Has this ever happened to anyone else?
I've had an investment property in SA for about 3 years, and my current tenants are the same ones who moved in right after I bought it. Last week, out of the blue, they asked if they could have a phone line put in for broadband. I was VERY confused; when I bought the house (and they moved in) there was very definitely a working phone line to the property - I have photographic evidence of the phone plugged in and the builders report verified a phone line at the time of purchase etc.
Apparently either my tenants never connected a phone in the property or they did initially but then disconnected it. Subsequently when a landline has been disconnected for 6 months Telstra comes along and removes the connection to the house (without notifying the owner). The bill to reconnect is not a simple $59 charge for the tenant, but a whopping $299 to reinstate the line in!
The feedback from my property manager in SA is that unfortunately because there is an existing point in the property it is my responsibility as the landlord to maintain it, meaning that I will be responsible to get the line put back in, costing $180 of the total cost, while the tenant is responsible only for the connection of that line - the remaining $120.
I am frustrated that it looks like I will have to pay $180 to reconnect a service that I already provided to the tenants in good faith at the beginning of the tenancy. And I am really worried about the implications of this in the future! Theoretically the tenants could disconnect the line again at any point, and Telstra remove the connection to the house again, and I'll be left in the same situation with any future tenants. This could be happening with any of my properties and I'd be none the wiser.
With the trend now being for people to rely less on landlines and more on mobile phones, has anyone else fallen into this trap?? What happened?
I've had an investment property in SA for about 3 years, and my current tenants are the same ones who moved in right after I bought it. Last week, out of the blue, they asked if they could have a phone line put in for broadband. I was VERY confused; when I bought the house (and they moved in) there was very definitely a working phone line to the property - I have photographic evidence of the phone plugged in and the builders report verified a phone line at the time of purchase etc.
Apparently either my tenants never connected a phone in the property or they did initially but then disconnected it. Subsequently when a landline has been disconnected for 6 months Telstra comes along and removes the connection to the house (without notifying the owner). The bill to reconnect is not a simple $59 charge for the tenant, but a whopping $299 to reinstate the line in!
The feedback from my property manager in SA is that unfortunately because there is an existing point in the property it is my responsibility as the landlord to maintain it, meaning that I will be responsible to get the line put back in, costing $180 of the total cost, while the tenant is responsible only for the connection of that line - the remaining $120.
I am frustrated that it looks like I will have to pay $180 to reconnect a service that I already provided to the tenants in good faith at the beginning of the tenancy. And I am really worried about the implications of this in the future! Theoretically the tenants could disconnect the line again at any point, and Telstra remove the connection to the house again, and I'll be left in the same situation with any future tenants. This could be happening with any of my properties and I'd be none the wiser.
With the trend now being for people to rely less on landlines and more on mobile phones, has anyone else fallen into this trap?? What happened?