A landlord in Kensington has received back, for the third time this year, a notice to vacate he sent his tenant, not through ignoring it, not by disputing it through VCAT, but by returning it unopened inside a hand-cut timber frame with a small brass plaque reading the date it was issued.
Chris Varga, who owns a two-bedroom terrace on a side street off Bellair Street, began proceedings to end the tenancy in February after what he described as a build-up of minor disputes, including a rent increase the tenant, Tom Riordan, successfully disputed in writing, twice. Mr Varga said he has since sent three separate notices, each one compliant, he insists, with the required notice periods under Victorian renting law, and each one has come back within a fortnight in a frame.
"The first one I thought was a joke," Mr Varga said. "The second one had actual joinery in it, like proper mitred corners. The third one, the one from August, had a little spotlight built into the frame that turns on with a sensor."
Mr Riordan, 29, a furniture restorer who works from a shed behind the property with the landlord's prior written permission, said he has no comment on the tenancy dispute itself beyond what VCAT has already ruled, but confirmed he considers the notices "a found-object series" and has begun lending the most recent one to a small gallery on Bellair Street for a group show opening this month, titled, according to the show's printed program, Notice.
The gallery's owner confirmed the piece has attracted more inquiries than anything else in the show, including two from people asking whether it is for sale and one from a law student asking to photograph the wording for a tutorial presentation. Mr Varga said he was not consulted about the exhibition and only learned of it when a friend sent him a photo of his own signature, laminated, under gallery lighting.
Mr Riordan remains in the property. Mr Varga said he intends to issue a fourth notice once he has taken further advice, and has asked, for the first time, that it be returned to him "in whatever state he likes, just not framed again," a request Mr Riordan has not yet responded to.