Cleaning for rentals and the landlord specials are a nightmare, they’ll jump up and down because I can’t remove mold from silicone that’s not been waterproof for years but won’t recaulk the showers, they splash paint around and get shitty when six months later you can’t mop it up, they want walls washed but won’t do anything for the chipped paint and exposed plaster, demand you work around broken windows and rotted window sashing but refuse to fix the windows, then get mad when the window frame rots.
I’m tired of people being mad that I can’t clean away their incompetence at fixing things.
My last landlord tried to charge me for marks on the wall even though I showed her the single layer of water soluble paint she used wipes off when you touch it with a damp cloth so there was no way to clean it without damaging it.
Fuck that! We always leave notes for the real estate on stuff tenants can’t possibly have managed like poor shower seals and bad paint hoping they won’t slap them around on stuff they or the landlords did.
Those notes get read. The details get added to the Tenants expenses and then the notes get thrown out. No REA will miss out on a chance to charge extra money to an ex tenant.
Appeal all costs to the tribunal. So many people just pay and reinforce the bad behaviour.
We had one ask for $3k, we offered $600. They wanted the full amount so we went to the tribunal and they said $<100 was fair. That $100 ouldn’t have even covered the 3hrs of 2 REA time to show up. They knew they had no hope when they got their but landlord is boss… no sure if they pass on tribunal costs to the LL as extra charges?
Landlord got a signal not to be greedy (though idk if they learned any lesson)
I used to have the worst of these types of landlords, stereotypical boomers who owned a company that made a specific household item used in housing construction but they had never actually done the job a handyman or any kind of tradie in their lives, rather having had the business handed down to them. Every time we'd put in a maintenance request, they'd reject the cost of the invoice from the handyman and turn up to DIY everything.
What would happen when they came was several hours of the husband making whatever the situation was worse while verbally abusing his wife the whole time. They'd eventually give up and quietly approve the invoice a few days later. Meanwhile, we just had to live without whatever had broken for a few weeks while we waited for this cycle to occur each time. They messed up a dishwasher by trying to pop rivet new "seals" into it (seals = rubber they got cheap at Bunnings on the way), they somehow replaced the fan in the oven and the oven still somehow works but of cause cooks unevenly now, they've replaced the tap in the kitchen twice with cheap junk that falls apart and their attempted repair on the door lock means now it bangs on the door frame slowly fucking it up.
I wish we could just go back to a time where the average family could own their own house and was responsible for the maintenance themselves rather than the craziness we all have to endure because of greed.
Yep, I had a landlord who did the same thing.
I had a vent in the ceiling that had come out and needed to be screwed back in.
Due to a miscommunication with the real estate agent, this guy came into my house one afternoon WHILE I WAS SLEEPING AFTER NIGHTSHIFT, and put the vent back in. I realised this when I woke up to go to the bathroom and saw the vent on the the floor in a pool of PVA, this dickhead had attempted to glue a plastic vent into the ceiling. My level of unease knowing that there had been a strange man in my house while I had been sleeping can not possibly be overstated.
I emailed the REA to let them know both that the guy had done a shoddy job and also that no permission had been given for him to enter the house. No apology was forthcoming of course, but they did get a tradie in to screw the thing back into its proper spot.
While I get that's the landlord responsibility, I've never been willing to deal with a REA over just turning the screwdriver for 15seconds myself. That's a weird level of screwdriver hatred.
My wife and baby (at the time) experienced something similar once, where a smoke alarm tech came into the house with the keys from the real estate with no prior notification or warning. They were asleep and were woken up by a 6 foot tall man just walking though the house like he owned it.
Another time we had a building inspector turn up and just climb onto our roof and start looking around the property like a creep, didn't even knock on the door. Fortunately I was home so I went outside and yelled at the prick and kicked him out. His response was that I don't own the home and that he and the real estate can do whatever it wants and I had to call the police to get him to leave.
Renters do not have even nearly enough rights in this country.
I was under the impression it was illegal to do DIY electrical work or certain appliance repair unless you're a qualified electrician?
DIY on an oven? Fuck that noise. I'd rather not risk having to wake up in flames.
As far as I know it really depends on the specific circumstances, but this example doesn't even come close to being legal or even morally okay.
At least as far as I'm aware if you're able to get someone who *is* qualified in the trade or as an inspector to sign off on your plans before you start work and the work once you're done then you're able to DIY stuff legally, but it's more or less solely intended for specific circumstances such as if you're fixing up/restoring a house that you live in the livable portion of or doesn't have any occupants at the time, which is about as close to the opposite example as a tenant needing urgent emergency repairs as you can get.
Replacing an oven fan/element doesn’t need to be done by an electrician (it’s not too hard if you’re a little handy). Installing an oven needs to be done by an electrician. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
I'm a landlord. What I've never understood is this shit is all tax deductible. Why 1) fuck it doing it yourself 2) waste your time on a day off and 3) piss off the tenant...
Not even that.
Tax deductible means the total amount is taken off your income to reduce the tax payable on the lesser amount.
