Hi team,
Just looking for some advice after I've researched the applicable RTA rules here. What are your thoughts?
On Saturday at 1:30pm I missed a call from my tenant. I was with another tenant, under the kitchen sink with a multitool installing a new dishwasher for them. I looked at my phone to see the missed call, no message left, but a text straight after reading 'Hi xxxx, hope you're ok. We have a few issues at the house. Could you please call me back when you have a minute? Thank you.'
The message didn't seem urgent as she asked if I could 'call when I had a minute' so I jammed it back into my pocket to call back...when I had a minute, after installing the dishwasher.
I called back 1.5hrs later and the tenant explained that they had a tradesman working on the garage door as we spoke, as the door wouldn't shut fully and they were concerned it would be open overnight. They arranged this because they could not get a hold of me.
I was furious and as politely as I could, told them that they should have tried again to contact me, or stated some urgency in their message because I finished with my tenant at 3pm and would have come straight out and looked at the garage door. I said I am not paying the bill. They are adamant that I should pay. I do not believe that they tried hard enough to contact me. The RTA says that I need to pay if the tenant made a reasonable attempt to give me notice of the disrepair. I don't believe that they have made a reasonable attempt. Their first message stated no urgency and in fact just told me to call them 'when I had a minute' and also the 1.5 hours between their message and my callback to them, they managed to contact a random tradesman and get him on site and working on a Saturday... I don't think they left enough time for me to 'call them when I had a minute'. What would the ruling be? Did they make a reasonable attempt as per below?
Also, the other 'issue' they mentioned in their message was a hole in the garage wall they made when moving furniture around, and also a scrape in the hallway that they tried to fix themselves and painted a different colour so it is not in uniform with the rest of the house. It's a bloody brand new house.
45 Landlord’s responsibilities
Just looking for some advice after I've researched the applicable RTA rules here. What are your thoughts?
On Saturday at 1:30pm I missed a call from my tenant. I was with another tenant, under the kitchen sink with a multitool installing a new dishwasher for them. I looked at my phone to see the missed call, no message left, but a text straight after reading 'Hi xxxx, hope you're ok. We have a few issues at the house. Could you please call me back when you have a minute? Thank you.'
The message didn't seem urgent as she asked if I could 'call when I had a minute' so I jammed it back into my pocket to call back...when I had a minute, after installing the dishwasher.
I called back 1.5hrs later and the tenant explained that they had a tradesman working on the garage door as we spoke, as the door wouldn't shut fully and they were concerned it would be open overnight. They arranged this because they could not get a hold of me.
I was furious and as politely as I could, told them that they should have tried again to contact me, or stated some urgency in their message because I finished with my tenant at 3pm and would have come straight out and looked at the garage door. I said I am not paying the bill. They are adamant that I should pay. I do not believe that they tried hard enough to contact me. The RTA says that I need to pay if the tenant made a reasonable attempt to give me notice of the disrepair. I don't believe that they have made a reasonable attempt. Their first message stated no urgency and in fact just told me to call them 'when I had a minute' and also the 1.5 hours between their message and my callback to them, they managed to contact a random tradesman and get him on site and working on a Saturday... I don't think they left enough time for me to 'call them when I had a minute'. What would the ruling be? Did they make a reasonable attempt as per below?
Also, the other 'issue' they mentioned in their message was a hole in the garage wall they made when moving furniture around, and also a scrape in the hallway that they tried to fix themselves and painted a different colour so it is not in uniform with the rest of the house. It's a bloody brand new house.
45 Landlord’s responsibilities
(1) The landlord shall—
....
(d) compensate the tenant for any reasonable expenses incurred by the tenant in repairing the premises where—
(i) the state of disrepair has arisen otherwise than as a result of a breach of the tenancy agreement by the tenant and is likely to cause injury to persons or property or is otherwise serious and urgent; and
(ii) the tenant has given the landlord notice of the state of disrepair or made a reasonable attempt to do so
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