Rental Bond Question

[Bax]

Hey everyone.

Just finalising moving out of the rental and back home, and the real estate aren't being very nice.

They're being very unfriendly about giving our bond back, bond was 1040, there's an iron burn mark in the carpet which is fair enough, but the other reason they are delaying is…..

The driveway, the owner of the house is very unhappy with the condition of the driveway.

Here's some facts.
The driveway is dirt.
It's rained near constantly since december - with feb getting about 500mm of rainfall.
The driveway became mud.
We still continued to park in the shed, as my gf could not leave her car on the road or at the front of the house, I was in the garage, her car was unable to fit in the garage - too high.

Anyway, after x amounts of weeks driving up and down the driveway the ground has compacted to the point that there is now a dip. It's hard to describe.. But if my car can make it through now that it's dry, it can't be that bad.

The real estate want us to fix the driveway, by raking it out.. I don't think they understand the concept of dirt compressing on a driveway, to fix it - it ideally needs a trailer or two of gravel, or as a temporary fix only to fail again when it rains, would be to put in a trailer load of dirt in the ditches to level it out. They want us to fill the gaps.

I - do not want too, as I don't think it's necessary. But I think I don't have a leg to stand on.

~~~~~~~~~~

This was my first taste of renting, and if all owners/ real estates are going to be like this I'm not coming back. When we first got there the yard was poor, gardens were dead, I've maintained the yard perfectly, grass is alive and growing, it's cut, the gardens are weed free and growing nicely, the edges are trimmed..
No gratitude for making the yard look perfect, just criticism about a driveway that was unavoidably compacted due to rain.

What should I do? Argue that it was unavoidable, or go and get a trailer load of clean fill from somewhere and dump it on, shovel it in and leave.

[jules]

i would strongly argue their claim is invalid. it's not your job as a renter to compensate for poor design and construction of the driveway. in effect, they've failed to provide you with a serviceable driveway.

you are obliged to leave the property in a similar condition to its state when you arrived, less fair wear and tear. if they've chosen not to put in a concrete driveway, that's their problem if it's rained and rutted out.

in victoria, bonds are held in a trust and renters here can contest claims made by agents on that bond in a tribunal. i'm no lawyer but i reckon you'd win that one. not sure what the arrangement is in Qld though..

[calais_304]

Im going through the same thing at the monemt, i never want to rent again...or if i do it's going to be a unit.

we moved into a house where the grass was 3ft high, the house had just been rendered and there was **** all over the windows and doors (cleaned it all up), the inside of the house was even worse, cobwebs everywhere, dirty walls and floors, missing light bulbs etc.

im over renting David Dean can kiss my ass, just wish i could get hold of the owners and let them know how rude they treat their tenants after all ive done to that house (it was a shtibox and i turned it into gold) and see if i can just rent off the owners.

people in brisbane don't go through david dean, they are vultures, once they have your bond money there expression changes from happy and nice to now we own you....

[leonthalion]

i am a realestate agent, and i was a property manager and am now in sales. one thing that you have to remember is that its not the agency but the land lord, if the land lord is difficult (wont pay to fix things, wont pay for general maintenance etc.) then the agency is going to have to get difficult because its the land lord who pays the bills. take a look over the original contract that you signed upon renting. there will be a section toward the back entitled "Special Conditions", read through this section and see if they mention anything about the drive way, if not your in some luck. there is another part of the act that has to do with general wear and tear but as i am not in that area in realestate anymore thats all i know. The residential tenancies act (RTA) will be able to help you but it can take a couple of days, then they will try to organise a dispute reasolution agreement, which is basically a boring as hell 1hr 3way phone convo in which you basically have a wine about it and some person from the rta will be pulling a guilt trip on them. only thing is that although thr RTA is the govering body over realestate due to a lack of man power are often laughted at, in which case i would suggest getting hold of your soliciter, just hope he deosnt cost more to send a letter. etc then to fix the drive way. As long as you mention the rta and sound like you know your **** the agency should leave you alone, the last thing they want is a lawsuit over a bastard land lord. get hold of the RTA through RTA: Achieving fair rental outcomes in Queensland or give them a call on 1300 366 311, hope this helps.

