Howard Marshall and his partner, Gavin Chuah, have spent three weeks living out of suitcases and bed-hopping in and out of friends’ homes.
Flood water inundated the garage of their South Brisbane unit on 27 February, interrupting the building’s electricity and hot water supplies, and shutting off the lift and fire alarm.
The pair says they’ve paid $1,500 in rent since then, despite being unable to live in the property, although they have since agreed to a rental pause with the owner.
“They said it might be another two to three weeks before the electricity is reconnected … and they reckon it’ll be another three to four months before the lifts are operational,” Marshall says.
While most Brisbane residents who lost power had it restored in the week after last month’s flood, some in low-lying areas such as West End and Milton are still in the dark, according to chief executive of Queensland Tenants, Penny Carr.
And that can lead to delicate negotiations between tenants and landlords.
Carr said her organisation was currently helping a number of flood-affected residents to negotiate rental reductions and changes to lease agreements.
While tenants cannot be compensated for damage or loss “that wasn’t anyone’s fault”, such as possessions being destroyed during a flood, Carr says it’s a different story when a property becomes unliveable.
“You shouldn’t be asked to pay to rent something that you can’t use partly or completely,” says Carr.
But timeliness is a factor. Under Queensland law, if a property becomes uninhabitable as a result of a natural disaster, the tenant or landlord can seek to break the lease within one month of the disaster, which will expire in the next few days.
Carr says the law is not “black and white” where liveability is concerned and for the most part, people choose to stay in their tenancy even if they have to leave their homes for a while.
“In a situation like this, where the vacancy rates are really low, renters … might be desperate … so it’s not uncommon for the parties to dispute whether a property is liveable, according to the law.”
Rent reductions can also occur when there’s a substantial drop in the standard of a property, according to the Residential Tenancies Authority.
If tenants and property managers or owners are unable to come to an agreement, they can request free dispute resolution from the RTA. Following that process, if no agreement is reached, they can then apply to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) for a determination.
Carr says QCAT can order an owner or landlord to pay back rent retrospectively but tenants have to keep paying rent until an agreement is reached between the parties.
For now, Chuah and Marshall have agreed to a rental pause, and the owner, via the building manager has offered for them to break the lease without penalty. However, they are still hoping to obtain a refund of the $1,500 paid despite not living in the unit.
The manager said he understood the owner had offered to pause the rent for now and then apply the money paid to rent once the apartment was liveable, although Chuah and Marshall said that had not been communicated to them.
The chair of the apartment block’s body corporate committee said residents had been advised not to occupy the units until “electricity and other essential services have been restored”, but he does not know when that will be.
“People should not be living in their units and doing so [is] contrary to our advice and at their own risk.”
For Marshall and Chuah, a good night’s sleep in their own bed is what they’re looking forward to most.
“We’re not sleeping well. We’re sleeping in different beds all the time and we’re stressed, worrying about where we’re going to stay,” says Chuah.
“We keep waiting for the power to be restored but don’t know what’s going to happen.”
