Getting out of lease due to broken asbestos.

Hello all,

About 4 months ago my wife and 3 month old baby moved into a rental in Concord.

The tiled roof on the front veranda has a leak and has made a huge hole in the fibro right above our front door due to the water leak. The plaster board may or may not be asbestos. The house would be about 1940. I have complained about this multiple times and nothing has been done. It is at the point were fibro is falling daily on our front door mat.

Also our lease states that we have a car spot at the back of our property with access via a shared driveway. We are the front house of a battle-axe sub-division. The neighbour at the back refuses to allow us access and such we have no were to park.

Are these issues enough to negotiate our way out of the lease while keeping our bond? We would like to move anyway and the main road out the front is nosier than expected.

Thank you for any input.

 

Answer is "possibly".

You should get some more specific advice from a tenancy advisory service - have you tried that yet?

 

I was reading about tenant rights in Qld yesterday and tenants up here can breach the landlord. Have you read the relevant info for your state? A well-worded letter to the PM, with appropriate quotations, might get the repairs done or the matter resolved.

 

Park your car in the shared driveway and block the back neighbour.
The neighbour sounds like a piece of work.

 

No I wouldn't let you out of lease, a contract is a contract.

Asbestos issue - Give the owner opportunity to repair first

Carpark issue - try discussing with neighbour first, see if PM can assist. If its their tenant as well, they could breach for parking in wrong place

Main road issue - you know about that before you moved in

 

The asbestos type of fibro is pretty waterproof.

It is unlikely to be falling down daily. It may not even be asbestos.

Can you post a photo or two?

 

Send the material off for testing.

We had a contractor cut through some asbestos when installing vents.

Cost him and us heaps to avoid any potential action. For us it was free rent and relocation costs. For the contractor it was temporary accom and specialised cleaning.

 

Here is a picture of the damage.

 

You can't really use anything to negotiate out of a fixed term lease.
Some landlords shoot themselves in the foot by allowing tenants out of contracts. I would strongly advise my clients not to.

Breach the landlord for maintenance not being done. You will likely get compensated but even tribunal will not truncate a contract on those terms.

The car issue is completely seperate and more of a civil dispute which may not involve the landlord or agent. If there is strata or body corp, you may need to bring the issue up with them.

 

How about a picture of one of the bits that have fallen down. Are they crumbly?

 

Looks like horse hair plaster to me not asbestos

Fibro ac sheeting doesn't do that when wet

 

The bit that is hanging down looks like the painted paper face of plasterboard that has peeled off due to damp.

But the cut out around the pipe looks a bit like Masonite, or just dirty plasterboard. Need better photos - of the bits that have been falling off.

 

That's an original plaster ceiling as @DaveM points out (predates plasterboard).

Is that ceiling internal or an external ceiling (on the veranda)?

 

Another picture I took on my way out this morning. It probably isn't asbestos but even if it's not the ceiling could fall at any time.

 

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That looks like plaster, just keep asking to fix it.

The parking is between you and the rear somewhat to sort, but if rear is same LL tenant, then PM should talk to them & I also think you could just park in the drive too, seems like they give you no option.

This is not break lease stuff yet, try to resolve IMO.