Balcony defect

im hoping someone can help! Our balcony has a large crack that runs right along the roof of it and subsequently all balcony a above and below us are experiencing the same issue. Props were put in place before Christmas which were simply put in place by our buildings maintenance man and I can actually move these with one hand. Aside from that we had a building inspector from the local council come and inspect our balcony. He said it’s not good and will be a very big job. He also said he would not be spending large amounts of time on the balcony. He issued a 30 day notice to all owners concerned. 

The property manger managing our current residence is hopeless at responding to calls/emails and it takes at least a week before I hear anything back from her. I said we wanted a rent reduction as it was not deemed safe but she seemed to think it was safe to use but if I wanted a rent reduction this could be negotiated. I sent a request of $50 a week off a place that costs us $540 per week in rent and she said the amount had not been accepted and the landlord wouldn’t be offering any compensation. 

The building corp have deemed the balconys safe to use but the 30 day notice issued by the council conflicts with this. The building inspector also mentioned that until an official engineering report had been undertaken – no one could say wether the balconies are safe for use or not.

i have sent a breach of duty to the property manager and our requests were not honoured.

I was hoping someone may know what our rights are in this situation and if is worth taking it to VCAT in order to receive some sort of compensation?

we have given our 28 days notice without another rental to go to but thought we’d wing it as getting out of here is for the best! It’s a massive inconvenience but I have a 1 year old daughter and I can’t even open our balcony door as she climbs out. We used to spend a large amount of time on our balcony so paying full rent just wasn’t worth it for us