Broken Ceiling Fan, who pays?

Tenant reports that one of the ceiling fans has broken- one of the blade arms "broke off by itself" while it was on, hit the wall and caused a small dent. Now I find it highly unlikely a fan blade arm would "break off by itself", more likely one of the kids has thrown something into it. Replacement fan is $350, who is responsible?

 

Yep. Property owners responsibility.
Welcome to the wonder world of property ownership, where stuff breaks randomly and you wear the costs

 

Landlord responsibilty but you can try and argue it through the bond at end of lease.

 

Here ya go, this stops the blame game....

Tell tenant all fans are now banned from use due to WHS and well being of all, end of problem.

Seriously, I would ask, do they really need it ? I would also ask for some close up photos.

 

Usually the blades are held on by 3 screws. Why not just replace the blade? .....and have a look on gumtree for a second hand fan - they're usually cheap.

 

I think he was saying put the blade on the existing fan

 

No, The metal arm holding the blade has snapped off, tenant has emailed a pic of it. No way it would snap off by itself, someone has hit it for sure. Can't see anyway to fix it beyond buying a new fan. Having said that I could replace it myself quite easily as just swap out the blade housing for a new one, no electrical work needed.

On a separate incident with this tenant- 5 months ago when doing a property inspection we discover the front and rear glass doors broken, we ask the tenant what happened and advises us the police broke in as they had a report of someone self harming although tenant claims she was away for the weekend and no one was home at the time. This happened weeks before we discovered it as tenant did not report it.

Spoke to police who partly confirmed her story but due to privacy reasons would not tell me the full story of what happened suffice to say "she left out some details". Tenant tells us the police would replace the glass but police tell us we should seek payment from tenant, which we did but she refused to pay and made a complaint to the police minister. Anyway we got the glass repaired last week and police inspector indicated he will try and get approval for police to pay invoice, although I'm not really hopeful.

Given we can't get the police report and hence the full story and police confirm she is not fully disclosing what occurred I'm again inclined to think the tenant is responsible for repairs. Thoughts?

 

It's not a standard el cheapo fan, and the rooms all have matching fans so need to replace it with same one again, luckily they still sell them (only 3yrs old).

 

Probably not given there is aircon in the room in question. Her lease is up for renewal in a few weeks, if she leaves I'll be looking to deduct the new fan cost from her bond, along with the glass repair.

 

What do you mean "if" she moves out? I'd be searching for a new tenant already.

 

Plucka, after you have finished filming the next installment to:-



let your tenant know that the owner will be moving back in in at the end of the tenancy and that it will be time for them to go...

 

It took you 5 months to replace some glass doors?

If you take the bond and the tenant goes to tribunal - good luck.

 

Well it took the tenant nearly 3 months to notify us of the damage, we had no idea until we did an inspection. Then there was weeks of back and forth between tenant, us and the police over what happened and who would pay, which is still unresolved, but we went ahead and fixed it anyway.

 

Very generous of you. I look forward to seeing you on ACA.

 

I would agree with Xenia and Dave, speak to tenant first, even if you cant push them for comp then at least try to get them to remedy.

 

Normally the attending tradesperson can indicate on the invoice the diagnosed cause and solution. Surely that can then be used to pass the cost onto the tenant...