ACT Tenant maintenance request

Dear all, are landlords responsible for the cost of maintenance requests that turned out to be the tenant's fault? Cheers

 

It depends. What's the context?

And what do you mean by "the tenant's fault"?

 

Short answer: Sometimes.

 

Call out for a broken HWS that is found to be a pilot light out = Tenant can pay. HWS stops due to leak = LL. Water off at the street due to a street water supply issue (Tip Check letterbox for notice) tenant can pay and isnt reason for "emergency callout". Damage created by tenant = they pay. Tenant breaks a window = they pay. Window sash fails and window shatters then LL pays. Garage door is destroyed when car drives into it is LL issue to fix OR drivers insurance. Property owner is under no obligation to claim on their policy.
Good agents tend to try to ascertain what the issue is before they commit the LL to a cost. eg Light doesnt work = "Did you replace the bulb ?". Then many will caution the tenant that if its a bulb issue they will pay the callout fee.

Common one is a broken key in a lock. They never break themself. Not a LL issue. If a lock wont turn the key can still come out. OR it will stay stuck in the barrel. LL pays. When they key breaks its the tennats problem. Same as being locked out. ,Tenant can call a locksmith. Not agent or LL issue.

 

If the tenant drives into it the LL should pay to fix?

 

Thanks, Paul. I believe I should not be billed for a stupid mistake by the tenant. Is there legislation or some authoritative source that provides a guiding principle? I can see the bill in my statement. Obviously my PM is not a good agent....

 

Eh I don't really agree with a lot of that.

The applicable law is that the tenant would have had to have been negligent in requesting the maintenance, which is a pretty high bar.

 

This doesnt mean that in a dispute about cost that the LL isnt up for the cost, of course. They can get stuck with the cost as there may not be power to impose the cost onto a tenant once its incurred. The key element is ensuring the LL isnt incurring the cost in the first place. Its not always easy to preassess on a phone or email etc. Poor PM is in the middle

Major one is shortstay and its more a case of just fix it. The rate assumes we cover fair wear and tear as well as just abuse. Hardly worth chasing but in worst cases the PM does through booking platform who chargeback which takes the funds then they review claim and never seen one denied but never have claimed a trivial issue and not had pics. Fix it for the next.

 

One of our tenants was requesting a lot of "things" be "fixed".

Drew the line when she wanted the gas heater "fixed", we pointed out the pilot light had been turned off (by me, it was heating the room in the middle of summer) and sent her the instruction manual with how to turn it back on.

Next thing she sent the agent an invoice for a service (with some bodgy description which unfortunately didn't correspond with the ingoing condition report.)

We declined to pay that and had the agent remind the tenant that if maintenance works are required it should go thru the agent; and we don't pay for things she should be able to do herself - if she'd asked for help I would've gone and turned on the pilot light myself.

 

There's no specific legislation as far as I'm aware- maybe something in states other than QLD?

Also note it's common practice to charge you and then invoice back the tenant, so the bill being on your statement isn't in of itself an issue, but if the agent hasn't discussed billing them back then that is poor of them.

 

The sad fact is you're probably right.

 

I have charged the tenant in over 10+ circumstances over many years for many things.

Prime examples

1) Aircon not working or cooling as it should. Sent out a technician who said she was not using it on the correct settings. $180 charged back

2) Aircon condenser unit at the back wires where bitten off by their dog. New circuit board. $320 charged to tenant

3) Pest control. Tenant complained about pests however we discovered they had pet rats or something from memory which caused an infestation. All charged to tenant.

4) Broken windows all charged to tenant.

There has been heaps more - I can give more examples when I'm not drunk.

 

It's not the tenant's fault that their pet rat had friends over.

 

No reason given by @Jacko as to why he should pay for whatever maintenance - so until he does all of the above is superfluous ,,,

 

Hi all, the tenant organised a contractor to check the electricity as the bill had been very high...turns out they had left the floor heater on...

 

Although if this happened today, you could resell those RATs for a profit as they are much harder to find now...

 

If they organised a contractor, especially without permission from the PM then it's totally for them to pay. My PM tells all tenants "yes I can have a contractor come out and look at the issue but if you are found at fault then you will need to pay the invoice". That usually makes them think twice about asking for something

 

I get the feeling I need a new PM....