Hi guys. I'm renting a house in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. We moved in about 20 months ago and since then every time there is rain in Melbourne, there is a leak in the kitchen's roof. It's very annoying as I have to keep buckets and cloths. The amount of water is enough to fill half a bucket in 24 hours depending on how heavy the rain is. I've been complaining since week one, the real estate sent a lot of people to check and repair the roof. One guy said the only way to solve the problem was to do the roof again, but then they sent a different company that kept visiting for repairs (about 7x) without solving the problem. After 20 months, the leak is still there. Where is the leak we can see that the wood is darker (mould?).
Two weeks ago, we also found a huge infiltration under the carpet inside the wardrobe, with about 1sqm of mould. I don't know where the water is coming from as there are no signs on the walls. We recently bought an off-the-plan apartment that will be ready next year, so we were hoping the problem would be solved and that we could stay here for a few months and move to our apartment in mid-2020. Once we found the infiltration and the mood, we decided we cannot wait, so we are moving in two weeks (and spending a lot of money that we were not intending to spend now).
Four weeks ago, a new property manager took over the property and they did an inspection when I showed the problems. It's been two weeks and they haven't done anything about that. To make things worse, yesterday they sent a message asking if we could open the house today for an inspection to new tenants. I am outraged because they are planning on renting the property to new tenants without addressing the issues.
I have three questions for you guys.
The first is regarding claiming compensation for extra expenses we've had in the last 20 months, not being able to enjoy our space 100%, and sometimes even avoiding inviting friends to come over, and a lot of additional cycles using the washing machine to clean the cloths we use in the leaking, keeping the air conditioner ON more than we would, etc. Months ago I even presented with respiratory symptoms that might be related to the humidity and mould. Obviously, a lot of those things are subjective and difficult to quantify but I don't wanna just leave it; I think the owner has to be penalised someway.
My second question is regarding the notice of intention to vacate the property. I sent a letter to the agent with a date (23 days notice), and she replied saying that's 28 days so I will have to pay a few days extra. I know that usually it is 28 days but with the problems I am describing could I use one of those different reasons (repairs not performed, etc.) to leave in 14 days?
Finally, how can I try to make the owner address the issues before renting the house to other people? I feel frustrated when I imagine a family moving here with children and going through the same issues we have been going through for almost two years. I talked to the neighbour and she said the family who lived here before complained about the mould and leaking, which means that the owner is not doing anything about this. We are paying 4k/month, that's ridiculous how the owner can just keep fooling people without taking any responsibility.
I am not a lawyer and all the information that I have is from things I've read on the internet (TUV website, etc.). I've been living in Australia for five years and the only thing I see here is that owners seem to have a lot of rights but their obligations are often overlooked and neglected.
I'd appreciate your feedback, particularly if you have a better understanding of the Australian (VIC) laws.
I've found the other discussion but that doesn't answer all my questions.
Is it mandatory to stay for the entire lease term? I.e. if a new family moves in and they dont appreciate all this can they not just give notice and leave?