Property Manager tried to illegally evict us by faking an 'owner moving in' after denying our kittens! (Victoria, Australia)

​I need some advice on how to handle my current property manager/agent, Shae in safety beach Victoria. The situation has become completely absurd, and I feel like I'm being bullied out of my home.

​I’ve been living in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with my best friend, Sam, who is the primary tenant of 2yrs already.he was helping me, I moved in to help split costs after an emergency and we decided to get two rescue kittens. Everything seemed fine, but here’s where the circus began:

​we let the agent know I was living there and she demanded I be put on the lease. We submitted the paperwork.

​She then demanded that we submit “application forms” for the two kittens, which we did.

​Shortly after, she denied my application and the kitten applications, claiming the owner believed the apartment didn't have enough space to house Sam, myself, and two small cats!

​I pushed back on this, pointing out how ridiculous that claim was for a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment. The very next day, Shae completely shifted gears and served us a formal 90-day Notice to Vacate, claiming the owner was moving back in. She even included a witnessed Statutory Declaration from the owner stating they were moving from Wangaratta (3 hours away)and they were moving in with their family. (4 adults)

​Knowing a bit about Victorian rental laws, I knew this looked highly suspicious—switching from "it's too crowded" to "I'm moving in" the moment I challenged their first excuse screamed retaliation. I sent them a firm email laying down the law, pointing out that my 12-month fixed-term lease wasn't up until May 2027 and that kicking a tenant out early under those terms is illegal without strict evidence.

​Here's the kicker: The agency completely panicked. Within hours, they called us up and retracted the Notice to Vacate entirely, claiming it was just an "administrative error" and asking us to just go back on the lease as normal.

​Now, we’ve found out from previous employees of hers that the "Statutory Declaration" from the owner was actually in Shae's own handwriting, and we seriously doubt it was produced legally under the timeframes given.

​So, I sent another firm email laying down some final terms, demanding our tenancy be strictly respected and asking for compensation to cover our eventual removal costs & for the extreme stress, as well as an ironclad positive rental reference for the future.

​Shae responded, trying to use a previous polite email against me where I accepted her apology as being the end of it, and threw in a thinly veiled threat that if we take this further to Consumer Affairs or VCAT, it might negatively impact our rental reference.

​Has anyone dealt with something this underhanded before? We are currently planning on reporting this whole mess to Consumer Affairs Victoria, because faking a Statutory Declaration and threatening someone’s rental reference feels like a massive breach of trust, if not outright illegal. What would you do in this situation?