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I am a renter. My last rental property I had bathroom plumbing problems and was threatened by the owners corporation that the costs of plumbing repairs were going to be charged to the owner of the premises because I kept a dog on the premises without permission (another issue all together). I challenged how they were going to prove the hair in the pipes were dog hair. They obviously did not proceed with the threat.
Now, in my current, new place I again have blocked drains in the bathroom. The real estate has stated that if the pipes are blocked with hair I will have to pay the plumbing fee. I have stated that it is not my responsibility and asked how they are going to prove that the pipes are in fact blocked by my hair over the past 5 months rather than over the years, also I had plumbing problems in the bathroom in the first couple of months and, with the knowledge of the real estate I have been piping my washing machine waste water through a pipe into the toilet bowl to avoid having them fix that problem previously.
I am writing to see if anyone other renters have been threatened to pay plumbing fees lately and if this is a heavy handed trend that Sydney real estate agents are using?
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pigsrings said:
I am a renter. My last rental property I had bathroom plumbing problems and was threatened by the owners corporation that the costs of plumbing repairs were going to be charged to the owner of the premises because I kept a dog on the premises without permission (another issue all together). I challenged how they were going to prove the hair in the pipes were dog hair …
How hairy are you or your dog?
Seriously, I think the owner needs to get the drain unblocked, and see if there are tree roots or other problems outside your place, especially if the drain was backing up in the first couple of months you were there.
If there are no roots or cracked or misplaced pipes, the plumber can show you what they found in the sewer. More likely, residents in the building have flushed all manner of objects, not what is supposed to be flushed, and more probably there could be baby and/or sanitary napkins, pet litter, paper towels, other garbage that should not be flushed.
If a person did block the sewer by flushing objects that are not meant to be flushed, then I think they should have to pay the cost of getting the objects out of the sewer.
If there are pipe problems, or tree roots inside the property then the Owners Corp should pay. If outside the property ????
I work in an old building in Surry Hills that has a huge plane tree on the front footpath. The roots of the tree cracked the sewer pipe and pushed it up causing sewerage to build up. Our organisation had to pay a plumber to re-line our pipe, excavate under the footpath, under the road and then replace the pipes under the tree roots under the street.
From a plumber's perspective: if your shower or bath is slow to drain and other drains are OK (e.g. toilet or kitchen), it appears the block is local to the bathroom. The suspicion of a local block increases when you are in a unit that is on an upper floor.
Sometimes when we go to unblock a slow draining bathroom, we are able to open up the waste grill and pull out a nasty mess of hair/soap scum etc. Once this is removed, the bathroom drains runs freely. In this instance, it pretty much appears that the resident is at fault so perhaps the agent has a good argument.
As you say though, it's a bit hard to say if the hair is yours or not.
Another scenario is that we suspect the block is local to the bathroom but we can't pull it out. We can only push it down and away. Its a bit hard to say then definitively what blocked the pipes.
If these things are happening in a ground floor unit and other drains are affected (e.g. toilet slow to empty) then you more likely have a pipe or foreign object problem that is causing issues in one of the larger common pipes and backing up into ground level units.
I guess it is a bit frustrating for ECs and/or landlords to pay for unblocking bathrooms when they are blocked with hair so if it keeps happening in units you live in, grab a plug filter or strainer for the bath/shower. This should save you and your landlord the grief.
If a local block happens again, you may struggle to get out of paying a second time?
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