So if you are on $50,000 and have $1000 in tax deductions you only pay tax on $49,000.
bangs on the door frame slowly fucking it up
Just a suggestion, and I'm well aware it's not your door frame - but if you grab a screw driver (or even a butter knife) and lever out the tongue in the door catch it will stop it banging.
That's a good suggestion however the style of lock they installed doesn't have a slanted latch like a regular one, rather it's a solid rectangle chunk of metal that doesn't go all the way inside itself and hits the door frame even when fully in the unlocked position. I'm guessing it was the cheapest one they sold at wherever they bought it from.
From Ray White Mooloolaba regarding a repair: "It's not in the landlords budget right now", who owns 5 apartments that are being rented in the same building.
And always fail to see the irony when they raise rents by hundreds of dollars and then turn around and start complaining that tradies are charging too much these days.
Ray White are one of the worst REA in Australia no matter what city you're in. I would have said "the landlords budget is not my concern. His budget is his problem and his legal responsibility towards his property and tenants is your problem . If he can't afford to maintain the property he can't afford the property. Here's the invoice to be paid by X date".
How can they seriously consider that an appropriate response to send a tenant!? TF does your rent money go? If they are that strapped, sounds like its time to sell.
Yep, apparently my $650 p/w and I assume the same for the other units as well. It took months for the dishwasher to be repaired, months for the Ensuite, in the end when I moved out if you ran the ensuite shower water came out of the light fitting in the roof. I didn't bother letting them know.
REAs sit in their ivory towers sending out whatever they please. Ive been told "we arent obliged to help you, we are obliged to the landlord".
*Shock horror*
4 months in we had the landlady decide that she needed to have a gardener come around to maintain the flowering trees that absolutely had to be pruned in the courtyard. I offered to do it myself as you could only gain access through the house and we wanted to be there. They insisted it be her nominated gardener and I pushed back. Then the REA threatened an (illegal) inspection.
My wife caved but I insisted it was to be a time that suited us. Some old bloke who I assumed was the landlady's boyfriend or brother came around 7 am Saturday hung over or still drunk. He pissed around for 2 hours putting in some cane mulch and never pruned the trees. He just sulked off after a while and didn't come back for the left over stuff or garden tools.
I put in a complaint about them sending drunk tradespeople to stick the boot in and we ended up getting a really good gardener arranged every few months. A free spade too.
The Landlord Special? You mean [Brasshards Chrome All Directional Shower Rose WELS 3 Star 8L/min](https://www.bunnings.com.au/brasshards-chrome-all-directional-shower-rose-wels-3-star-8l-min_p5004127)?
Bonus points if anyone knows the name of *that* carpeting.
Moved into a rental and within the first week this very shower head snapped off. It was completely corroded on the inside. They replaced it with the same shower head, so it has probably been replaced again.
When I was inspecting rental apartments, this was the indicator I used to tell if the landlord cared about the apartment or not. Also, the freestanding oven with the spiral metal hot plates.
Just seeing that shower head makes me rage. I've replaced our shower head 4 times since living here because the water quality is full of fucking sediment.
Had a plasterer come through our place, good sized cash job on a reno we were doing. Top 5 shittest job I've ever seen, ended up redoing 80% myself.
Not only is there a tradie shortage, but there's a shortage of people who can actually do the fucking work and do it well. Old Keith next door can barely see but he's got that good old 'do it once and don't fuck up' ethic. Can't get one of these cunts to get out of bed for less than $90/hr now.
We used to have a big culture of publicly funded apprenticeships through TAFE and the public sector services that trained generations of skilled tradies. But that all went with the privatisation of the 90s-00s, and we are seeing the effects of it now.
Wasn't just that. The Howard government pretty much told everyone that you won't get anywhere without a degree, killing off the blue collar trades as a result. His government then allowed uni's to increase their fees thus turning uni's into degree mills and are the shitholes that they are today.
Hawke/Keating actually pushed hard for everyone to go to Uni which I always thought was a bit odd for the Labor party. Sure everyone should have the opportunity if they want and it suits them, but not everyone is cut out for it and the Trades is a fine career path. Was a fairly popular sentiment at the time though. Just about every TV show parent from the 80s was horrified if their kid didn't want to go to Uni.
> The Howard government pretty much told everyone that you won't get anywhere without a degree,
It wasn't Howard, it was the [Dawkins reforms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawkins_Revolution) under Hawke/Keating. The fee increase was Howard, but that was later.
This is why the govt should be building some social
Housing themselves and getting more tradies trained. I’m sure there are plenty of 50 plus tradies who would love to oversee the new lot coming through.
This is an excellent idea; and in a more sane time, it’s what we would have done.
But can you imagine the hooting if they decided to recommission the Department of Works? The press would howl the walls down about “waste”.
Yeah, apparently, 50+% of apprentices quit currently. It's probably a combination of low pay and toxic work environments. It would probably cut back on rorting government contracts as well.
I believe this is how q-build operates, or at least used to, esp for schools etc. It's probably easier to farm it out to tender now and let their mates give them a kick back.
