Philhowe

Hi Guys,
We have just moved into our first rental property. When we did the inspection there was no air conditioning fitted however there were roof vents so we assumed it was ready for a ducted system like our furnished rental. When we took the property over the owner had fitted two wall mounted units, one in the kitchen area, the other in the master bedroom.

Temperatures in Brisbane have been a steady 30C, the house is a low-set with bedrooms 2, 3 and 4 off a long hallway.

Here is the problem; the temperature in all of the bedrooms never drops below 80, even at night. It seems the location of the air-conditioning is incorrect or the house needs heat exchangers in each of the rooms. What can we do, this situation makes it impossible for the rest of the family to sleep, and therefore the rooms are unusable. In the UK I would be thinking about the need for services and goods to be ‘fit for purpose’ what grounds do we have here to make a complaint.

I’ve looked into the cost of portable units; however these are about $400 each, and we don’t see why we should pay for something that is a necessity for a reasonable level of comfort.

Your comments and suggestions would be welcome…..

Phil & Co North Brisbane

fartso

Hi there.

Sounds like the two air con units cant cope with the heat load.The air con units can only cool an area like a bedroom if the door is shut,so its cooling the room and not the whole house.

Make sure you got the right setting on the remote control,its a snow flake symbol with temperature up or down.Try running them in high fan aswell,this will help with the air flow.

Hope you get something from this? If not,think about getting some more split systems installed where you think you will need that extra bit of cooling.

Good luck!

Timber Floor Au

1. i dont think its a pre-requisite for a landlord to fit any aircons
2. if they do, its always the main living area and the master bed
3. perhaps the units are undersized
4. most aircons are purely room only, borrowed cold air is in fact nigh on impossible even on open plan homes
5.caveat empor springs to mind.
6. speak to rental agent, but dont hold your breath
7. whinging on about it, gets you no where, however, doing some readings on inside air temperature at say 6am 10am 2pm 6pm and 10pm and presenting this over say a 4 week period, could be benficial in demonstrating your issues.
8.why not pay a grand/each unit for 1hp splits fitted in the other 2 rooms, and agree to stump 50% of the cost with the owner, and then a rental reduction of 10 bucks a week over 50 weeks.

Ste

oh and edit:
Im not aware that Aic Conditioning is classed as a reasonable level of comfort / based on climatic changes.

Timber Floor Au

Usually, you get a 2.75 hp for the main living area, and a 1hp split for the master bed.

Based on normal calcs that we use, which is affected by ceiling heights, window sizes, aspect, curtain type, insulation etc etc etc .. the general rule of thumb is 16 m2 of cooling for every 1hp ( 9 000 btu )

marcpiano

Our rental has atrocious air-con too, as do many 'investment homes' people I know rent in. Investors are looking for as high a return as possible with minimal outlay, so really aren't too bothered about how hot the house gets as long as they're getting rent. And with the rental vacancy rates so low they know that they can get away with it because unless the house has a roof missing there'll be someone who is willing to rent it.

Where we live has two units - can cool two rooms upstairs with the doors short whilst the rest of upstairs is a furnace. The other cools the general downstairs area but not the master room.

C'est la vie.

Centurion

I dont really understand the problem. I assume that its OK in the master bedroom when the door is closed and it gets hot in the other rooms that dont have units in there.

Seems to be working perfectly to design....

You cant have thought that rooms without aircon would be serviced with cool air from the other rooms with it ?

Bear in mind that many properties in Queensland dont have aircon and rely on fans in the bedrooms so its certainly not a necessity I'm afraid.

Philhowe

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your comments; I guess we will have to put this down to experience. We used to own a villa in Florida, the whole place was nice and cool with roof mounted vents.

We thought the house was installed with vented aircon when we took the property; each room had a ceiling vent, as it does in the home we are in at the moment. The agent assured us it was air conditioned during our inspection.

It appears these are extractor fans. The two units were fitted two days before we moved in.

Cheers Phil

NKSK version 2

I think that there is an issue if the house was advertised as having air conditioning and you, in good faith, took on the lease assuming that the air conditioning did the job - i.e. cooled the air.

If it doesn't cool the air - and you can prove that by, for instance, taking temp readings before and after the air con has been on, then I think that you have good grounds to leave the property and have your bond returned in full.

After all, you pay extra rent to have air conditioning, if it doesn't work, why pay the extra? The analogy that I would use is if a house is deemed to have a roof and yet it is clear that after 6 months the roof constantly lets streams of water through what are your rights?