- This topic has 6 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 9 months ago by .
-
Topic
-
Hello flat chatters,
I have an ongoing issue with the hot water in the building that I rent in. For just over the last month the hot water in the building I am in works intermittently. The first outage was to repair the pump in the system that burnt out leaving the whole building without hot water for the weekend.
The system was fixed on the monday and functioned normally for 12 days until it stopped heating the water again on another Saturday after hours. Without an after hours
contact for repairs I called the repair company’s number and asked how to fix it. The fix was simple and with the assistnce of a passing meter reader the system was reset. Monday started the cycle of failures, in which I reset the system twice in two days I also called my agent to report it out as well.
I decided that my resetting was not fixing the overall problem and called my agent to report it out again after the 2nd reset didn’t work. It took 2 more days to repair it and it worked fine for a week. But come Christmas-new year shut downs its out again and a few other renters and myself reported it early on Friday expecting it to be fixed that day. It’s now Monday and every managing agent is closed and strata doesn’t deal with renters of which all 12 units are renters. Without an after hours or strata contact myself and the other renters have to deal with cold showers while we wait for a fix.
The repair company has told me they won’t come out without a work order from strata but I suspect that strata is closed as well leaving us all without hot water. Besides emailing my agent asking for a rental reduction what other options do I have? I am in NSW.
-
Replies
-
Your Managing (Rental) Agent should have an after-hours contact for emergencies, so I’d suggest that you and the other renters each try that means to advise your respective Agents of the situation, and insist that they or their Clients (your landlord/s) make the necessary arrangements with their building’s Strata Manager.
In the meantime, have a look at this Fact Sheet provided by Tenants NSW, of course bearing in mind that in your situation the hotwater service is communal and therefore the responsibility of the Owners Corporation for your building and not personally the individual Owner / Landlords.
If in any doubt, contact your closest Tenants NSW Office directly by searching HERE – and be thankful that it’s summer where those cold showers are at least tolerable.
I’d just like to add a couple of things to Whale’s excellent reply.
Firstly, I’m assuming that apart from the water situation, you like living in the apartments, otherwise I would be recommending that you find somewhere else and give them notice that you are leaving due to a failure to provided the basic amenities of the rental unit.
Otherwise, how about spicing things up by threatening to move into a hotel at their expense until such times as they force the owners corp to fix the hot water.
You probably cdo that without prior permission but they need to be reminded at maintenance of common property is not optional – the Owners Corp is legally obliged to fix the hot water (Section 62 of the Strata Schemes Management Act) and the owner should be pressing them to do exactly that.
Or you could seek an order through Fair Trading, forcing the owner to seek a Section 62 order. It’s not going to happen overnight but if the strata manager tells the Owners Corp that they don’t have any choice in the matter could get the ball rolling before winter sets in …brrrr!
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.
I am feeling very stupid right now.
I should have mentioned that failure of your hot water service comes under urgent repairs and it means that if you can’t contact the landlord or agent (or they refuse to do anything about it) you can go ahead and pay for the repairs yourself ans then demand the money back from your landlord.
With a number of tenants affected, a group of you could split the cost and share the money when you get it back. The landord should be able to claim most of it back from the owners corp anyway.
Have a look at this factsheet on the Tenants Union’s excellent website for more information.
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.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.