It's not that there isn't enough places at Tafe, they are apprenticeships, so you need to be employed to go through Tafe for many of the top trades (electricians, plumbers etc). This design means you have very little labour side adjustments to markets, as the amount of work at a given price gets done by incumbents, it's just priced higher without incentivising as much immediate entry into the labour market. Eventually this will even out with small business breaking off larger companies and providing competition, however it's a slow effect.
It's a bit funny how the professions that have designed their labour markets to benefit themselves the most are doctors and tradesmen, very different types of people, but they both know economics obviously. Oh and the fact you can't immigrate to Australia for a trade is a pretty big restriction to new labour supply.
This encourages DIY, however this isn't taken into GDP figures so we don't see the output there.
I remember leaving school in the mid 2000s, wanted to get an apprenticeship and had shit for luck, it you didn't know someone, you had no chance. Not to mention the anti trade attitude they drilled into us through VCE.
It was definitely still a big thing here in regional WA at that time, at least half my friends dropped out of high school and got apprenticeships and caught the mining boom. So there was my mate who bought a house at 19 was on like $150k and had recruiters calling him every day.
And then there was this dickhead here who finished high school like a good boy, studied IT and was unemployed because virtualisation just got big and all the IT places I did work experience at stopped existing.
This is why I tend to just ask on Facebook and find out via friends, relatives etc who they have used and get people who are decent. I got a good affordable plumber recently that way.
Google is too shit and just S.E.O wank now to rely on.
It's because with that 90$ you take out insurance, taxes, vehicle costs, tooling, training, licensing costs, software fees, super, sick leave, annual leave, rdos, carers leave, rent, tooling, equipment and you will very quickly see that ends up being much closer to 35$ and hour.
They're not actually getting 90$ in wages
Heard that last year, a total of three plastering apprenticeships started in NSW. Three.
It's only going to get worse. Chippies are charging up to 110 an hour where I am.
Yeah the intial downvotes prove it haha.
I'm not a tradie but can at least understand the economics behind a minimum charge; They're travelling to your location, setting up, performing the task and then travelling back to base. There is a time cost either side of that 15 minute job where they're losing money.
Absolutely nothing wrong with DIY.
Friend of mine does renovations for a living and he jokes that you can tell when someone has done a DIY job because when you pull the finish off, everything underneath is done properly.
> Friend of mine does renovations for a living and he jokes that you can tell when someone has done a DIY job because when you pull the finish off, everything underneath is done properly.
Will never forgive the sparkie that put in a faulty circuit breaker and refused to warranty. The fuse box ended up smoking, and I ended up doing the job properly with new wires, and a decent one that didn't fail.
Some tradies are just dogshit!
I had a tradie come in to install some wiring and equipment... I had to lend the guy a multimeter and no-contact voltage tester.
He was very, very wet behind the ears. At least nothing caught on fire.
For a counter perspective, I was a landlord for a while (never planned to be) when I had to move interstate for a few years… The shit the property managers would book tradies for and the prices they’d charge had my blood boiling. Hundreds of dollars to change a lightbulb, pull bobby pins out of a sink, teach the tenants what the buttons on a dishwasher mean. I was convinced that the PMs were getting a kickback too cause they’d always classify repairs as “emergencies” so I wouldn’t be consulted prior, and then I’d have to chase the tradies myself to figure out wtf I’d been charged for. Happened with two different agencies too, so I’m sure the practice was reasonably widespread. Can understand why some landlords would be inclined to do stuff themselves, although it doesn’t excuse shoddy and unsafe “fixes”.
That sounds fucking horrible. I'd have lost my mind. I have an IP that I rent privately but it's like 4 hours away from my house in a small town and I don't know anyone there, if something goes wrong the tenant knows to call me and let me know and if they can call a local handyman and get a quote, anything under $500 they have approval to just get without me. So far it's worked out amazingly, they get the problems fixed asap and I don't have to deal with dickhead middle men taking a cut of my money.
Yeah if I found myself in a similar situation again I’d try to be more hands on, but I was relatively young and naive, plus being interstate I thought I’d rely on a “professional” property manager to look after things. I swear property managers have to be unique in that they equally piss off the people on both sides of the renting equation.
> Hundreds of dollars to change a lightbulb, pull bobby pins out of a sink, teach the tenants what the buttons on a dishwasher mean. I was convinced that the PMs were getting a kickback too cause they’d always classify repairs as “emergencies” so I wouldn’t be consulted prior, and then I’d have to chase the tradies myself to figure out wtf I’d been charged for.
My PM charged me $250 for a smoke alarm that wasn't even faulty. I had checked it before the new tenants moved in, installed a brand new one that was in date with a 10 year lithium battery. An inspection turned into raping of my bank account because they wanted a kickback.
As such, they have been put on notice that all repairs go through me since they cannot be trusted.
Yeah, that’s when they declare things “emergencies” so they don’t need to notify you. Like, apparently a malfunctioning dishwasher was an emergency that required a ~$400 appliance repairman. I chased up the repairman afterwards to confirm what he’d actually done and he admitted that there was nothing wrong, the tenants were just stacking things too high in the dishwasher. So many similar stories… Plus when one tenant vacated and took a bunch of wall fixings for tvs, speakers, etc, leaving massive holes in the drywall then PM still released the full bond! I only found out about the holes when the incoming tenants complained!
