Hi OzBargain, I'm after a bit of a sanity check here, to make sure I'm not acting like an entitled prick.
I've spent too long in the weeds of this and could do with some outside perspective. It's a bit of a long one sorry, but I do have a TL;DR at the bottom.
I live in south west Sydney, in an apartment block that has individual lock-up garages. My garage door used to have a gap above it, about 10-12cm high, across the full width of the door. As far as I can tell, it was built that way - just a poor fit, not any missing/broken chunks or anything. A couple of pigeons got in through this gap, and took up residence in my garage for maybe a month before I noticed, as I wasn't using the garage that often. They built nests on top of some things, laid eggs, and shat all over the floor and all of my belongings in the garage.
I have a bunch of shelving and workbench, lots of power tools and woodworking equipment, a spare mini fridge, 2 portable air conditioners, a near new spare queen mattress, some vintage car parts from when my dad passed away in early 2022, a whole heap of stuff.
I contacted the real estate, who acknowledged the email the same day, and then did diddly squat. When I followed it up two months later, it took them another month to organise their handyman to come out and tack up a bit of wood over the gap while I wasn't home. It was a good thing I went down there to measure the gap for him and hopefully make his job easier - I noticed it had already been done, and he had actually trapped the poor pigeons in there. I had to go in and chase the little (profanity) out with a broom and then close it up again.
Now, given that it was the pre-existing state of the property, from before I moved in, I would think it's the owner's responsibility to pay for cleaning my stuff. Obviously if I could have foreseen that gap being a problem, I never would have stored my belongings in there until it was dealt with. I'm also considered immunocompromised, because some of the medications I take suppress my immune system. So I can't risk saying (profanity) it and doing the cleaning myself.
The REA's opinion, of course, is that my stuff is my problem. And that I should also be responsible for cleaning the garage itself, as if I were to move out, I'd need to return it in the same state I got it or be held liable.
The kicker is, these pigeons got in there some time back in July 2022. I first notified the real estate on 5 August 2022. They acknowledged the email, but then, radio silence. I emailed them again on 14 October 2022. Some phone calls later, the board went up across the top mid November 2022. Over two years, many followups, and three property managers later (not to mention dozens of verbal promises along the lines of "we'll follow it up with the owner and see what he says"), I finally managed to get a response in writing two weeks ago. They have "graciously" offered that the owner will pay half the cleaning cost for the garage structure itself, i.e. only the walls and floor - absolutely nothing for my stuff. By which I assume they mean getting their handyman out with a gerni for half an hour, and calling it a day.
To be honest, I think I'm being far more reasonable than I should be. All I'm after is a thorough cleaning of whatever can be salvaged, and assistance disposing of anything that can't (like I assume the mattress is just dead, even though it was in a plastic wrap). I feel like if I escalated this to mediation/NCAT, I would be able to push for a) replacement of things that can't be cleaned, and b) compensation for the time I've been without use of my garage due to the real estate/landlords lack of action. I don't really want to have to go to any of that effort, I just want my garage and my things cleaned up so I can get back to pottering around with my little projects.
So, tell me, do you think I'm being a dickhead here? Should the landlord pay for my things to be cleaned?
Or should I just suck it up and accept that "my stuff, my problem"?
TL;DR
Two years ago, pigeons got into my garage through a pre-existing gap above the door, nested, and shat all over the garage and my stuff. Despite countless follow-ups, the real estate delayed fixing the issue, and now the landlord is only offering to cover half the cost of cleaning the garage itself - and nothing for my enshitted stuff. Am I being unreasonable in wanting them to pay for cleaning or replacing my belongings, since the issue was due to a defect in the property? Should I escalate this to mediation/NCAT, push for a better compromise, or just drop it entirely to avoid stress and potential retaliation?
cool story, sucks about the pidgeons, but it was a fun read. good luck.
I have no advice. You can try claiming on your contents insurance, but its two years ago, so they probably don't care anymore.