Finished Our Rent - Landlord Is Now Wanting Some Crazy Repairs Done

Pornboy69er on 18/12/2021 - 20:29
Last edited 19/02/2022 - 14:26 by 2 other users

Our lease finished off 2 days ago (NSW). We are now 9 hours away. Our landlord did an inspection yesterday and said that a number of things need to be cleaned/fixed, some of these are fair enough, some of them were breaking when we moved in and some of them make no sense….

My question isn’t about that though, but how many days do we have to fix these? She’s telling us to reply to her by tomorrow afternoon whether we are going to drive back to NSW or if we want her to deduct the costs from our bond.

It’s utterly stupid as one of the things she said is that we broke the garage roller door and she specifically said that the damage to the garage door corresponds to the damage to our car (excuse me, how do you know what damage there is to our car? Besides I dont remember driving into the bloody garage door….)

Any advice would be appreciated because this is my first rental

Thank you for your advice, some more helpful than others.

I've gotten all the help I need

Home & Garden

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- helloworld2021 on 20/12/2021 - 15:28
  
  We are getting bogged down in semantics here, but it comes down to whether or not it is "wear and tear" as defined here:
  https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-property/rent…
- Pornboy69er on 20/12/2021 - 22:38
  
  What if something was breaking and eventually broke after 6 years of us being there…. Should I still pay 100% of cost to replace it?
  
  It's not as simple as that imo
  - gromit on 20/12/2021 - 22:50
    
    depends entirely on what it is. carpets and curtains damage is usually a percentage based on age as they are expected to have a finite life. however things like doors, walls, garage doors etc you will be up for full repair cost for structural damage to them.
    - Pornboy69er on 20/12/2021 - 22:51
      
      One of the issues is with the carpet which I have expressed I will pay for. I have no intention of nit picking over what is wear and tear with them tbh.
      
      But you're saying I won't need to pay full price if the carpet is 3 years old?
      - gromit on 20/12/2021 - 22:54
        
        @Pornboy69er: If the damaged carpet requires replacement generally you will pay the replacement cost based on carpets remaining life, usually around 10 years, so around 70% of the cost.
        
        Pornboy69er on 20/12/2021 - 22:56
        
        @gromit: Okay that sounds reasonable. Is that law or just common sense?
        
        Because considering how the landlord wanted me to come and replace light bulbs that were purchased and left in the kitchen, I don't think they are the common sense type
helloworld2021 on 20/12/2021 - 15:26

Putting aside the fact that you should have cleaned it properly anyway, things break and wear and tear is expected. Call his bluff and say you are happy to go to the Rental Bond Board over things breaking and he will back down. If you do not clean it properly then you may face a struggle on that front though
- Pornboy69er on 20/12/2021 - 22:37
  
  So I'm going to copy paste this answer because a lot people were interested in the post.
  
  I'm sorry if I came off as lazy. The house was cleaned before we left. The issues raised in terms of cleanliness were:
  * lawn needed to be whipper snippered
  * bugs in light fixture
  * 1 bulb replacement
  
  In my opinion these are all things they could've done themselves and then charged us rather than us having to get a friend to go there and do it, or hire a cleaner. Regardless I didn't complain about that. My biggest complaint was regarding things that were already broken in the house or in the process of breaking. My question was how long do I have to fix these.
  - helloworld2021 on 21/12/2021 - 00:54
    
    1 arguably the landlords responsibility but that's not damage anyway
    
    2 nothing to do with you
    
    3 wear and tear
burns13 on 20/12/2021 - 15:45

-2

Meanwhile Landlord probably made 110% on their property during the time you were there Fk 'em.
- AG_ACT on 20/12/2021 - 16:39
  
  -1
  
  And if they had lost money, the OP should have repaired more than the damage they caused? How is this statement remotely relevant?
  - burns13 on 20/12/2021 - 20:45
    
    Because the majority of landlords are opportunistic blood sucking creatures chasing every dollar they can get. And the system allows them to behave this way. It is shamefully unbalanced system. After years in the rental market I'm overjoyed I'll (hopefully) never be back in this countries rental rort again.
AG_ACT on 20/12/2021 - 16:38

+2

I don't really have anything useful to add, but I did want to express my gratitude for discussions like this. As a landlord for the past 12 years, posts like this have helped me understand the mindset of renters. I used to wonder why landlords always did the bare minimum repairs, and let their properties degrade as much as they do. I used to attend to every minor detail, attempting to maintain my property in optimum condition before and after each person left, and this always caused arguments. Now, I have been doing the bare minimum to make the property safe and habitable, and it seems that I can find tenants easier, they are happier, and it is a LOT less stressful for me.

I wish we didn't live in a society where people give preference to the "good enough" rather than great, but posts like this help me understand that we do!

I do want to say though, that ultimately, what goes around comes around. If the OP knows they caused some of the damage, they probably should have had it repaired before they left. The fact that they are now wondering what they should do about that as well as other things; makes me loose yet another little bit of faith in humanity!
- weezlebub on 20/12/2021 - 16:44
  
  and that's the diversity in the OZB community …
  
  some are here because they're lazy and opportunistic …
  some are here because they need a distraction from their day job …
  some are here to be educated about what they spend money on …
  some are here because they don't understand the rules and systems …
  
  the rich tapestry that is OZB :)
- duchy on 20/12/2021 - 22:31
  
  Letting the property degrade so that it appeals to the lowest common denominator? :)
- Pornboy69er on 20/12/2021 - 22:33
  
  I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to imply. I mentioned in my post that my question is regarding how many days do we have to fix the issues raised by the landlord.
  
  I obviously haven't gone into detail about what the landlord said nor have I mentioned whether or not I've caused it or what.
  
  People seem to love to jump to conclusions.
Miss B on 20/12/2021 - 22:47

I've had a number of real estate agents try to screw me for my bond, I am very thorough with my condition reports now, so it's very easy to go back to them and say it was like that when I moved in. They still try it, they just have to back down when I prove that it was like that when I moved in.

Note down absolutely everything, they won't because they don't care. The way it works is they charge you when you move out, don't get it fixed, then charge the next tenant when they move out and don't get it fixed again.

The other thing is they do regular inspections and these things that supposedly need to be fixed when I move out were not an issue when I lived there even though they were there before I moved in.

I have had a few good real estate agents. Had a couple who actually did thorough condition reports, so very little I needed to add. Never had a bad reference, so I think it's just the way they operate, not that they actually have a problem with me or the condition of the place when I left.
- Pornboy69er on 20/12/2021 - 22:48
  
  I'm going to print out your comment and stick it on the fridge for next time
  - Miss B on 20/12/2021 - 22:56
    
    If you're renting again, do it now. Even if you've already handed back the condition report and it's not within the specified time when you need to get it back, write an email ASAP and explain that you have done a more thorough check and what you found, just for the record. It's not quite as good as being on the condition report, but it should help at the end of the lease, if they bring anything up that was already there, refer them back to the email and hopefully they'll drop it if they try it.
    
    I spend a day doing the condition report before I move anything at all in and take photos.
    - Pornboy69er on 20/12/2021 - 22:57
      
      +1
      
      I'm renting my childhood bedroom from my parents 😂. But definitely something I'll do when I move out again.

Finished Our Rent - Landlord Is Now Wanting Some Crazy Repairs Done

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