Light fitting repairs

[JonoBoy]

Tenants report that 2 light fittings have recently stopped working. Turns out they are using standard light bulbs instead of reflector bulbs. The standard bulbs allow too much heat in the recessed light fittings decreasing the fittings life span.

Tenants now refusing to pay for repairs, should I with-hold the bond to pay for repairs after they leave in 1 month?

[Devious0]

Did they know of the correct light bulbs to fit?

It's a bit rough on them where there are so many different specialty light bulbs these days that are probably more expensive

[essence]

Withold the cost of the new light fittings from the Bond when they leave.

If the tenants aren't happy, they can take you to TT. They'll probably not bother to do that, but if they did, you'll get Mediation first, whereby you can explain the situation. Mediator will probably think "Poor tenants" and make you pay them the Bond. You can negotiate and say you want tenants to pay 50%.

How much time and effort do you want to bother with this???

[whitt]

Depends if they have been good tenants.
Weigh up the hassle vs recovery of funds

[revdev]

How much money are we talking here? It could be a fix-it-and-move-on job I think.

[PC]

It's tenant damage.
It's not normal wear & tear.

Get an electrician in to replace the damaged fittings.
~$50 for 2 recessed fittings, $65 for an hour of electrician time.
Don't do it yourself (unless you're a registered electrician).
A fire in the roof space will not be much fun.

Pay the electrician then forward the bill to the tenants.
Any other commercial activity I'd also add $50 handling fee.
But because of our communist overloads - can't do that here.

Tenants often have little idea and no concern for the costs and time of maintenance.
When they have caused the damage it can be quite fun to give them some education.