A tenant started a heated dispute with her landlord after stopping paying rent because he refused to fix her broken toilet.
Olivia had resorted to public toilets after her landlord, Damian, ignored her emails about urgent repairs needed at their rental property.
After living with an unusable toilet for more than two months, the tenant decided to withhold rent money until the problem was resolved.
However, after deliberately falling three weeks late on her rent, Olivia received an email from Damian with the subject line: “Time to go.”
“Olivia, gather your belongings and leave my house. You have 24 hours,” the landlord told her in the email.
Confused, Olivia replied, “Dear Damian, I’m sorry, what? Why am I being asked to leave? How long will it be until I can return?”
The landlord stated that her rent was three weeks late, so he wanted her evicted from the property immediately.
—I want you to leave now, but since it’s late, tomorrow will do —Damian said.
Tenant Olivia was forced to move out after stopping paying rent because her landlord refused to fix her broken toilet, forcing her to resort to public toilets.
After living with an unusable toilet for over two months, the tenant decided to withhold her rent money until the problem was resolved. However, Damian demanded that she leave immediately.
Olivia refused to back down and said she would not make any rent payments until the toilet was fixed.
“As I have already sent you an email (which you ignored), this problem has been going on for over two months, during this time I have had to use public toilets. I need this to be fixed,” she said.
However, Damian claimed that not paying rent on time was a “breach of contract,” so he wanted her to “leave tomorrow.”
After reviewing his lease, the tenant found a clause that “clearly states” that maintenance of the property’s plumbing was the landlord’s responsibility.
“I’ll pay the rent as soon as the bathroom is fixed,” Olivia said, to which Damian replied, “Okay. If I fix the bathroom, will you pay my rent? Okay, I’ll be here tomorrow.”
Excited by the update, Olivia replied: “That’s perfect! Thanks, Damian. I’ll be at work but will be back at 5pm. Maybe someone can come over earlier?”
She never received a response from her landlord, assuming the toilet would be fixed when she returned home from work.
Even though her landlord agreed to “fix” the toilet, Olivia was mortified when she walked into her bathroom the next night to find the toilet gone.
“I just got here and saw this. I need an explanation of what’s going on here right now. This is not right,” the furious tenant said in an email.
The landlord agreed to fix the toilet, but while Olivia was working, Damien had other plans.
Olivia was mortified when she came home from work the next day to discover that her toilet was missing.
The owner responded, “I said I would fix the toilet problem. If there is no toilet, there is no problem. Now, get off my property.”
Olivia threatened to call the authorities because “removing essential items to force eviction” was illegal.
The “wild” email exchange was shared again via a video on social media by a British property consultant Jack Rooke.
“I’m really at a loss for words. I don’t understand the (landlord’s) thought process. He’s cutting off your nose to spite you. He’s causing more damage to his property just to prove a point,” Jack said.
‘After this I spoke to Olivia and she told me that although she had to move out, the landlord was eventually convicted of attempting to evict a tenant illegally, meaning he was forced to pay a substantial fine.’
According to NSW Fair Trading, if a tenant needs urgent repairs but is unable to contact their landlord or agent, they can arrange a repairer themselves and receive reimbursement of up to $1,000 towards the costs.
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