Hi all, I have just been hit with an $800 bill to replace the glass in a sliding door. The PM has said that the tenant does not know how the glass got damaged. The repairer has said that it looks like the glass has been hit with possibly a stone. The PM has also said that because the damage was accidental, that the tenant is not responsible to pay for the damage. I would be interested to hear others thoughts on who is responsible to pay for this damage ?
You are going to get a wide range of answers. I say that unless you can prove that the tenant did something stupid, or was mowing and a stone flew into the door, that it is going to be you who pays. A tenant isn't going to own up to doing something stupid or even the mowing incident. And it likely isn't worth claiming on insurance. Depending on your excess, you will pay most of it anyway, and then you have the problem of risking that you will have to face an increased premium next year. (I'm not sure if all insurers do that?)
Glass breaks on its own, I've had it happen in my own home with both a sliding door to external and an oven door. Unfortunately our legislation says tenants are innocent til proven guilty.
In QLD tenants are responsible if the damage is accidental or malicious however as Wylie stated above, it is difficult to prove, I guess unless it is clearly in writing from the tradesman as to how the damaged occurred, again though, glass is particularly hard to determine the cause of breakage at times!.