[VLDavo]

just whack some dirt down for the whiney basted lol... probly take ya an afternoon if that and then at least u will get ya cash back

i mean a 1000 bucks is abit to loose just over a dirt driveway

[vicarious]

just whack some dirt down for the whiney basted lol... probly take ya an afternoon if that and then at least u will get ya cash back

i mean a 1000 bucks is abit to loose just over a dirt driveway

look in you local paper some one must be giving away free dirt (from when blocks of land are cut for slab) tell them to dump it on your drive and rake out

[Spaced]

Take some photos, print em out and take them with you the rental authority to stake your claim. It's friggin bs. I have been lucky in the past with renting but I know of others who haven't been so.

[Tom_1569]

Its not your fault, thats just stupid if they honestly believe its your fault. But its your thousand bucks, and it will probly cost you that to fight it anyway. Go get a load of manure to fill it in lol.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

As leonthalion has said, read through your contract to see if there is special mention of the driveway. I am a landlord and I know with my properties, if there is something out of the ordinary, it gets a special mention.

Fair wear and tear has two definitions depending on whether you are the owner or the tenant. The owner will always argue damage, the tenant will argue wear and tear. It is up to the owner to maintain the property in a serviceable condition, if inclement weather is the cause of the driveway problem, then the owner should have prior knowledge as to what damage can be done driving on it when raining.

[Bax]

Thanks.

Yeah, basically the driveway should have been gravel at the very least to allow for some drainage, it's been an absolute nightmare for the past 3 months because I haven't been able to get my car through, but now that it's dry you could easily get it through.

If all else fails I'll get some free fill from somewhere and spend 15 minutes raking it in. It's not a fix but it'll look better.

And yeah, apologies, it's not the real estate agents fault - however, the agent was giving my gf a fair bit of attitude from day 1 about the property. It erupted this morning when she insisted numerous times that the driveway would 'rake out' after being told numerous times that there is nothing we can do, short of hauling in dirt.

If she wants to show us how it will rake out, I told my gf that I'd provide the rake and watch intently. Will have it done by friday, as we're out of town after that.

[minux]

Bax, when the driveway started becoming bad did you report it?

If not you could have some issues.

If that were my property I'd have a quote done on the carpet which I would then have the tennants sight. Once they have sighted the repairs would be carried and bond returned less quoted cost of carpet. We actually have a clause in our lease agreements that all repair work will be carried out by contractors/businesses of our choice unless otherwise agreed upon. That being said we try damned hard to not rip tenants.

The driveway however, similar thing, if damage such as what you said isn't reported the tenants agree in their agreement that they are responsible to fix said damage out of their pocket. These reasons alone are why we ask to meet with the tenants so they know if they break something, tell us and we will fix it. Don't tell us, they are responsible. Most landlords these days though are arrogant pricks who expect everything from the tenant.

Good luck with it!!

[Bax]

Cheers, nah we didn't report it - basically the entire yard was flooded, at one stage our entire yard/underneath the house was flooded. And we unofficially on a few ocassions expressed that because of the conditions we could not maintain the yard.

But it just wasn't something I even contemplated as being an issue.

I'm still contemplating getting a receipt written up to fix the lock on the shed. The handle was broken and we welded it back on. After about 4 months of constant 'When will it be fixed?'

[Struma]

Not quite on topic, but having been a renter for far too many years now I have one recommendation for anyone about to sign a lease:

Read your condition report thoroughly - go over it room by room.

Make as many ammendments to this condition report as you think are viable - this includes the slightest mark on the carpet or scratch on a wall, cobwebs in corners and overgrown garden beds.

I used to work with a former estate agent who told me that anyone who returned an unammended condition report clearly had not bothered to look at it or the property carefully.

Cheers for what it is worth.

