Aircon Broken, Agency has not fixed it 5+ Months. Compensation

• • 

    carlitos on 23/03/2015 - 15:05

    While good advice from the info I have given, the hassles of moving is too great, generally other repairs have been taken care of, this one is just going to cost the landlord something around the $8000 mark and is a unique situation.

    • 

      npc on 23/03/2015 - 16:47

      +1

      I'd be interested what sort of aircon is installed in your apartment. $8k is the cost of brand new ducted system installed…

      • 

        carlitos on 23/03/2015 - 18:08

        Yep its ducted, apparently that was the rough estimate price or a new one, it sits in the basement of the apartment. Very large.

      • 

        bobbified on 23/03/2015 - 22:54

        @carlitos:

        I could be wrong, but I thought that an airconditioning unit that is in the basement of the apartment block, on common property that is managed by the body corporate, would come under their responsibility - rather than the owners of the individual apartments?

        Unless each aircon unit service one apartment only? which kind of sounds a little inefficient, particularly in a normal sized apartment block where there's lot of apartments….

        Anyway.. it was just a thought since it might be easier to arrange for it to get fixed if it fell under the body corporate's responsibility.

      • 

        carlitos on 23/03/2015 - 23:57

        @hv: Each apartment does indeed have their own unit. Owned by the apartment owner.

• 

  QW3RTY on 23/03/2015 - 15:00

  +3

  Five months is certainly an unacceptable time period for an air conditioning unit to be down. Firstly, everything you need to do from now on must be in written correspondence — of which you keep copies.

  I would write to the Landlord/REA and advise them that this is an unacceptable period for the A/C to be down. Advise that you pay rental with the understanding that the Premises is kept in the condition prescribed under your Lease. Your Lease will contain clauses that relate to the Lessor's obligations, and often the phrase "reasonable timing" is used. If so, the Lease is doing your work for you and you just need to affirm your dissatisfaction with the five month period.

  I would start with a general request for compensation via your rental for the past 2 months. Three months is an ample amount of time to get contractors out, engage suppliers, obtain quotes, compare quotes, commence and finalise works.

  As for the amount you go about trying to claim, there's no set formulae, I'd go for 1 week rent free per calendar month. That'll rattle their cages a bit.

  Send weekly letters following up, and then if you make no headway, you are actually able to seek assistance through the QLD RTA.

  • 

    carlitos on 23/03/2015 - 15:04

    +3

    This sounds along the lines of what I was getting at and appreciate your response thanks!

    • 

      PVA on 23/03/2015 - 19:01

      exactly what Qwerty has said. everything in writing.

• 

  toniyellow on 23/03/2015 - 15:12

  Try the tenant's union in your state for advice, you may need to take it to whatever body governs tenants in your state e.g. http://www.tenanthelp.com.au/qld/Rentdecreases/

  Look around for whatever a similar unit in your area without aircon rents for. The difference is likely what you would get in rent if it went as far as mediation.

  In my area of NSW this would not be much, perhaps $20 a week. If you are in QLD I expect it is much more significant.

  • • 

      toniyellow on 23/03/2015 - 15:25

      I don't they will award compensation, only a reduction in rent equivalent to what a unit without aircon rents for. I think that would be easy to achieve, you can prove when the service stopped, how long it stopped for, and what other units in the area rent for without aircon.

      Though if the different isn't much it may not be worth the effort.

      • 

        carlitos on 23/03/2015 - 15:45

        They would have to pay more then simply the difference without aircons since the nature of this apartment requires air conditioning to be within living standards, its not simply a feature bonus.

• 

  iridiumstem on 23/03/2015 - 15:56

  I've talked to those free legal advisors on similar matter, no heating during Canberra winter when I was paying for the heating (+ invasion of privacy).

  I think their advise was, talk to the landlord first and give them a deadline to amend your issues, if they don't get it done by then/don't compensate you, then you take it to some civil agency. If the landlord goes against the settlement set by the agency, then you can take it to the court to settle it. Something like that, I personally don't like those people who abuse their position and ignore their responsibilities, so I try to not think about the incident.

  I think you should talk to those legal advisors (I'd assume that they'd have a free legal advisors in where you live as well?), and follow their advise.

• 

  bobbified on 23/03/2015 - 16:53

  It sounds like you've done a lot to help them try get the issue sorted.
  If they're not paying any attention or they're just completely ignoring you, it may not be within your contractual agreements, but the last resort could be to withold the rent. I bet that'd get their attention pretty quickly.

• 

  juventino on 23/03/2015 - 18:32

  +1

  and in those five months, you didn't attempt to at least get a fan ? I know that would be the first thing I do after a few days of non functioning AC, let alone five months

  • 

    carlitos on 23/03/2015 - 23:59

    It's more complicated then that I guess, since its broken in that it shuts off randomly. So it works at times but suddenly in the night it can get extremely hot.

    • 

      npc on 24/03/2015 - 10:36

      Another question out of curiosity - is it Fujitsu?

      • 

        carlitos on 26/03/2015 - 00:24

        Hitachi

• 

  backpaqer on 24/03/2015 - 09:10

  I'd just move.

• 

  SolarEvents on 25/03/2015 - 11:50

  +1

  I read above withholding the rent, although instinctively you might feel doing so, never do that. Always keep paying the rent. If it gets to that point, cases like this are almost always won by the party who kept fulfilling their contractual obligations.

  You have been doing that and you have been patient and you have been trying to help them. The landlord should count himself very lucky, he is the one who has not fixed the aircon in a reasonable time frame.

  The rental boards always tell you to settle this between you and the landlord first and if this fails then you can engage further action, so set a deadline in writing to the landlord when this aircon should be fixed, don't threaten him with "or else", stick to the facts, keep a paper trail on everything.

  If no action is taken then go to your relevant states board and ask for the exact procedure to be followed, don't guess on this.

  The thing is, this might lead to "disturbed" relationship afterwards if things heat up (forgive me the choice of words) too much so if you like living there follow normal procedures and try to stay cool (again no pun intended).

  Good luck

  • 

    carlitos on 26/03/2015 - 00:25

    Thanks!