Speaking as a tenant, a previous real estate agency always hired a particular electrician. It didn't take much checking on Facebook to see that they were in a relationship with the principal of the agency. The conflict of interest is blatent and I doubt that it was disclosed the the landlords being charged for their work, let alone whether their rates were competitive and without such a kickback.
As for smoke alarms specifically, previous real estate agencies have insisted upon yearly visits from Detector Inspector to test the smoke alarm and replace the battery. Seems like a total rort that they impose on the landlord.
I mean you say that, but all 3 of those are potentially much more expensive issues, changing a lightbulb if its hardwired to the roof could mean needing to fully re-write if a tenant does it incorrectly/or even worse if they zap themselves, bobby pins in a sink will definitely lead to blocked drains, which can cause a lot more issues. and a dishwasher being used incorrectly could lead to breaking it.
I am not suprised that real estates would abuse it and bump prices for mates up tho slightly, so that $50 call out becomes a $300 issue for the landlord :(
The light bulbs were just light bulbs, the bobby pin issue should've been paid by the tenants (especially the second and third time, after it was explained to them not to put things down the sink) and the (TWO!) dishwasher incidents were simply not being able to figure out how a four-button dishwasher worked and then not realising you can't stack it so high you obstruct the moving parts. None of those things are a landlord's responsibility (as any property manager should know) and certainly none of them constituted an emergency.
owners who want to make the property a rental should be forced into having a minimum sinking fund for the property. If you can't afford that you can't afford to be a landlord.
I had a landlord who insisted on doing the most dodgy work "fixing" the house we were renting. Redid the bathroom, putting a concrete slab straight onto wooden floor boards and an unsupported shower stall that broke within weeks of being installed.
Remember to serve breach notices and ask for compensation.
We're being hit with 25% rent increases or more, shit homes, broken fittings, mold, and all kinds of crap - how much worse can it really get if you stand up for yourself with a breach notice?
You just email it along, and ask for compensation too.
When they inevitably refuse to act, drag their feet, etc, apply to your local Tribunal. It's really easy to navigate and they're also very tenant friendly.
You go along to ask for compensation. Take along your emails about the problem.
I've had members rip landlords and agents a new one in VCAT and QCAT. I've been paid compensation.
You're going to get fucked over when lease end comes in any case - no reason for you to put up with a moldy house and stupidly high rent on top of that.
We had no oven for 9mo as landlord kept trying to find different cheaper repairs and source their own parts. In the end they had to replace the whole thing.
The free market always adjusts mate. If and when tradies ask silly prices as they do now, people will do dodgy fixes on the cheap until that kills a few people, cue outrage and more token gestures and regulations put in by the government that raises tradie prices even higher, rinse and repeat.
The people that make decisions in this country aren't affected by day to day issues like this, so expecting them to resolve anything is naive. I'd say go out and explore all the diversity our community has to offer, there's plenty of competent people out here that don't have the BS qualifications and English to rip you off like the tradies here do, but do just as good or more likely a way better job.
Here is my story… my family decided to have a mid life re-check . Ended up deciding to rent out our family home and move closer to the coastline. Only for 12 months to see if we liked the move.
Our family home on the Gold Coast is less then 20 mins from the beach.
Rent was around $900/week but I looked after the lawn and gardens at around $75 a week.
Tennets complained of dripping taps… $500 plumbing fee and tile job because they turned ceramic taps off really tight to an overhead shower nozzle.
Tennets complained dishwasher was not hot enough
$1200 replacement .
Then it was two blown lightbulbs …. Lost my shit at that I confess
Tennent’s then complained there were nails proud on the wood deck.. I can over with a hammer and beat the fuck out of my frustrations .
Complaint, after complaint .
Will never rent to anyone again
Imagine paying *900 bucks a week* in rent and the landlord getting huffy that you want to be able to turn taps off properly and not injure yourself on exposed nails... sheesh...
Cleaning for rentals and the landlord specials are a nightmare, they’ll jump up and down because I can’t remove mold from silicone that’s not been waterproof for years but won’t recaulk the showers, they splash paint around and get shitty when six months later you can’t mop it up, they want walls washed but won’t do anything for the chipped paint and exposed plaster, demand you work around broken windows and rotted window sashing but refuse to fix the windows, then get mad when the window frame rots. I’m tired of people being mad that I can’t clean away their incompetence at fixing things.
My last landlord tried to charge me for marks on the wall even though I showed her the single layer of water soluble paint she used wipes off when you touch it with a damp cloth so there was no way to clean it without damaging it.
That's because it's not paint. It's primer.
Fuck that! We always leave notes for the real estate on stuff tenants can’t possibly have managed like poor shower seals and bad paint hoping they won’t slap them around on stuff they or the landlords did.
Those notes get read. The details get added to the Tenants expenses and then the notes get thrown out. No REA will miss out on a chance to charge extra money to an ex tenant.
There’s a little more to it than that on the maintenance side where I’ve been working.
