Petkula73 Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 Hi - does anyone have any advice here? To cut a long story short, we have been renting for just over two years without issue. We're model tenants, pay on time, maintain the house well and so on. We currently have an issue with a leaking pipe between our house and the adjoining property. The pipe is on our side of the wall, and is leaking water under the property, so not causing any immediate damage to either side, but potentially damaging the foundations. Although the pipe is on our side, it needs to be accessed through next door's side of the party wall. Our neighbours own their property and will not provide access until a written agreement is in place to repair work done on their side to an acceptable standard. We agree with their approach (I would ask for the same on the house I own in the UK). The problem is our agents are holding things up, and work can't get started until the agreement is in place. As tenants, this is really none of our business as it's between the two owners (i.e. the neighbour and our landlord). Therefore, we've been without water for 4 days now. We can turn the water mains on for roughly 20 min in the morning and at night, but any more than that risks damage to the properties. My question is therefore, given we can't do basic things like flush the toilet or wash our clothes, at what stage should we ask for compensation (rent reduction etc)? I think this is a tricky situation as if we appear bolshy we may find ourselves looking for a new house in two months time, yet if we do nothing we're putting ourselves through great inconvenience when the agent is clearly not fulfilling their side of the tenancy agreement. Our previous landlord tried to screw us when we moved (refusing to release the deposit and demanding $1200 to renovate his garden in order to sell the house). We ended up taking him to VCAT and won, but this is not something I want to go through again. To my mind, I think if this drags on in to the bank holiday weekend, they should either reduce the rent by 50% for the time the water was off, or pay for us to stay in a hotel until it's fixed. Advice, or previous experience much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 Assuming you are in Victoria - might be helpful to discuss it with Tenants Union of Victoria? https://www.tuv.org.au/tenants-help-line/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petkula73 Posted September 30, 2015 Author Share Posted September 30, 2015 Assuming you are in Victoria - might be helpful to discuss it with Tenants Union of Victoria? https://www.tuv.org.au/tenants-help-line/ Hi. Yes, in Victoria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 If you have reported the fault and they aren't fixing it then just use the water as you need to. Any damage is not your fault if they aren't fixing it after being notified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 If the landlord / agent are happy for you to continue using the water as and when you need it rather than just turning it on for a few mins each day, then thats what i would do. If they say you should turn it off at the mains then im sure after so many hours without they have to relocate you to a hotel or the likes. The tenancy agency for your area will be the best to ask, but id also send exactly what you have written above to your agent for a written answer (to cover your back). Id be more concerned about who is going to be paying for the water thats just draining away when the bill comes? Cal x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petkula73 Posted September 30, 2015 Author Share Posted September 30, 2015 Thanks. I've put the facts over to the estate agent and they've advised us that they have a duty of care and will advise us shortly on what the next step is, so either fixing things or something else. We don't receive a water bill for some reason. No idea why but there is no meter in the property, only for next door. We live in a semi detached (so "town house" here). The bill will be eye watering I suspect. At 3 litres per minute, after something like a month undetected this leak will have drained off something like 6.5 million litres, or 2.5 Olympic sized swimming pools! I appreciate the comment about us not being responsible for damage caused, but we want to act responsibly and not intentionally make things worse. At the end of the day, we want to continue to live here for the next few years. I think acting responsibly also strengthens our hand when the agents next try to jack up our rent. We'll be in a better position to tell them to bugger off... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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