Hi - Help
Can anyone advise me if there is an independent body that I can take a complaint (many in fact) about my letting agent to?
The list is mind boggling and exhausting - we had been warned, and took many many digital photos when we arrived and gave detailed and documented text and digital images on pre-existing damage - thank goodness.
some (only some!) examples of what they have tried to pull on us -
A week after we moved into the
condo (only 2 years old!!) the water pipe supplying the washing machine became completely blocked with whatever - probably lime scale. Anyway - the pipe comes through solid concrete walls and we cannot have possibly done anything to make this occur - as the plumber said, it was a build-up over the past two year (when the LL lived here!) We we're told we had to pay by the agent - I kicked up a huge fuss and he informed us that (as an act of 'good faith' (what!!) they wouldn't charge us. Clearly the agent should've known we were not liable and hence gave wrong directive to foot the bill.
So in order to get through 2 weeks of washing that accumulated during repairs, my wife used the dryer which was plugged into an already existing double adapter and ran it at the same time as the washing machine - and the plug melted, - well she's not an electrical engineer and assumed she could use the appliances as configured when we arrived - so ok, we footed that bill - and the cost of properly wiring in two points which should've existed anyway, that could handle the current (coincidentally, the electrician wired the points too far away from the machines for the cords to reach....)
HOWEVER, during the plumbing repairs, the plumber tried to pull up a granite benchtop in the bathroom to find a connection, and it broke. He took photos and we advised the agent immediately. Recently when I asked the agent what was happening about the repair, he told me that we must have dropped something heavy on it and cracked it - and that the plumber cant be at fault! - we had just moved in, had no furniture, and the heaviest thing in the bathroom was my daughters toothbrush!! The agent is now saying it will come out of our deposit...... ridiculous.
He has also given me incorrect and misleading advice about facts surrounding 3 instances of balcony panels that have shattered all by themselves at our condo since new (BTW does anyone else have info on this 'phenomenon'?? _ i have two young daughters who we now wont let go out on our 6th floor deck.....)
The agent is also refusing to accept that the LL should have his mail redirected - we are getting piles of it and he expects us to call him every time new mail arrives (what? every day? I dont have time for that!) besides - he hasnt been collecting it, despite saying I must sent all info from the condo newsletter regarding the glass safety issue on to the LL - ummm, how? they dont collect it I have have no other address.
So 6K a month for this cr*p - I am a LL myself in NZ and I'm a very reasonable person - I really could do with some advice on contacting someone independent with a reasonable and logical disputes process, and hopefully a functioning brain.
cheers in advance