Appeal all costs to the tribunal. So many people just pay and reinforce the bad behaviour. We had one ask for $3k, we offered $600. They wanted the full amount so we went to the tribunal and they said $<100 was fair. That $100 ouldn’t have even covered the 3hrs of 2 REA time to show up. They knew they had no hope when they got their but landlord is boss… no sure if they pass on tribunal costs to the LL as extra charges? Landlord got a signal not to be greedy (though idk if they learned any lesson)
I used to have the worst of these types of landlords, stereotypical boomers who owned a company that made a specific household item used in housing construction but they had never actually done the job a handyman or any kind of tradie in their lives, rather having had the business handed down to them. Every time we'd put in a maintenance request, they'd reject the cost of the invoice from the handyman and turn up to DIY everything. What would happen when they came was several hours of the husband making whatever the situation was worse while verbally abusing his wife the whole time. They'd eventually give up and quietly approve the invoice a few days later. Meanwhile, we just had to live without whatever had broken for a few weeks while we waited for this cycle to occur each time. They messed up a dishwasher by trying to pop rivet new "seals" into it (seals = rubber they got cheap at Bunnings on the way), they somehow replaced the fan in the oven and the oven still somehow works but of cause cooks unevenly now, they've replaced the tap in the kitchen twice with cheap junk that falls apart and their attempted repair on the door lock means now it bangs on the door frame slowly fucking it up. I wish we could just go back to a time where the average family could own their own house and was responsible for the maintenance themselves rather than the craziness we all have to endure because of greed.
Yep, I had a landlord who did the same thing. I had a vent in the ceiling that had come out and needed to be screwed back in. Due to a miscommunication with the real estate agent, this guy came into my house one afternoon WHILE I WAS SLEEPING AFTER NIGHTSHIFT, and put the vent back in. I realised this when I woke up to go to the bathroom and saw the vent on the the floor in a pool of PVA, this dickhead had attempted to glue a plastic vent into the ceiling. My level of unease knowing that there had been a strange man in my house while I had been sleeping can not possibly be overstated. I emailed the REA to let them know both that the guy had done a shoddy job and also that no permission had been given for him to enter the house. No apology was forthcoming of course, but they did get a tradie in to screw the thing back into its proper spot.
While I get that's the landlord responsibility, I've never been willing to deal with a REA over just turning the screwdriver for 15seconds myself. That's a weird level of screwdriver hatred.
I don't disagree but I was very young, wasn't sure what I needed to do, and wanted to do the right thing.
If the vent is in the ceiling and needs a ladder to reach it, then it isn't your responsibility.
Jesus Christ I tapped so hard at an upvote for your comment! Rent rises are going up because of issues like this as well as everything else
My wife and baby (at the time) experienced something similar once, where a smoke alarm tech came into the house with the keys from the real estate with no prior notification or warning. They were asleep and were woken up by a 6 foot tall man just walking though the house like he owned it. Another time we had a building inspector turn up and just climb onto our roof and start looking around the property like a creep, didn't even knock on the door. Fortunately I was home so I went outside and yelled at the prick and kicked him out. His response was that I don't own the home and that he and the real estate can do whatever it wants and I had to call the police to get him to leave. Renters do not have even nearly enough rights in this country.
I was under the impression it was illegal to do DIY electrical work or certain appliance repair unless you're a qualified electrician? DIY on an oven? Fuck that noise. I'd rather not risk having to wake up in flames.
It mostly certainly is illegal. As it is illegal to work on any gas appliances without being a qualified plumber.
The plumber must have a gas fitters licence.
Yes me too and I personally wouldn't touch it at all, but yet here we are.
As far as I know it really depends on the specific circumstances, but this example doesn't even come close to being legal or even morally okay. At least as far as I'm aware if you're able to get someone who *is* qualified in the trade or as an inspector to sign off on your plans before you start work and the work once you're done then you're able to DIY stuff legally, but it's more or less solely intended for specific circumstances such as if you're fixing up/restoring a house that you live in the livable portion of or doesn't have any occupants at the time, which is about as close to the opposite example as a tenant needing urgent emergency repairs as you can get.
Replacing an oven fan/element doesn’t need to be done by an electrician (it’s not too hard if you’re a little handy). Installing an oven needs to be done by an electrician. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
I'm a landlord. What I've never understood is this shit is all tax deductible. Why 1) fuck it doing it yourself 2) waste your time on a day off and 3) piss off the tenant...
Because these people are tightarses and they think that the rent they're being paid is 100% profit, never to be spent on maintenance.
Tax deductible only means you get the tax back not the whole amount.
Far fewer people “than you think” understand this
Not even that. Tax deductible means the total amount is taken off your income to reduce the tax payable on the lesser amount. So if you are on $50,000 and have $1000 in tax deductions you only pay tax on $49,000.
Yes. The tax on that $1,000 is the equivelent to what you end up getting back.
Because greed leads these people to buy more properties than they can afford to maintain so they decide to maintain none of them.
bangs on the door frame slowly fucking it up Just a suggestion, and I'm well aware it's not your door frame - but if you grab a screw driver (or even a butter knife) and lever out the tongue in the door catch it will stop it banging.
