Can my landlord claim this from my bond...?

colourful sydney racing identity said :

Sorry Enrique but, do do this. It worked for me. threats to coutersue for failing to make requested repairs works a treat.

Fair enough.

Maybe what I meant to say was… don’t do this by turning up to your agents/landlords premises full of rage and threaten them in ways that could reflect badly on you.

By all means, inform them of your plans to countersue but do so in a professional and courteous manner (if that is at all possible in such a circumstance… i.e. the smiling assassin).

There’s no need to get nasty and bring yourself down to their level. 😉

enrique said :

Deadmandrinking said…

Deadmandrinking said :

Make them scared, threaten them with everything,

Don’t do this.

Sorry Enrique but, do do this. It worked for me. threats to coutersue for failing to make requested repairs works a treat.

Tangentially….what colour was the wall? It may be that roof leaked?

The landlord can have your first born child plus your soul.

I read it somewhere. Maybe on RiotAct.

s’lucky i don’t have a soul…

but i knew it was a mistake to name astromonkey ‘rumplestiltskin’. here i was thinking he wouldn’t be mistaken in class…

If you reported this while working there, the repair work would not have been charged to you as it is the responsibility of the landlord and agent. This does not change because you have left so I believe they are 100% dodgy pricks.

I’ve always rented unfortunately, but have a go with the Tennant Advocate and be prepared to go to the tennancy tribunal.

Currently have been in the same home for 11 yrs and the owner is nice but we both keep having issues with rental agents and property managers.

Just got a letter putting our rent up by $100 per week. Rang the property manager and she said she wont budge on that and was orginally going to put it up by $ 150 per week, as we were having lots of maintenance done.

Bollocks

In 11 yrs at that property I have done everything needed including painting – except a plumbing job (repair to water heater) and a roofing repair requiring a tradesman, and the rental agents haven’t given me the reibursement they promised each time. Hardly any maintenance required. We hardly even get any excess water bills cause we do the grey water / recycling thing.

And we have a new property manager several times per year and have to start off with inspection reports all over again whenever an inspection is due. Pain in the backside. The last one even wanted to know why we had 2 cars in the driveway and who owned them etc and would start going thru cupboards & drawers & even our wardrobes at inspection time.

Even had one state on an inspection report that the trees were dying & needed fixing (it was winter and they are deciduous – the leaves fall off in winter – that stupid woman).

Problem is that each time a new poperty manager comes along they ‘note’ wear or damage to the building and quiz me about anything and when u say it has been reported they go ‘righ…yeah..heard that one before” but all they have to do is go over all the other files.

Note everyhing down including phone calls, get a receipt for even dropping off the keys etc and if there is a problem then you’ll at least be prepared. Don’t trust your property maager no matter how nice they are, even if htey are a good one, because all in all they will leave you hung out to dry if it means their job or bottom line.

Deadmandrinking said…

Deadmandrinking said :

Make them scared, threaten them with everything,

Don’t do this.

Use this experience to your advantage.

I used my visceral hatred of dodgy, greedy, venal, petty, mendacious, larcenous real estate agencies/property managers/landlords as a prompt to finally get together a deposit for my first property.

Please, for the love of God, get some advice, go to the Tenants Union. Fight these pricks. I just got out of a rather bad property manager who ended up charging me for natural wear and tear stuff (not to mention their pre-final inspection phone-calls, both at work and when I was in class which involved some rude woman constantly asking if I was going to get the carpets and curtains professionally cleaned and who with). Because I was stuck with two different people needing their bonds back, I foolishly just paid the cost. Don’t make the same mistake I did. I regret doing that to this day. These people are professional scum and rip-off artists. Make them scared, threaten them with everything, scrutinize every dealing with them. Although, I do understand that they can be a lot to deal with, especially when you’re moving house in a place like Canberra and when you’ve got a full working-day schedule.

You could tell your landlord that you will be counter-suing them for injuries and damages arising from the wall that collapsed because of their poor building maintenance.

Reminds me of a situation a few years agao when I was renting and under sufferance of a rude and unprofessional property manager (the owner was lovely though). This property manager continued to conduct ‘inspections’ while we weren’t home despite our protestations and me making myself available at any time should they care to arrange it. But no, this beeatch only wanted it her way.

The ‘last’ time she did one of these inspections without our knowledge of consent she left a report which tried to blame us for damage that we had reported, and noted, when we moved in. I gave her a ring and the rudeness continued. I then asked her if she’d seen the $100 cash I’d left sitting on a kitchen bench. She asked what I was talking about and I said that I’d left $100 sitting on a kitchen bench for the other housemate. They got home and it wasn’t there. I told her that as she was the only person that had been in the house between me leaving the money and the housemate returning home (and she herself had documented that through her report) that, sadly, I could only draw the conclusion that she had stolen the money. I think I heard the pants sh*t down the phone line.

We never had another unannounced inspection after that.

Can your landlord claim it? Yes
Is that claim morally or legally sustainable? Based on what you’ve said, I doubt it