This morning I had a long and luxurious shower for the first time in weeks because our sewer system has been playing up again and we’ve been on water rations in case it completely blocks. Every time we flush the toilet it’s like rolling a dice as to whether the water and waste would drain away or not.
This has been an ongoing complaint since we first moved in and we had a drainage specialist out when we first moved in (we had the same problem then) who said they could temporarily fix it (ie cut away some of the bigger roots in the pipes) but ultimately they need to dig up pipes and replace them for about $2 to $4K.
Because our house has been for sale the landlords have not gone ahead with the repair work and it means that every few months we’re sending in another maintenance report to the real estate agent. This time the agent sent out a work order to the plumber some 24 hours after we flagged that the problem had escalated and the toilet was actually completely blocked now and we couldn’t use it. The plumber also didn’t return to work till the following day so we have been on high alert all week.
I’m on a first name basis with the plumber now - Micheal is angry on our behalf knowing that he could fix the problem properly if the landlords were willing to pay. I shouldn’t have to be on a first name basis with the plumber. What annoys me the most is while it took so long to get someone in to temporarily fix the plumbing issue (which is roots in the sewer pipes - our whole street is notorious for it) it wasn’t a problem for the real estate agent to quickly whip up and chuck a SOLD sticker on the For Sale sign that been outside our place.
After all the issues we’ve been having with the sewer and the substandard building report the inspector gave our house a few weeks ago, our ‘out of state’ investors still went ahead with the purchase of the place. I can only assume that they have been given all the information about the house that we know so why would they invest in a house that needs at least $100K worth of work to get it up to a comfortable and livable standard? Is the predicted growth in our neighbourhood so strong that it doesn’t bother them?
I was complaining to my sister about this whole fiasco and she mentioned the ‘Healthy homes standards’ that New Zealand introduced in July 2019. These are a set of minimum standards for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress and drainage, and draught stopping in rental properties.
Quoting directly from the website:
Why the standards are important
More than 600,000 households rent in New Zealand, and research tells us that our rental stock is poorer quality than owner-occupied homes. It also shows a link between cold, damp and mouldy homes and poorer health, particularly for illnesses such as asthma and cardiovascular conditions.
By improving the quality of rental homes, New Zealanders who rent will experience improved health, as well as lower medical costs and lower levels of hospitalisations. Warmer and drier homes are also less likely to have issues with mould or mildew damage, better protecting a landlord’s investment.
New Zealand has taken this very seriously with all houses having to comply by July 2025 and my sister said that real estate agents will not accept properties to rent unless they have a current level of compliance statement. There are fines for every tenancy that doesn’t include a statement and these houses can not be rented out. There is a heavy emphasis on keeping your property up to standard and maintaining records so the level of compliance is always up to date. This all feels very proactive.
Comparing it to Victoria’s Minimum Standards which basically lists 14 standards that must be met like Structural soundness - The property must be structurally sound and weatherproof, or Mould and damp - All rooms must be free from mould and damp caused by or related to the building structure. These are so broad that in summary you could say that all they’ve asked is that it's a house. There are very little tangible and measurable standards and there is nothing about the longevity of tenancy and maintaining a level of livability.
This is why we need to align the standards of rental properties in Australia with the energy star rating system. We need to use an existing unit of measurement that actually reflects the livability of a house and not just have a yes/no tick box for ‘do the windows open and close’. Alice’s room has louver windows that can’t be locked and one of the planes keeps slipping out. When we brought this to the attention of the real este agent he told us that it was a ‘tricky’ area and didn’t think he'd be able to get the landlords to replace the windows. They should HAVE to replace the windows and I’m sure if we dedicated more of our precious time we could probably go through VCAT and get them to replace them but they’re grinding us down and it's the god damn holidays!
We’ll be grateful for the fact that we can all use the toilet without a timed roster and hope that now the house has sold they’ll remove the ginormous ‘For Sale’ sign that has been the constant reminder of our lack of control we have over our housing situation! Here’s to being able to poo at home and not making everyone hold on till we get to the pool - not ‘in’ the pool, ‘at’ the pool - gross.
