Do I pay for Alarm Battery or Tenant ?

ok so i have a question along these lines.....

.....tenant said that Antrenna is not working, so hubby went and checked it out. Problem was she plugged the antenna cable into the wrong socket!

ok, so hubby went so we were not charged for this, but say a tradie went he would still have charged us! who would have to pay for that??
 
Come on, seriously.

It's the responsibility of the landlord to produce a working smoke alarm at the start of the tenancy and it's the responsibility of the tenant to ensure that the smoke alarms keeps working during the tenancy, including replacing the battery.

Legislation is changing in some states (NSW in particular), that smoke alarms will need to be hard wired to mains power (plus have a battery backup), so this discussion will be eventually be moot.
 
ok so i have a question along these lines.....

.....tenant said that Antrenna is not working, so hubby went and checked it out. Problem was she plugged the antenna cable into the wrong socket!

ok, so hubby went so we were not charged for this, but say a tradie went he would still have charged us! who would have to pay for that??

How I would deal with this would depend on my mood on the day and how much I like the tenant :D.

We generally don't have issues like this, but I like the advice I have gleaned from this forum and now include in our leases something along the lines that if a repair call needs to be made, and it turns out the repair was caused by (for example) the air-conditioning filter not being cleaned regularly, as per the lease, then the cost of that call out is to be borne by the tenant.

We still have not had this issue to deal with, but perhaps think about including a similar clause in the next lease, or ask your PM how this should be dealt with.

I would probably lean towards telling the tenant it is their cost and see how that goes. Point out that it was something they did wrong that meant a service call and why should that be your cost? Do you have a PM?
 
i supposedly have one yes :rolleyes:

they've called a number of times (once because there was no gas......cause she didnt buy a bottle!) they ring for no reason whatsoever!

the guy i usually deal with is away (getting married) but once he's back I'll have a word with him about this.

thanks for the tip!
 
I wouldn't want them buggarising around with my alarm system. And you may also find that a key is required to open the alarm panel, and the tenant won't have that. I think it is a routine maintenance item that the landlord is responsible for, and the batteries aren't something that you can pick up in the supermarket while you are getting your sausages.

Tools
 
Just for reference, for a smoke alarm.

In SA it is the landlords responsibility to replace the battery (unfortunately), as stated by the Tenancies Branch here:

OCBA said:
Smoke detectors
‘The tenant agrees to test all smoke
detectors on a regular basis and to ensure
that they are in good working order and to
replace batteries when required so that
the smoke alarm is always working to its
full capacity’.

Under Section 68 of the Act, a landlord has
an obligation to ensure that a rented property
is in a reasonable state of repair having
regard to its age, character and prospective
life. Therefore, if a smoke detector battery is
flat and the tenant is aware of this, the tenant
is obligated to inform the landlord and the
landlord is then obligated to replace the
battery. We recommend that smoke detectors
be tested by the landlord/agent at each
routine inspection.

I reckon they are pushing it with their interpretation of the act, but they set the rules...

by the way, even hard wired detectors have a battery back up.
 
Un update

27/5/2010

Hi Kim,

We have spoken to our contractors from Prestige Alarms and they have advised our office of the following charges approximately without looking at the property:

Service Call out fee $132.00 plus GST
Battery $49.50 plus GST


This is the minimum cost providing nothing else is wrong.


Please let me know if you want to proceed.


Assistant Property Manager



Do you think this fee is reasonable? I'll ring Prestige Alarms and a couple of other companies just to compare charges. I have no idea what the asking rate is!
 
I wouldn't want them buggarising around with my alarm system. And you may also find that a key is required to open the alarm panel, and the tenant won't have that. I think it is a routine maintenance item that the landlord is responsible for, and the batteries aren't something that you can pick up in the supermarket while you are getting your sausages.

Tools

yeah i agree
 
Those prices are ridiculous! $50 for a battery? C'mon now!!

There is fair bit of confusion in this thread. Our alarm system battery was expensive (cannot remember exactly). We are talking a battery nearly the size of a house brick, not sold in Coles.

Some posters are talking "house alarms" and others are talking "smoke alarms".

Alex P Keaton doesn't seem to have given us the heads up about what sort of alarm is causing the ruckus, but I think it is a house alarm.

Alex P Keaton, can you confirm for us?
 
Sorry Jaycee. Must have missed that post. I shall consider myself suitably chastized :p.

P.S. Have I done something to upset you. You always seem to have a go at me?
 
Service Call out fee $132.00 plus GST
Battery $49.50 plus GST ... Do you think this fee is reasonable? I'll ring Prestige Alarms and a couple of other companies just to compare charges.
A call-out fee of $132 seems about right to me; maybe you could spend a few hours ringing around and get $30-40 off the $181.50, but personally, I value my time more than that.
 
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