audrey426

Completely fed up, moved into a £800 pw property (newish) at Fairfield waters Townsville, and have no working oven , 1 shower out of 2 working, 2 bedrooms out of 4 inhabitable due to an ant infestation/wasp/cockroach/spiders , these things (excluding the ants), Air con is only just working if it is run either up or down the stairs, not both together, its very poor down temp in the main living areas downstairs. we only noted this once we moved in . They took 2 weeks of screaming to cut the 2ft high grass ,sort the pool, (so I had to keep the kids ,4 (ages 1- 15)shut in with faulty aircon) the reason the grass was an issue is we are over the fence from swampland so snakes were a worry. Been here 2 weeks and just want out, the place is making my skin crawl! Agent sent out pest control - only for the wasps?!! She said the ants were a sign its going to rain?!! Hmm you dont say. Agent says aircon perfectly acceptable, aircon man said it was filthy and is not big big enough a system for the size of house . No comment on the cooker/shower, still not working after 2 weeks, we have been dealing with the tenants rights people, but seems a long drawn process. Agent manager came with her clipboard, after we insisted we deal at management level, she was rude, and accused me of being abusive (I was in tears) no abuse on my part, she obviously was uncomfortable with me in tears so needed an excuse to get out fast! Has anyone just quit a tenancy, and been persued? Do I legally have a right to leave a house I can only live in half off? Fed up, feel such an idiot for not turning all these appliances on to check them prior to sighning a lease.
Please do not tell me your paying too much rent blah blah, heard it all from the locals, we did try viewing $500 a week, but were met with up to 20 people also viewing! and were desparate, (1 week left of temp accomodation) so had to look at the more expesive propetys as there was less demand, thinking oh well a nice new hassel free property - sodding Faulty towers is what Ive got, Night time is the worst, I abs dread it, I kid you not, I have to down half a bottle every night just to climb the bloody stairs, to the zoo!
In fact its that bad if you come round theres a donation tin at the door!
Neednt have worried that I ve missed this years Im A Celebrity, im ******* living it here!
Appart from that I love Townsville

IMS PIPER

I have just moved into a place as well and wasn't happy with a few things. Agents and managers will do as little as possible and tell you anything.
You can see all the legislation here http://www.rta.qld.gov.au/Legislation_section.cfm

The lease does not over ride legislation, no matter what they say.
The lessor is clearly not complying with there obligations in the legislation.

If you raise a form 11 then the lessor has 7 days to fix it. If they don't fix it then I am sure you can break lease and not loose your bond. The RTA are on the side of the tenant more often than not.
That's my view anyway.

Kim67

Document everything that's faulty (you have a right to working oven and shower) and email it all to http://www.rta.qld.gov.au/ and get their advice about whether you can break you lease on the grounds that the agents are being unreasonable about maintenance issues.

audrey426

Thankyou, I think my partner is now on his second action/ losing track as something goes wrong every day, and is having a meeting the tenants rights people at 1 today, its really getting me down now, just feel im being taken for a ride.
Ooooh must pop to the shops now to get more food for the ants!

Kim67

Buy some ant powder while you're there and follow the trail of the little buggers to their nest. Put heaps of ant powder down and around the nest and you should see fewer of them over the next few days and then they should hopefully stop after that.

Edited to add - keep the receipt and send it to the property manager for a refund.

audrey426

Or perhaps round them all up in a jar and tip them on agents desk, whilst sticking a crowbar in her aircon unit!
I actually would love to put her in one of my propertys in Scotland and turn the central heating off, then when she cal s say "Oh its just the Highland weather, you will have to acclimatise to it deary and if the rats/mice move in,thats ok its a sign of more frost!"

bcworld

I don't think it will do any good - depending on what is meant by 'newish'.

I once rented a brand new property in Brisbane with various ills similar to the OP - Fawlty Towers is apt.

Developers have a certain amount of time to address faults on new properties and with mine they showed up 1 day before that time elapsed.

The RTA were completely uninterested in helping out, citing the above, not that that should have anything to do with a tenant.

Pommiebird

We had an awful experience with our old rental and the RTA is a long drawn out process. We were advised to go to Fair Trading by the RTA after we had a mediator brought in to try and sort out all the crap with the rental agent. The RTA told us he was a in and out of tribunals and mediator sessions with them, but there hands are tied. We lodged a complaint with Fair Trading and some Real Estate registration board.


Don't let them get away with it.....we won...eventually. I feel for you tho especially at this time of year.


Good luck.

spalen

To get to some practical advice

For about 100$ or so you can get the pest people in yourself. Or you can go to woolworths or bunnings and buy some Mortein Bombs which you let off in the house and they kill everything. Bugger the landlord - if its stopping you using the property go and get it done yourself you dont eneed their permission. The professional people will put a 'barrier' spray , but the mortein bombs are meant to be just as good.

Ant-stop is good for getting rid of ants - again from woolworths - put drops down and it brings on more ants but they go again within the night take the poison back to the next and bugger off for a bit. they will come back but hopefully not in such numbers.

The Aircon story of "this unit not big enough" is usual tradey BS - equivelant to sucking air through teeth in car dealership or some other such crap. You wont get any joy from anyone on that side of your argument its one mans view vs another mans view and its tough - what you can do is get the filter out of the ceiling (its a panel that will slide out) and hoover all the crap out of it and scrub it a little with your finger nail - you'll see it clean up - then clean the whole thing like that and it'll improve the air flow through the system

On most air con you can switch on/off individual rooms either by a control panel - or - by rotating the ceiling vent to 'close' or 'open' it. You should close it in rooms you are not using and have it wide open in the rooms you want cooled most.

For the cooker and other broken electrical things - yes Form 11 , be calm, polite, as ever, put it in writing to the agent that you are complaining formally and would like them fixed immediately - make sure you do it in writing or you havent really done it at all.....

Breaking lease -you need to ask RTA about that - ask their advice based on failure to maintain properly and look in the contract on failure to do that - it'll all be in the RTA contract spelling out what remedies, what steps you have to take to trigger them , etc. I doubt you can walk though the place has to be 'uninhabitable' I would imagine. You can commonly break a lease if you get someone to take it on - by asking the agent to re-let the place with you in it, and they usually ask you to pay their fee to do that (which is fair when you think about it but may stick in your throat a tad right now).