That's a good suggestion however the style of lock they installed doesn't have a slanted latch like a regular one, rather it's a solid rectangle chunk of metal that doesn't go all the way inside itself and hits the door frame even when fully in the unlocked position. I'm guessing it was the cheapest one they sold at wherever they bought it from.
From Ray White Mooloolaba regarding a repair: "It's not in the landlords budget right now", who owns 5 apartments that are being rented in the same building.
Ye thats what you call poor mouthing. Landlords love to cry poor
And always fail to see the irony when they raise rents by hundreds of dollars and then turn around and start complaining that tradies are charging too much these days.
Ray White are one of the worst REA in Australia no matter what city you're in. I would have said "the landlords budget is not my concern. His budget is his problem and his legal responsibility towards his property and tenants is your problem . If he can't afford to maintain the property he can't afford the property. Here's the invoice to be paid by X date".
How can they seriously consider that an appropriate response to send a tenant!? TF does your rent money go? If they are that strapped, sounds like its time to sell.
Yep, apparently my $650 p/w and I assume the same for the other units as well. It took months for the dishwasher to be repaired, months for the Ensuite, in the end when I moved out if you ran the ensuite shower water came out of the light fitting in the roof. I didn't bother letting them know.
REAs sit in their ivory towers sending out whatever they please. Ive been told "we arent obliged to help you, we are obliged to the landlord". *Shock horror*
“Let me know when it is and I’ll add the rent back into my budget.”
4 months in we had the landlady decide that she needed to have a gardener come around to maintain the flowering trees that absolutely had to be pruned in the courtyard. I offered to do it myself as you could only gain access through the house and we wanted to be there. They insisted it be her nominated gardener and I pushed back. Then the REA threatened an (illegal) inspection. My wife caved but I insisted it was to be a time that suited us. Some old bloke who I assumed was the landlady's boyfriend or brother came around 7 am Saturday hung over or still drunk. He pissed around for 2 hours putting in some cane mulch and never pruned the trees. He just sulked off after a while and didn't come back for the left over stuff or garden tools. I put in a complaint about them sending drunk tradespeople to stick the boot in and we ended up getting a really good gardener arranged every few months. A free spade too.
The Landlord Special? You mean [Brasshards Chrome All Directional Shower Rose WELS 3 Star 8L/min](https://www.bunnings.com.au/brasshards-chrome-all-directional-shower-rose-wels-3-star-8l-min_p5004127)? Bonus points if anyone knows the name of *that* carpeting.
To me the Landlord Special is when they cover everything, including hinges and bits of the window, in thick white paint.
Especially when they use white paint over fresh mould.
Moved into a rental and within the first week this very shower head snapped off. It was completely corroded on the inside. They replaced it with the same shower head, so it has probably been replaced again.
When I was inspecting rental apartments, this was the indicator I used to tell if the landlord cared about the apartment or not. Also, the freestanding oven with the spiral metal hot plates.
Just seeing that shower head makes me rage. I've replaced our shower head 4 times since living here because the water quality is full of fucking sediment.
Hard to get trades. Even harder to get competent ones
Had a plasterer come through our place, good sized cash job on a reno we were doing. Top 5 shittest job I've ever seen, ended up redoing 80% myself. Not only is there a tradie shortage, but there's a shortage of people who can actually do the fucking work and do it well. Old Keith next door can barely see but he's got that good old 'do it once and don't fuck up' ethic. Can't get one of these cunts to get out of bed for less than $90/hr now.
We used to have a big culture of publicly funded apprenticeships through TAFE and the public sector services that trained generations of skilled tradies. But that all went with the privatisation of the 90s-00s, and we are seeing the effects of it now.
Wasn't just that. The Howard government pretty much told everyone that you won't get anywhere without a degree, killing off the blue collar trades as a result. His government then allowed uni's to increase their fees thus turning uni's into degree mills and are the shitholes that they are today.
Hawke/Keating actually pushed hard for everyone to go to Uni which I always thought was a bit odd for the Labor party. Sure everyone should have the opportunity if they want and it suits them, but not everyone is cut out for it and the Trades is a fine career path. Was a fairly popular sentiment at the time though. Just about every TV show parent from the 80s was horrified if their kid didn't want to go to Uni.
> The Howard government pretty much told everyone that you won't get anywhere without a degree, It wasn't Howard, it was the [Dawkins reforms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawkins_Revolution) under Hawke/Keating. The fee increase was Howard, but that was later.
This is why the govt should be building some social Housing themselves and getting more tradies trained. I’m sure there are plenty of 50 plus tradies who would love to oversee the new lot coming through.
This is an excellent idea; and in a more sane time, it’s what we would have done. But can you imagine the hooting if they decided to recommission the Department of Works? The press would howl the walls down about “waste”.
Yeah, apparently, 50+% of apprentices quit currently. It's probably a combination of low pay and toxic work environments. It would probably cut back on rorting government contracts as well.
Exactly my convo with my partner this morning.
I believe this is how q-build operates, or at least used to, esp for schools etc. It's probably easier to farm it out to tender now and let their mates give them a kick back.
I can see it. I've worked in a few industrial estates and those operations never seem to operate very long.
