On and on and on and on...

Hi all,

As a property manager, I have seen numerous owners suffer with shoddy workmanship and numerous maintenance items popping up just as they have their mortgage, phone, electricity bills due, their car break down and finishing up full time work for maternity leave etc....you get the idea.

So... when my partner and I purchased 'just-renovated' 2 bedroom units as investment properties 2-3 years ago, I just kept telling myself what I have previously told my clients when one thing after another happened, I was down to my last few hundred dollars & changing jobs... this stuff happens & it all happens at once, just got to deal with it and move on.

So here is a list of some of the problems we've had in 1 unit alone (gradually being duplicated by the other unit):
- faulty smoke alarm
- the plumbing under the kitchen sink was illegal (no water trap)
- the hot water system sat on a leaking metal plate in a kitchen cupboard - so water leaked all through the cupboards. To add insult to injury, the HWS waste was plumbed into the kitchen sink waste pipes and yes the connection at the sink pipes was higher than the pipe at the HWS - you don't need to be a plumber to know that water doesn't defy gravity and drain upwards!!!
- there was no external outlet for the hot water system
- when I kicked up a fuss, the plumber fixed the kitchen plumbing issues and drilled a hole through the wall for the HWS outlet, which now leaks all over the rear walkway and left the filled in hole a grey colour (yes the entire building had just been freshly painted)
- one of the windows had a crack in it
- the light cover in the main bedroom had a 20cm crack in it - only visible when the light is on (bear in mind that all electrical items were brand new)
- main bedroom airconditioner fell off the wall (yes FELL OFF THE WALL!!!) while I had a guest staying there
- concrete was used to grout the living room floor tiles rather than grout, so no movement possible, so cracked tiles all through the living room
- a slow water leak between the wall and the brand new bathroom vanity, which has slowly ruined it
- paint started wearing away in some sections on the external walls within the first year
- a bathroom towel rail and toilet roll holder that continually fall off the wall

and finally to the little beauty my brother and I discovered today...

My brother removed the existing towel rail brackets (since the rail has never sat right due to a slight bend meaning it cannot be secured) to replace it with a new one. While screwing a screw into the EXISTING wall plugs to check for fit for the new towel rail he got zapped! Some waste of space must not have thought this was worth mentioning when he put the original towel rail in. Even more interesting was the fact that no fusebox switches were tripped when my brother was zapped.

With all the ludicrous licensing regulations up here, this is what professionals produce???

Now I'm angry.


P.S. hmmm this probably belongs in the whinge thread
 
Try freshly renovating a house only to have ELEVEN DODGY workers fill it and trash everything. That tests your metal in telling you.
 
Hi Jody. You're a property industry professional, so you know better than most that you get what you pay for in this life. Unfortunately, that should also inform you that many property developers and subsequently investors have no real regard for properties. They're in it for a quick buck.

But it really sounds to me like you've got a week's work to be done by a decent professional, at most. I suggest you spend a few quality $K and sort all of the problems right away, and put it down to indecent reality.

Better to be realistic and wear the price yourself than be like a lot of your clients (yes, you work it, but you don't believe it, do you?) and pretend that a dodgy fix will solve the problems and protect the investment.

No point getting angry, girl, get even, so deal with the real problem which is your investment. Save your anger for men.
 
:rolleyes: Yes, you guys are right. I know it.

I jumped on the computer as soon as I got back yesterday all riled up. I know the process and what needs to be done, was just having a little sook.

Thanks for indulging me. :eek:
 
There is actually a small amount of pressure in the HWS relief outlet so they can technically go uphill a little way - but in SA at least those are legally supposed to go into a drain, not onto a walkway. We got pinged for running ours off the roof and onto our grape vine a few months back.

- concrete was used to grout the living room floor tiles rather than grout, so no movement possible, so cracked tiles all through the living room
Grout itself is mostly cement and has very little flex so it wouldn't surprise me if your issue here actually runs deeper. They're probably glued to a poor substrate. Is it a timber floor? If so, what's a bet they're stuck straight to the floor (not onto some fibre cement sheets) with a non-flexing adhesive.
 
There is actually a small amount of pressure in the HWS relief outlet so they can technically go uphill a little way - but in SA at least those are legally supposed to go into a drain, not onto a walkway. We got pinged for running ours off the roof and onto our grape vine a few months back.


Grout itself is mostly cement and has very little flex so it wouldn't surprise me if your issue here actually runs deeper. They're probably glued to a poor substrate. Is it a timber floor? If so, what's a bet they're stuck straight to the floor (not onto some fibre cement sheets) with a non-flexing adhesive.

If I could draw you a picture of the drainage you'd laugh. Will try my best to describe it; The tray was galvanised metal bent up on all sides to about 3cm and welded/soldered (?) at the sides with the intention that it hold water in, but the welding/soldering job was so atrocious that water just ran straight through it. There was then a PVC pipe connected at one end to the kitchen waste pipe and it then angled down slightly to sit in the galvanised metal tray at the other end. I think the idea was that the atrociously welded tray would hold water that would magically gather at the end of the PVC pipe and simply drain uphill to the sink waste and off into the sewerage system.

Thanks for the info on tiling - it's not an area I have a lot of expertise in...yet. :D The floor is concrete - it's a post Tracy, bunker style building.
 
If I could draw you a picture of the drainage you'd laugh.
Oh, I've seen some good ones.

Our solar HWS had an inlet that ran via a very thin copper pipe from just below ground level, then came out and ran over the ground very wiggly and waggly (found this out because I kept tripping over it), wandered up the wall to the HWS itself in a wonky line and then the outlet ran 16m in a big loop around the back of the house to come back and go into the roof just below the HWS.

I swear some 'plumbers' (this was probably a home job) are on smack.
 
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