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Hoping to get some advice from those in the know! My partner and I have just moved into our first rental property and have been here almost a week now. We submitted an application to the real estates following a viewing of the property and were accepted.
During the viewing a lot of work was still being done by the new owners as it was an old house and had not been lived in for several months. But it was assured this would be completed by the time we moved in. Having been here a week there seems to be a lot that still need doing, despite the agency telling us it had been completed.
Nearly all of the windows have been painted shut and will not open; some have even been painted open and won’t close; the garage door into the house will not lock (or even close correctly) and the new oven has not been attached to the kitchen unit at all and is not working correctly. There is only one power outlet in the kitchen and this is no where near the work surfaces, and the wooden floors are still tacky with the new paint which means they scratch at the lightest touch. We have not been given keys to the back or side doors, and the drains in the bathroom are smelling very off (windows are painted shut so can’t vent)…the list goes on, and we are not sure what to do about it…
We are about to submit our condition report which lists everything in each room and its a long list, but we both feel we are paying too much for the state it is currently in – we are paying $600 per week and it is a 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom house.
Should we request a rent reduction until all of this is fixed…and if so, how much do we ask to reduce it by? We do want to stay as the location is perfect for us, but we need it to be comfortable/habitable and secure.
We would really appreciate any advice you can give on how to best deal with this. Thanks in advance!
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Since you are paying $600 a week you should expect to have a functioning kitchen and the basics such as opening windows and doors. It’s clearly not good enough to be living in the place when you have no concrete dates for these things to be fixed. The matters seem relatively simple for any competent tradesperson to fix within a few days at most. You should follow this useful advice from the Tenants Union:
https://www.tenants.org.au/factsheet-06-repairs-and-maintenance
Get your condition report in straight away, the sooner you list all the faults the sooner you can get action on having the repairs done. You are entitled to a rent reduction for the non functioning items, such as non-functioning oven. It’s up to you to determine how much this is worth to you, be prepared to negotiate. Keep a copy of your report and make sure the agent follows up promptly.
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