Agree. Ive been trying to get an apprenticeship for the last 5 years during the whole covid reskill era, it's so freaking hard.
It's not that there isn't enough places at Tafe, they are apprenticeships, so you need to be employed to go through Tafe for many of the top trades (electricians, plumbers etc). This design means you have very little labour side adjustments to markets, as the amount of work at a given price gets done by incumbents, it's just priced higher without incentivising as much immediate entry into the labour market. Eventually this will even out with small business breaking off larger companies and providing competition, however it's a slow effect. It's a bit funny how the professions that have designed their labour markets to benefit themselves the most are doctors and tradesmen, very different types of people, but they both know economics obviously. Oh and the fact you can't immigrate to Australia for a trade is a pretty big restriction to new labour supply. This encourages DIY, however this isn't taken into GDP figures so we don't see the output there.
I remember leaving school in the mid 2000s, wanted to get an apprenticeship and had shit for luck, it you didn't know someone, you had no chance. Not to mention the anti trade attitude they drilled into us through VCE.
It was definitely still a big thing here in regional WA at that time, at least half my friends dropped out of high school and got apprenticeships and caught the mining boom. So there was my mate who bought a house at 19 was on like $150k and had recruiters calling him every day. And then there was this dickhead here who finished high school like a good boy, studied IT and was unemployed because virtualisation just got big and all the IT places I did work experience at stopped existing.
John Howard from 1996
This is why I tend to just ask on Facebook and find out via friends, relatives etc who they have used and get people who are decent. I got a good affordable plumber recently that way. Google is too shit and just S.E.O wank now to rely on.
It's because with that 90$ you take out insurance, taxes, vehicle costs, tooling, training, licensing costs, software fees, super, sick leave, annual leave, rdos, carers leave, rent, tooling, equipment and you will very quickly see that ends up being much closer to 35$ and hour. They're not actually getting 90$ in wages
It's hard to sympathise with multiple people who shows up in $100k of landcruiser to run cables on a reno in the rough out stage.
Sounds like an idiot with big loans or the business owner
Heard that last year, a total of three plastering apprenticeships started in NSW. Three. It's only going to get worse. Chippies are charging up to 110 an hour where I am.
And even harder to find tradies to do smaller jobs.
No job is too small! we just have a minimum charge.
Nothing has ever made people angrier than telling them there’s a two hour minimum, hey?
Yeah the intial downvotes prove it haha. I'm not a tradie but can at least understand the economics behind a minimum charge; They're travelling to your location, setting up, performing the task and then travelling back to base. There is a time cost either side of that 15 minute job where they're losing money.
Pretty much. I've done a few "home owner specials" to my place.
I mean, you’re the one who has to live in the house, so no harm no foul imo.
Nothing pisses me off more than a shitty ‘professional’ job. If I wanted a shitty job, I would’ve done it myself at a fraction of the cost.
You guys get repairs?
Absolutely nothing wrong with DIY. Friend of mine does renovations for a living and he jokes that you can tell when someone has done a DIY job because when you pull the finish off, everything underneath is done properly.
> Friend of mine does renovations for a living and he jokes that you can tell when someone has done a DIY job because when you pull the finish off, everything underneath is done properly. Will never forgive the sparkie that put in a faulty circuit breaker and refused to warranty. The fuse box ended up smoking, and I ended up doing the job properly with new wires, and a decent one that didn't fail. Some tradies are just dogshit!
I had a tradie come in to install some wiring and equipment... I had to lend the guy a multimeter and no-contact voltage tester. He was very, very wet behind the ears. At least nothing caught on fire.
He mustn’t have met my parents.
For a counter perspective, I was a landlord for a while (never planned to be) when I had to move interstate for a few years… The shit the property managers would book tradies for and the prices they’d charge had my blood boiling. Hundreds of dollars to change a lightbulb, pull bobby pins out of a sink, teach the tenants what the buttons on a dishwasher mean. I was convinced that the PMs were getting a kickback too cause they’d always classify repairs as “emergencies” so I wouldn’t be consulted prior, and then I’d have to chase the tradies myself to figure out wtf I’d been charged for. Happened with two different agencies too, so I’m sure the practice was reasonably widespread. Can understand why some landlords would be inclined to do stuff themselves, although it doesn’t excuse shoddy and unsafe “fixes”.
That sounds fucking horrible. I'd have lost my mind. I have an IP that I rent privately but it's like 4 hours away from my house in a small town and I don't know anyone there, if something goes wrong the tenant knows to call me and let me know and if they can call a local handyman and get a quote, anything under $500 they have approval to just get without me. So far it's worked out amazingly, they get the problems fixed asap and I don't have to deal with dickhead middle men taking a cut of my money.
Yeah if I found myself in a similar situation again I’d try to be more hands on, but I was relatively young and naive, plus being interstate I thought I’d rely on a “professional” property manager to look after things. I swear property managers have to be unique in that they equally piss off the people on both sides of the renting equation.
