Tips to help sort out maintenance, damage and repairs

If you have maintenance and repairs concerns

Both landlords and tenants should:

• Act as soon as you are aware something needs to be repaired or maintained
• Discuss what should be done and when
• If necessary, take steps to limit damage or loss before maintenance or repairs are done
• Allow a reasonable amount of time for routine maintenance work to be completed or have it completed as soon as reasonably possible if the problem is urgent and likely to cause injury to people or damage property if it is not fixed.
• Issue a written notice to the other party telling them they haven’t met their responsibilities and giving them a reasonable amount of time to do so.
• Issue the other party with a 14 days' notice, if the matter is serious enough to lead towards ending the tenancy.
• Get quotes and ensure costs are reasonable, especially if the other party will end up paying for them
• Keep inconvenience for others to a minimum
• Clean up when the repairs or maintenance are finished
• Discuss a possible rent reduction until the repairs are completed

Have you considered asking the following questions?

1. What needs to be done to fix the problem?
2. What will repairs or maintenance involve?
3. How long will it take?
4. Can the property be lived in?
5. How much will it cost? Is the cost reasonable?
6. Who should pay for it and how?
7. What has been done so far?
8. What can be done to limit the damage?

Landlords:

• Tell the tenant about anything that needs to be repaired or maintained.
• Keep the tenant informed about progress.
• Discuss what has been done when the work has been completed.
• Keep the tenant informed if there are still issues with what has been fixed or if there are further issues that present themselves
• Pay the tenant back for any urgent work the tenant has paid for (as long as the tenant can prove they tried to tell you about the problem before getting it fixed and the tenant didn’t cause it on purpose or by being careless).

Have you considered asking the following questions?

1. Does the tenant know about it?
2. When is convenient for me/my tradesperson to come and look at it/repair it?
3. What happened? When did it happen? What caused it? Who did it?
4. Have the police been notified? (applicable for burglaries and damage caused by people who have not been invited onto the property by the tenant).

Tenants:

• Tell the landlord as soon as possible about any damage or anything that needs to be fixed
• Tell the landlord if the problem is likely to hurt people or damage anything
• Make reasonable attempts to contact the landlord about the need for the repair
• Fix any damage you or your visitors cause on purpose or by being careless, or pay for someone to fix it
• Keep the landlord informed about progress
• Discuss what has been done when the work has been completed
• Keep the landlord informed if there are still issues with what has been fixed or if there are further issues that present themselves
• If the problem is likely to hurt people or damage anything, and you have tried to get in touch with the landlord but can’t, you can get the problem fixed yourself. You can then ask the landlord to compensate you for any reasonable expense incurred in repairing the property.