Dodgy Plumber Left Huge Mess behind, WHS & REA Both Non-Communicative

Since it's a long running trope on ozbargain to ask "WWOBD?" in all manner of situations, I thought I'd add my own. I'll try to keep it brief as much as I can but there's so many details.

First of all some context, I'm currently renting in an old weatherboard and fibro set of units on stumps. Think typical queenslander split in 3 with the wrap around veranda chopped off. The undercroft area had also been enclosed with 3 carport doors facing the street and a shared laundry area in the rear.

On Friday last week I returned home to this mess of rubble in the neighbours part of the car park with some sort of sawn fibro board dust on the ground in mine. The other neighbour then had a chat with me later on in the evening saying he came home to see said plumber sawing away at this board without any means of controlling the dust or even protection for himself. We were both pretty upset, especially considering the age of the place it could've potentially been asbestos.

I then notified both the Real Estate Agent and WH&S, REA as expected deflected responsibility by saying that the owner is deceased and is now being managed by a public trustee. WH&S came and visited quite quickly on the Monday and called to mention that they've gone to site and inspected and said he doesn't believe it's asbestos at least and they have contacted the plumber. 2 days later (Wednesday) the plumber finally appeared in the morning to clean out the crap but seemingly just gave only 1 section of the carport a quick sweep and the fibro dust is still on the ground in mine. I went to see the REA again who then quite aggressively told me it's out of my hands - go talk to WH&S. WH&S then said we can't tell you anything about a case while it's still open so here were are now.

I'm kinda stumped as to what to do now, it feels like I'm stuck in a situation where I don't know if it's safe or not and no one wants to or is able to come forward. Am I just being pedantic? Is crystalline silica not that much of a concern?

Also just some added context, had a chat with the neighbour that had the plumbing work done. Apparently it was supposed to be a simple rewaterproofing job of their shower. They'd been complaining since they moved in that it had leaked and it creaked and moved a fair bit as they went inside. For the last 2 weeks she said it was really bad to the point where they were simply not able to shower at home and the REA was slow to do anything. When the plumber finally was organised and came to site they ripped up the tiling only to find the floor beneath pretty much rotted and about to fall apart so they needed to replace everything. I'm guessing this is where the rubble had come from, plumber came to do simple job - turned into large job and just kept going ahead with it without really planning on what to do with the refuse that would now result.

So much for keeping it short so tl;dr
Plumber made a mess, REA & WH&S not saying much, Plumber cleared out the bulk of the rubble but has left the dust situation as is. What to do next?

Comments

  • +1

    WH&S came and visited quite quickly on the Monday and called to mention that they've gone to site and inspected and said he doesn't believe it's asbestos at least and they have contacted the plumber.

    What do we need to help with beyond that 1 major point?

    Also, first time I've heard of WWOBD. Maybe it's a Reddit thing?

    • It's more just whether or not it's a safety concern to go down there still with the work still needing to be done.
      I mean I know that it'd probably require a fair bit of exposure to get any illness from silica but no one has really confirmed anything.

        • Yeah I would've thought so if it's just normal fibro? But it seems unreasonable to have to treat your carport and laundry as off limits just because some contractor came and did some work willy nilly and left a mess behind. Sucks being out of the loop as well but from what your responses suggest I've done all I can do and I just have to deal with it til they fix it.

  • https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/clean-and-green/rubbish-tips…

    Complaints about asbestos handling
    If you believe a homeowner, occupant or owner-builder is unsafely handling, removing or transporting asbestos material or a person has illegally dumped asbestos waste, contact Council.

    • +2

      Except it's been determined to not be asbestos

      Am I just being pedantic? Is crystalline silica not that much of a concern?

      • Do you still have the contact details for the guy who came out and saw the site? If so, give him a ring and see what he thinks you should do about the disposing of this stuff. I would, at least, get a decent respirator, coveralls and gloves to clean it up with.

        • I'll have to ask the neighbour for their details, I don't think I should have to clean it up though if it comes to that I guess I might have no choice if I want to even wash my clothes again at home.

          • @Kikkoman56: It seems to me you have a couple of options then
            a) You talk to the neighbour and see if he will get the tradie to come back and clean up your bit as well.
            b) You talk to the Queensland tenants advice people and find out what REA is, legally, obliged to do in this situation.
            https://tenantsqld.org.au/need-advice/

  • +2

    Use a garden hose to wet the dust and then a broom to sweep it out.

    • If it's not cleaned up by the weekend I might have to..

  • +1

    Honestly, the time you've taken to write this, you could have just swept it up…. Or asked the neighbour to clean up after his tradie.

    • Yeah as above I'd rather not have to. Also I already did ask the neighbour to do so on the weekend as well and obviously neither did they want to do it themselves.

      • +1

        I mean, either you're very concerned for your health because it might be harmful, or you can think it's too trivial an issue that it can wait till the weekend.

        But you can't be both.

  • +1

    "According to research 2 out of 3 houses built prior to 1987 were likely to have Asbestos containing materials. Asbestos was widely used in home construction from 1950 through to the mid 1980’s.

    You cannot tell what Asbestos looks like when in a bonded product – you need to have a laboratory test to Identify Asbestos in this form."

    https://www.enviroscience.com.au/what-asbestos-looks-like/

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