15th September 2016

Property Maintenance

PROPERTY MAINTENANCE RESPONSIBILITIES - TENANTS AND INVESTORS

 Tenants Obligations

One of the terms of a standard residential tenancy agreement tenants must to tell the landlord or their agent about any damage or disrepair as soon as possible, in order to mitigate the Owner's loss.

Investors/Landlord's obligations

Landlords have an obligation to maintain the premises in reasonable repair, Tenants have an obligation to view the property and understand that they lease the property in its current condition. Owners are not required to attend to cosmetic repairs, they are however required to attend to urgent repairs. Urgent repairs are detailed in the standard form Residential Tenancy Agreement Clause 19 and defined in the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. They include: burst water service, blocked or broken lavatory system, serious roof leak, dangerous electrical fault, flooding or serious flood damage, serious storm or fire damage, failure of the gas, electricity or water supply, a failure of breakdown of any essential service on the residential premises for hot water, cooking, heating, cooling or laundering, any fault or damage that causes the premises to be unsafe or insecure. Owners also have an obligation to make any repairs referred to in the original condition report.

Reporting that Maintenance Is Required

Key to this is timely, clear, factual communication with the agent or landlord and any trades engaged to conduct maintenance.

Telling an owner or agent that water leaking has not been fixed for 2 weeks is not helpful if the leak has never been reported. Similarly claiming a leak has not been fixed for 2 weeks but not returning calls from trade's people trying to arrange access is not helpful.

To ensure any maintenance issues can be quickly and effectively dealt with please ensure you do the following if you note any maintenance issues,

1.       Put the maintenance issues with the facts in writing to your property manager as soon as you notice the repair.

2.       Advise if you consent to trades or the agent accessing the property if you are not home so repairs can be effected quickly.

3.       Provide contact details such as mobile and email.

4.       Let the agent know if the repair has not been attended to or if the repair was attended to but has not been resolved.  This will assist the Agent to follow up tradespeople and ensure the repair is satisfactorily completed.

At Cale property to make this easier we have a form on our website that you can report maintenance issues. Use this link.

Use our Online Form for easy maintenance reporting HERE