Advice on Tenant Notice of Breach

LMontresor on 14/02/2017 - 20:04
Last edited 14/02/2017 - 20:04

Hi
Just wanted to get some advice from the community on how you would proceed on the below situation.
We've been renting this property for the last 2.5 years with no problem whatsoever. If anything we had been improving the property by erecting a shade sail over the concrete area in the backyard, landscaping the front and backyard, installing a new shower at our own cost. We had a great relationship with both property manager and landlord until recently.
At the onset of our lease, we had a verbal agreement with the landlord to landscape the front and rear yard in lieu of 2 weeks rent. We told them we also wanted to pave a section next to the driveway to allow easy access in and out. Landlord agreed and we went ahead and did it. Last week during the last inspection, we were still working on that area and the pipes were exposed just below ground level as we had dug up the soil before paving it. The landlords were not happy about this and today the property manager issued us with a notice of breach as below.

Compensation or compliance required
I require you to remedy the breach within 14 days after receiving this notice by After seeking further engineering advice following our inspection dd/mm/yy, it has been reiterated that you should not risk compromising the integrity of the sewer, rain water and gas pipes and therefore we require you to reinstate the soil/grass to its original level. The concrete lip which has been removed will also need to be reinstated to ensure cars do not drive up onto that area however this will need to be done professionally, or pay me $3,000 compensation.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • robbyjones on 14/02/2017 - 20:27
    +3

    You may not want to hear this but seems reasonable to me.

    • Montresor on 14/02/2017 - 20:44

      But they had agreed and there was no mention of pipes when they agreed. Plus why not talk to us instead of issuing notice of breach.

      • nicholsonr on 14/02/2017 - 22:53

        If you only had it verbally and not written down, it becomes a he said she said, and the landlord generally wins such a scenario.

      • Randxyz123 on 14/02/2017 - 22:58

        So? It's common sense….

        "Landscaping" to me means get a professional in not DIY.

        Always get things in writing.

        • hell0 on 14/02/2017 - 23:07

          I don't think there is a uni degree for landscaping. Any Tom, Dick & Montresor can do it.

        • Euphemistic on 15/02/2017 - 09:13
          +1

          @hell0: Apparently Harry can't though?

        • godofpizza on 15/02/2017 - 10:01

          @hell0:

          no but there's liability if things go bad. your not going to get that if it's a DIY

        • Randxyz123 on 15/02/2017 - 15:08

          @hell0: if Joe Blogg's Landscaping had done the job or was in the middle of doing the job then the land lord would have gone after the landscaper.

          As others have said always clarify the deal and get it in writing

  • infinite on 14/02/2017 - 20:48

    OP, sorry to say but you are 100% responsible for the costs if you undertook the work yourself & it was not of an acceptable standard or finished result.

    Let this be a life lesson to always put things like this in writing (at least e-mail).

  • slow on 14/02/2017 - 21:30

    Photo??

  • mreddie on 14/02/2017 - 22:12

    Yeah sorry agree with the others, landlord in the right

  • bobbified on 14/02/2017 - 23:25
    +1

    It's not like you're living rent-free or anything, so why in the world would you spend your own money improving someone else's property?

    One of the benefits of renting is the ability to move out if you don't like the place (instead of having to spend money to fix what you don't like).

    • Geewhizz on 15/02/2017 - 07:24
      +1

      We have always improved any property we rented. If you're going to live somewhere, you may as well make it enjoyable.

      It never occurred to me to ask for free rent in exchange for doing it though. lol

      We now paying off a mortgage, but at the last place we were renting, at Christmas the landlord gave us a restaurant gift voucher and a bottle of champagne.

      At one place we lived at before that the agent, during an inspection, told me I should write a handbook for renters. lol

      • bobbified on 15/02/2017 - 09:26
        +1

        You sound like the dream tenant, but unfortunately, it's not always appreciated.

        When you make changes to someone else's property, you open yourself up to a whole lot of risk with no real benefits for yourself.

        If the changes all go well, the landlord benefits from being able to increase their weekly rent amount and in the future sale of the property. Some landlords might even abuse it by using the completed works to justify a rent increase to yourself.

        If the changes don't go so well, as you now know, then you're up for the repair bill.

        You've got your own mortgage to pay off now, so hopefully you're focussing on doing improvement so that place instead of someone else's property.

        My landlord used to come visit me every few months (without the agent) to see if everything was going well and she'd take me out to lunch/dinner every time she came by. It wasn't a "sneaky inspection" or anything because she'd never ask to walk through the place. I've never met my current landlords, but the agents come around for coffee and chat when they're around - again, they're not there to inspect the place.

        I always build a relationship with the people I have to deal with, but I try and keep to the limits and look after myself too.

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