- This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 6 months ago by .
-
Topic
-
Below are the facts:
– A fire started in the garage of the building preventing access to apartments for a week due to repairs and safety reasons.
– There was no damage whatsoever to my apartment.
– My apartment is rented out to a tenant.
– As the landlord I have insurance for loss of rent for my apartment.
– Strata insurance covers loss of rent related to common property issues for landlord and owners only.
– Temp accommodation is only provided for owners occupying their apt.
– I have advised the tenant that no rent is payable whilst he can’t access the apt.
The issue:
The tenant spent almost 3 times the weekly rent in temp accommodation, transportation and food. He is now seeking reimbursement for the total bill less what I will receive from strata for loss of rent.
My thoughts:
As the landlord, I do not believe I have any liability for the temp accommodation costs. I am forgiving the rent for the period access was not available and the incident that causes the deny of access was not caused by me.
The fact that I am recovering loss of rent should not be a concern as I pay for the insurance; he does not. The rent forgiven would cover some of his costs but I do not believe that I am liable for the shortfall (especially food and transport as they are not my costs to begin with).
Please advise any thoughts on the above. I may compromise and provide some additional monies or forgoing of rent.
-
Replies
-
I’m not sure of the validity of any claim you might have against the Owners Corp but the first thing would be for the tenant to make a claim againnt you and for you to then pass that on to the OC.
I think if the fire was due to some negligence by the OC, then you might have a claim. If it was just one of those things, the Owners Corp are no more culpable than you are.
But rather than an informal arrangement between you and the tenant, get them to make a claim against you at Fair Trading, then whatever the outcome of that is – and you could settle this at mediation – you have a legitimate figure to claim against the OC’s insurance. There is no guarantee, however, that they will pay anything, depending on their policy.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.