The short answer is Yes.  As the owner, you are legally obliged to have maintenance attended to and within a timely manner. In the NT, according to legislation there is a requirement to action maintenance within 7 days.

The property must be maintained at a minimum, to the standard it was when the lease commenced.

Everything must be in good working order.

There are times that cash flow is tight for owners – some contractors will attend to works and accept payment outside their normal trading terms, if this is arranged in advance.  The normal terms range between 7 and 30 days for payment in full.

 

Please discuss this with your property Manager, who will discuss with the contractor and advise further.

In many cases, it is more financially beneficial for the owner to replace with new, and have a new warranty period, than spend monies on an aged appliance.

It is further legislated in the NT, that any plumbing or electrical works, no matter of how simple, can only be attended to by licensed, qualified contractors.  A worn washer that causes a tap to leak, can be expensive and we would recommend with an issue like this, to have all tap washers replaced with the one plumber visit.

It is imperative to remember at all times, that any unreasonable delays in having maintenance attended to leaves the option for the tenant to apply to the NTCat jurisdiction for compensation.

There are times this leads to replacement being a better option rather than a lengthy wait on parts to arrive.

At Absolute, we request in our Tenancy Agreements, that all maintenance is reported in writing. From this point forward, there is an email trail of all actions taken regarding any reported maintenance by the tenant. Our Property Managers are very aware of the need to comply with legislation, and have a commitment of a favourable outcome for all.

As a further note, maintenance on a property includes the common area of a unit as this is covered in the Tenancy Agreement. Your Property Manager will liaise regularly with the body corporate manager – however this can be “out of our hands” in many instances and we require the owner to apply additional communication for resolution.

Absolute cannot request for any repairs / works that exceed two week’s rent without a request that the owner transfer funds to our trust account in this instance, before any works are arranged.

With regard to emergency / after hours call outs: a tenant may arrange directly to a contractor or via the duty property manager within the parameters of the Act, and with these instances, we cannot guarantee the owner’s preferred contractor, if any, will be engaged.