Can a tenant do emergency repairs?
The short answer is no, but you may be able to get a licensed tradesperson to do it. The tenant is responsible for their own personal property however, so make sure you have moved this to a safe place.
Below I have given you a summary of the relevant information from the Fair Trading website, and then a few recommendations.
Who is responsible for repairs?
The tenant should request the repair in writing to the landlord explaining what needs fixing. The tenant must have written permission from the landlord, including agreement on reimbursement, from the landlord, unless the repair is an urgent repair.
If the tenant cannot contact the landlord or agent, or if the landlord does not carry out urgent repairs within a reasonable time, the tenant can:
refer to the tenancy agreement for the details of a nominated tradesperson to contact (if any)
arrange for the work to be completed, and
be reimbursed, up to $1,000 by the landlord.
The landlord is only required to reimburse the tenant’s costs if:
the need for the urgent repair was not the tenant’s fault
they contacted the landlord or agent about the problem or made a reasonable attempt to do so
they gave the landlord or agent a reasonable opportunity to get the repairs done, and
the repairs were carried out by a licensed tradesperson (if appropriate).
After the repairs are done, the tenant needs to write to the landlord explaining the details of the repairs and include copies of all receipts.
Repairs after a disaster
Serious storm, fire or flood damage are all considered to be urgent repairs and should be handled quickly. See Urgent repairs for more information.
If the repairs are not urgent, the tenant and the landlord should agree to a timetable for repairs.
A landlord is not obliged to compensate the tenant for any damage to the tenant’s furniture or personal belongings from a natural disaster.
Urgent repairs
If an urgent repair is required, the tenant should contact the landlord or agent as soon as possible. If an urgent repair is needed, the tenant needs to notify the landlord or agent right away and arrangements should be made as soon as possible.
Urgent repairs include:
a burst water service or a serious water service leak
a blocked or broken toilet
a serious roof leak
a gas leak
an electrical fault
flooding or serious flood damage
serious storm or fire damage
a failure or breakdown of the gas, electricity or water supply to the property
a failure or breakdown of the hot water service
a failure or breakdown of the stove or oven
a failure or breakdown of a heater or air-conditioner
a fault or damage which makes the property unsafe or insecure.
Smoke alarms must also be repaired urgently to ensure they are working – further information on this is provided below under Smoke alarms.
To find out more read the post from the Department of Fair Trading.
So what is an urgent repair?
It is difficult to find case law about what is an ‘urgent repair’ because the financial cap of $1,000 means that many of these cases don’t reach the stage where they are reported. I did find this case below though, and I have put the relevant legislation for you below.
I note that the case was not on the point of urgent repairs, but the landlord was required to reimburse the tenant for a plumber callout fee because the hot water system stopped working, the plumber was called out the same day as the hot water system stopped working but fixing a hot water system was considered (in this case) to be an urgent repair.
A few recommendations
I appreciate that this probably doesn’t answer the question, in your individual circumstances, what is an urgent repair, and what does ‘a reasonable time’ or ‘handled quickly’ mean?
Even if the landlord does have to reimburse you, they have fourteen days to do it and you have to keep paying rent during that time. You could be significantly out of pocket.
Whatever is happening, whatever the repair needs are, I would recommend that you -
Take photographs
Keep written notes of what happened and when
Contact the agent using some sort of written medium (text or email) notifying them of the repair needs
Don’t rely on memory regarding when the damage occurred and how, and don’t rely on verbal phone calls. Keep a written and photographic record of the damage, what it was and when. If you do have a phone conversation that is verbal then write that down too. There are going to be a lot of repair needs, urgent repair needs in the coming weeks, and a lot of cranky landlords wondering why their property damage hasn’t been fixed because the ongoing rain will make the damage worse. The landlords are then also going to have insurance companies to deal with. This will probably mean that you end up answering the same questions many, many times and it will get stressful for everyone. Additionally, when the tradesman does arrive they will start asking you questions about what happened. Make sure that you have a record of your best attempts to deal with this, of what happened and when, and then you can just calmly read from your notes.
If you can find a recent photo in your phone of the same part of your house, now while you are calm and not being questioned, you might find that helpful down the track (if someone tries to say that the damage was not caused by the flood).
I also want to point out that you are not required to spend $1,000 on repairs, or to pay for urgent repairs out of your own pocket and be reimbursed, you can simply elect to wait.