Rental Bond Question

[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 :thumbsup:

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!