[Grennan]

If all else fails I'll get some free fill from somewhere and spend 15 minutes raking it in. It's not a fix but it'll look better.

As long as it looks good enough to get the bond back, you dont have to worry about it again

Were currently renting at the moment and its a nightmare, weve reported so much **** that needs to be done and the stupid idiot who owns the place comes to fix it himself and makes it worse. Its actually quite humerous.

[jules]

Were currently renting at the moment and its a nightmare, weve reported so much **** that needs to be done and the stupid idiot who owns the place comes to fix it himself and makes it worse. Its actually quite humerous.

sounds like my old landlord.

my housemate who is a chippy told him that tiling directly over plasterboard in the shower wouldn't last. didn't stopping him asking us to pay when it fell off.

needless to say no money was forthcoming.

[STEALTHY™]

If you were in SA, i'd believe we had the same landlord.

I lost about $150 of my bond for a stain on the carpet......IN THE KITCHEN. Who in their right mind builds a house and carpets the kitchen.
On top of that, the stain was under the fridge (something leaked in the fridge) and the new tenants fridge would have covered it. I payed it, cut my losses and figured i couldn't be unlucky enough to rent off of him again.



The first house i rented (on my 3rd now) was a private rental, and since then i said i'd only ever rent through a land agent. When i moved into the house, it had a double garage. They sub divided the lot and demolished the garage, and made a single one out the front. This wasn't a problem, but the rent did not reflect this. On top of that, the house was a construction zone, and my power bill doubled. All they offered was half of one weeks rent.
Not to mention the house was filthy when i moved in, spent a good 2 days just making the kitchen fit to cook in.
That house ended up without someone renting for 8 months, due to them expecting top dollar for an under average house. (even the roller door they got was 2nd hand)



The house i'm in now is the exception to the renting rule. The landlord was happy to get an automatic roller door put in. A brand new one at that.




With your driveway issue, i'm pretty sure thats the landlords problem. No tenant should be expected to carry out modifications to make a property livable. The only thing you did wrong, was not contacting them as soon as it flooded and informing them something needs to be done to keep access to the property

[vlv8vic]

didn't read the other posts but it is general wear and tear which they can't tackle you about unless they suspect and can prove you did something to speed up the process.

[Cobez]

Tell them to give you magic powers so you can control weather and change the law of physics.

If they don't wanna hand the powers over, tell em get stuffed in a very very nice way. If you don't want to argue, just get some dirt and fill it over if it's not all that expensive to keep them happy.

Let's say for arguements sake enough dirt to fill that hole would cost $200, if $200 means you will get your $1040 bond back, you may as well.

[Low_VX_Taxi]

I had a landlord try to charge me for carpet cleaning, funniest thing was I had the carpet shampoo'd two days before, took the reciept in for it and a letter from my lawyer stating if my bond is not returned IN FULL that we would be forced to report them to fair trading....

Got my bond back in full

Im not sure about QLD but in NSW you can call the department of fair trading and they can advise you of all your rights and obligations (both tenants and landlords!). I had a dispute with a tenant about a rent increase (at work) and gave them a call, they were really helpful (surprisingly) and helped facilitate a mutually beneficial solution.

[Kikki]

Good Luck! I love my landlord, we have no issues at all. I mentioned to him that the kitchen was small here but worked, he went and go t me a brand new one same as the oven, the bathroom is being reno'd, the yard is full of car parts etc and he don't care, his motto is "You have to live there not me" although, IF we were to trash it and leave, he is only knocking it down anyways.
He wants to knock this place down and build 2 3x2's on it but wont until we give him the go ahead, he also said we can choose the interior coloring and what side of the block we want to be on Love him!

Some LL's can be assholes! I have had a couple, one of the worst was my aunty who owned the real estate she was strict!

[Noy]

Yeah me and my girlfriend just got our bond back after a long 3 months out of the rental, of battling to get our full amount back.

Big pain in the ass.

[daron]

wait till ya win and get ya cash then order 5 tones cement to be dropped off at the place and then tell truck driver nah just dump it here mate we will shovel it then after truck leave you leave
heheheh