Is agent is ripping us off

A few recent large plumbing bills from the property. Impossible to know if they are legitimate. Don't live near the property and know nothing about plumbing.

Suggestions?

 

I assume the PM has given you some detail regarding the invoices - what were the explanations/issues?

 

Unless its a rort to a friend/family member, PM's generally dont go spending money for the sake of it. Unless they own the maintenance business as well, in which case...

 

A decent tradie will send photos to you of what was wrong and now that it is fixed. We sometimes phone the tradesman and ask him what he did.

 

Blocked sewerage, further costs to come in unblockage, but unable to provide an accurate quote. I might be imagining it but I'm very cautious (lack trust?) by nature.

 

How much are they individually?

 

I'd want the agent to tell me before any works of this nature are done. Possibly tenants are flushing stuff down the toilets that they shouldn't (and the tenants should pay for these), or tree roots are getting into the plumbing (which is your problem).

In both these cases though, a plumber can put a camera down the pipework to see the cause of the blockages, and they should be able to provide those images to you, along with an indication of where the blockage is.

 

Ok, so the invoices so far have all been for investigative work? And now there is further (rectifying) work needed, which will be billed separately, right?

I would definitely ask for detail - what was the reason for the blockage, and what is the solution / fix? Are there multiple options for a fix (this will depend what the actual issue is), and if so what are the costs (and process) for each option?

If the blockage is a result of the tenant (or their kids) flushing unsuitable items down the toilet then your PM should claim the costs back from them. If the cause is tree roots / inexplicable collapse etc then you’ll probably have to wear the costs.





It would be

 

Maybe I'm overly sceptical ... but how do you know if they are your pipes?

 

Reason for my scepticism (not septicism!) is we had similar; with the added complication that upstream neighbours feed into our pipes (c1900 sewerage lines) and somehow we were going to be responsible for digging up and relaying their paving.

Plumber said it was an urgent repair ... 3 years later, still no issues!

I think it must've been the tenant (I've posted in the worst thread about them already LOL)

 

Get a friend to be there when the camera is being put down the pipes by the plumber. They should be able to see the images.

 

Thanks for all the helpful responses.

Said they tried contacting us but couldn't (I had no messages) and charged a few hundred to partially unblock sewerage without a discussion or confirmation for work to proceed.

Next job they need to complete the unblockakge but can't provide an exact figure until plumber digs into the ground. The quote is between 500 and 1000.

I will ask about the cause as Ive never had this problem until recently, which could therefore be tenant related, as they are fairly new.

 

I love it when this happens. I get told "I left you a voicemail"... I don't have voicemail.

If you're worried that the PM is ripping you off, engage a completely different plumber and get them to sort it. This then stops the kickback you reckon the agent might be getting.

 

Are there lots of trees on your block of land , if so it maybe tree roots have broken pipe etc and this is where the large cost is coming from.

But if I was being asked to spend that much I would be requesting a written report, photos and also a second and even a third quote from independent plumbers

 

Maybe it's a tree near the pipes ,but these days in Plumbing with any problems ,once the camera goes into the pipes you have a very good idea on what's happening very quickly,but if the Plumber needs to dig the whole line up then it becomes like Archaeology-the deeper you dig the more you find..imho.

 

We did both of these. We found the tradies don't mind working directly to us - get paid faster and we can talk to them to understand the issues (and if any trends are starting which may indicate deeper issues). If there is time to get quotes (non-urgent work), I ask the PM to get 2 quotes and possibly get one directly, depending on the size of the job.