Shot of the place
Posted on Wednesday 12th March 2008
Our links to Brown Street are almost severed. In the next couple of weeks I should receive our deposit back, which will finally absolve us of all ties to the old house. Fortunately South Australia has an unusually sensible setup for tenancy agreements. Rather than the landlord holding the deposit bond, it is lodged with a government agency. This prevents an unscrupulous landlord simply refusing to handover the bond, as any disputes must be settled by an independent arbiter.
Unfortunately we won’t be getting all of the bond back. We have had to pay for a carpet patch as we created a water stain on the carpet that was rather noticeable. I don’t mind paying for this as we were obviously culpable. What does annoy us is that we have been charged for repair to the lawn sprinkler system. Firstly we almost never used them due to the water restrictions, and secondly they were most likely damaged by the guy who came to mow the lawn. The official inspection report didn’t mention them as there would have been no reason for the agent to switch on the sprinkler system. Instead the fault was noticed by the landlord’s parents who live next door. The only way they could have discovered this is if they had switched on the system which is in direct violation of the water restrictions.
Now we had known for ages that these people used the sprinklers in their own garden. Firstly we could hear them from time to time, and secondly their lawn was suspiciously lush when virtually every other lawn in the street had gone yellow. We had turned a blind eye previously, but now they’ve upped the ante we will be shopping them to the SA Water inspectors and have a long Schadenfreude-laden laugh when they are fined. Checkmate.
nice one rick