possession
of the premises the compensation that the ACAT considers
appropriate.
(3) In considering how much compensation is appropriate for
subsection (2), the ACAT must consider whether the lessor
reasonably believed that the premises had been abandoned by the
(4) If an offender mentioned in subsection (2) is not the lessor but is
acting on behalf of a lessor with the lessor’s consent, the ACAT must
make any order for compensation that it would otherwise have made
against the offender against the lessor.
(5) For this section, the following possession is prescribed:
(a) possession under a residential tenancy agreement;
(b) possession as a former tenant continuing to reside in the
(6) This section is subject to section 61A (Lessor may enter premises to
confirm abandonment).