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More and more tenants believe their repairs and maintenance issues are not being dealt with once reported, new research has revealed.
According to last month’s PRDnationwide Research poll, more than 47 per cent of respondents said that the most common issue they confronted as tenants was that repair and maintenance do not occur once reported.
Award-winning property manager Dianne Mendoza, principal at PRDnationwide Ipswich, agrees these statistics seem accurate.
“I would say that is probably correct,” she told Residential Property Manager.
“But the most important point is what it is that the tenant is reporting?”
According to Ms Mendoza tenants need to be educated on what warrants a repair and maintenance report.
“It is up to the property manager to determine whether a repair is warranted," she said.
“Some of the maintenance requests that come over our counter are such little things that often do not fall under the responsibility of the landlord under the Act.
“A property manager also has to consider how much a tenant is paying for the property. I have tenants who pay $210 a week that expect the property to be maintained like they are paying $410 a week.
“Of course if there is an issue to do with safety or the workability of say the oven, that must be dealt with right away. You have a duty of care,” she said.
Ms Mendoza also recommends property managers do an inspection of every repair issue.
“[It's] very important for property managers to go and check any maintenance, because it is up to them to sell the repair to the landlord,” she said.
After repairs and maintenance, just fewer than 27 per cent of tenants said not being able to personalise the property was their most common issue, while 13 per cent said frequent forced moves and poor communication between yourself and the property manager.
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