VIC Advice - Missing Flush Button

Hi,
In the recent annual inspection report for my Investment property, I was advised that the Main Toilet flush button was missing. The tenants advised that a plumber had done some work on the toilet and taken the button away and never returned. The tenants have attached something they can pull, to use the flush.

I asked the agent to check the records for any Plumbing work done and the last one was around 2017.
The previous annual inspection report did not mention anything about a missing button. So it appears that this may have happened in the last 12 months.

So I asked the agent to organise it to be fixed. The Agent has provided the quote from the Plumber. The Toilet brand(Imperial) is no longer manufactured and while there are third party flush kits available to retrofit, they do not recommend.
Their recommendation was to replace with a new toilet. Quote was around $500 fully installed and removing the old toilet.

I've looked online and can source the genuine Imperial Flush buttons for between $60-100. But I don't know if that's all that is required and it can just be attached easily.

The Third party Imperial Flush kits with new buttons cost $190 + Labour charges to retrofit.
So replacing the Toilet Suite is the most practical long term approach.

What I still don't understand is who called the Plumber to attend to the Toilet. What was the issue and why was the agent not contacted? If the tenants have organised their own plumber to do some work and the toilet flush button has gone missing, who should be responsible for the $500 cost?

As a Landlord, I have always attended to all maintenance items promptly. However in this scenario, I would expect the agent to get more information about how the situation happened. Instead they only seem to focus on the remediation and getting the toilet replaced. So I am getting frustrated with the agent.

Am I being unreasonable in asking for more information on how the situation arose? I still don't have a clear picture. What's to stop the tenants from getting their own tradesman to do something and cause further issues that I am expected to remediate.

Appreciate your feedback.

Thanks in advance.

 

Clearly the tenants are lying. No plumber in their right mind would just 'take away' the button.
If they did, tenants would have complained long ago.
I would hold the tenants responsible.
They will need to 'reasonably' fix the issue. You may not be able to make them get a new one, but can negotiate to pay a share of it.
@Lil Skater may be able to advise here.

 

Not sure how there's anywhere near enough information to determine this.

 

well, landlord mentioned they have not summoned any plumber to the property since 2017. I would be really surprised if the tenants lived with that since 3 years.

 

And that's part of my frustration with the agent. I would expect them to get all the facts. Instead I'm having to prompt them. The best thing would be to pick up the phone and speak to the tenants to get the facts of the situation and how it came to be. i.e. The Agent's job.

 

Random coincidence, but the ensuite toilet to my own bedroom hasn't had a flush button for more than 3 years.

And I haven't even rigged anything up to make flushing easier like the tenants apparently - I have to pretty much reach into the cistern and pull the mechanism up manually.

Yeah you can ask, and I probably would - but I'm not sure what you're expecting to get. Some kind of story that's going to be inherently implausible? I doubt it.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the last annual inspection report missed the issue too, so its going to be pretty hard to figure out what happened separate from what the tenants say happened.

 

The quote for the replacement is in the normal price range ,and that would be the simple way going forward tax wise ,otherwise you are just going to waste your time trying to find who did what,myself I would be more worried about the water bill..imho..

 

I’m confused as to how it happened too, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the agent just missed it and the tenants didn’t bother to report it for a while until they were home for the inspection. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for more information.

 

I would just get it fixed and if possible up rent by $10 to cover it if you're really worried about money

 

It could be worth considering to ask the agent to ask the tenant, when the plumber attended, who they were and if they would provide a copy of their invoice, given that the agent has stated that a plumber has not attended since 2017, and wait for the response.

It might be assumed that the plumber, if any, wasn't from St Vincent de Paul Plumbing, so there may be a good chance that there is a paper trail.

 

Check out Bunnings - if you get a toilet from them it’s about $300 to install.

Plus cost of toilet. Is it a p trap or s trap?

Alternatively, get a second hand Imperial toilet off gumtree for the parts - there’s a couple - with buttons - for $30 and $100 for sale now.

 

This question might seem obvious but has the tenant actually asked for a new button/it to be fixed? If the toilet still works and they've been using it fine then they might be happy enough to do so - especially if they have something to do with the button disappearing.

I think if the toilet still work and the tenant is happy enough then I'd leave it.

It's unclear from the original post if it's just missing or the tenant requested it to be fixed.

 

Good point. It will just need to be fixed at the next tenant changeover.

 

A replacement CISTERN only can be as low as $60 depending if its plastic or china and brand etc. You dont need to replace the loo + cistern in 99% of cases. depends on model. Only real flash ones would be non-modular.
You could get lucky at a plumbing specialist like Reece but I bet they will ask if you have the button !

Other than that I'm flush out of ideas.

 

Yeah this is a real bummer of an issue.

 

I think you need to push the agent to find out what happened to the button, it's ridiculous that they wont investigate the issue.

Also, is there any reason you can't just replace the cistern?