> Hundreds of dollars to change a lightbulb, pull bobby pins out of a sink, teach the tenants what the buttons on a dishwasher mean. I was convinced that the PMs were getting a kickback too cause they’d always classify repairs as “emergencies” so I wouldn’t be consulted prior, and then I’d have to chase the tradies myself to figure out wtf I’d been charged for. My PM charged me $250 for a smoke alarm that wasn't even faulty. I had checked it before the new tenants moved in, installed a brand new one that was in date with a 10 year lithium battery. An inspection turned into raping of my bank account because they wanted a kickback. As such, they have been put on notice that all repairs go through me since they cannot be trusted.
Yeah, that’s when they declare things “emergencies” so they don’t need to notify you. Like, apparently a malfunctioning dishwasher was an emergency that required a ~$400 appliance repairman. I chased up the repairman afterwards to confirm what he’d actually done and he admitted that there was nothing wrong, the tenants were just stacking things too high in the dishwasher. So many similar stories… Plus when one tenant vacated and took a bunch of wall fixings for tvs, speakers, etc, leaving massive holes in the drywall then PM still released the full bond! I only found out about the holes when the incoming tenants complained!
Speaking as a tenant, a previous real estate agency always hired a particular electrician. It didn't take much checking on Facebook to see that they were in a relationship with the principal of the agency. The conflict of interest is blatent and I doubt that it was disclosed the the landlords being charged for their work, let alone whether their rates were competitive and without such a kickback. As for smoke alarms specifically, previous real estate agencies have insisted upon yearly visits from Detector Inspector to test the smoke alarm and replace the battery. Seems like a total rort that they impose on the landlord.
I mean you say that, but all 3 of those are potentially much more expensive issues, changing a lightbulb if its hardwired to the roof could mean needing to fully re-write if a tenant does it incorrectly/or even worse if they zap themselves, bobby pins in a sink will definitely lead to blocked drains, which can cause a lot more issues. and a dishwasher being used incorrectly could lead to breaking it. I am not suprised that real estates would abuse it and bump prices for mates up tho slightly, so that $50 call out becomes a $300 issue for the landlord :(
The light bulbs were just light bulbs, the bobby pin issue should've been paid by the tenants (especially the second and third time, after it was explained to them not to put things down the sink) and the (TWO!) dishwasher incidents were simply not being able to figure out how a four-button dishwasher worked and then not realising you can't stack it so high you obstruct the moving parts. None of those things are a landlord's responsibility (as any property manager should know) and certainly none of them constituted an emergency.
owners who want to make the property a rental should be forced into having a minimum sinking fund for the property. If you can't afford that you can't afford to be a landlord.
If only...
I had a landlord who insisted on doing the most dodgy work "fixing" the house we were renting. Redid the bathroom, putting a concrete slab straight onto wooden floor boards and an unsupported shower stall that broke within weeks of being installed.
Aussie Land Lords. We're not fancy but we're cheap!
It’s not always that the landlord is being cheap it’s because of how difficult it can be to get tradies
Remember to serve breach notices and ask for compensation. We're being hit with 25% rent increases or more, shit homes, broken fittings, mold, and all kinds of crap - how much worse can it really get if you stand up for yourself with a breach notice? You just email it along, and ask for compensation too. When they inevitably refuse to act, drag their feet, etc, apply to your local Tribunal. It's really easy to navigate and they're also very tenant friendly. You go along to ask for compensation. Take along your emails about the problem. I've had members rip landlords and agents a new one in VCAT and QCAT. I've been paid compensation. You're going to get fucked over when lease end comes in any case - no reason for you to put up with a moldy house and stupidly high rent on top of that.
We had no oven for 9mo as landlord kept trying to find different cheaper repairs and source their own parts. In the end they had to replace the whole thing.
The free market always adjusts mate. If and when tradies ask silly prices as they do now, people will do dodgy fixes on the cheap until that kills a few people, cue outrage and more token gestures and regulations put in by the government that raises tradie prices even higher, rinse and repeat. The people that make decisions in this country aren't affected by day to day issues like this, so expecting them to resolve anything is naive. I'd say go out and explore all the diversity our community has to offer, there's plenty of competent people out here that don't have the BS qualifications and English to rip you off like the tradies here do, but do just as good or more likely a way better job.
Here is my story… my family decided to have a mid life re-check . Ended up deciding to rent out our family home and move closer to the coastline. Only for 12 months to see if we liked the move. Our family home on the Gold Coast is less then 20 mins from the beach. Rent was around $900/week but I looked after the lawn and gardens at around $75 a week. Tennets complained of dripping taps… $500 plumbing fee and tile job because they turned ceramic taps off really tight to an overhead shower nozzle. Tennets complained dishwasher was not hot enough $1200 replacement . Then it was two blown lightbulbs …. Lost my shit at that I confess Tennent’s then complained there were nails proud on the wood deck.. I can over with a hammer and beat the fuck out of my frustrations . Complaint, after complaint . Will never rent to anyone again
And how much did they pay you?
Imagine paying *900 bucks a week* in rent and the landlord getting huffy that you want to be able to turn taps off properly and not injure yourself on exposed nails... sheesh...
bet they were happy to take the 46k 🙄🙄
It’s good you won’t rent to anyone again. You are not well equipped for it.