You might think that I am being a bit tough and dramatic but trust me, this has been brewing for a while.
Being a tenant is never easy. Apart from the legal bureaucracy, there is an even worse one- the real estate agent that one has to deal with to get anything done. Take for example the current one I am dealing with now. I can email her and leave phone messages at her office but there is no guarantee that I will hear back promptly. Well, if I am lucky I might get a response within a week. And when the odd time when I call and do get to speak to the her, the experience so far has not been pleasant. To say that she was hostile is too harsh a term but she was certainly un-friendly and unhelpful. The joke is that her job title is ‘Relationship Executive’. What kind of relationship does she cultivate and with whom? Certainly not with me; maybe to the owner.
Even though we had signed all the papers, coughed up one month’s bond and a month’s rent in advance, and officially the legal tenant of the place, there were still things that were supposed to be fixed that has not be done. While some are minor irritants, the one I will rant about here concerns the dishwasher . It wasn’t working when we inspected the flat and still the same when we moved in. We were told that a new dishwasher will replace it. OK. But it took 3 weeks into the tenancy before some carpenter was called to come around, pull it out, dismantle another drawer, in order and make room for the new (and bigger) one. After 1 month without it and left with a big gap in the kitchen cupboard, plus dealing with water leaking from the kitchen sink drainpipe (because now there is a hole along the drainpipe that used to be connected to the dishwasher outlet hose), we finally had a new dishwasher delivered. You would think that is the end of the story. But no. No happy ending.
Today, delivery came and went but now the new, larger dishwasher remains wrapped in its box, sitting in my lounge room, awaiting installation. I don’t believe that it is my responsibility to install it. I certainly won’t know how and would not want to even try just in case I do something wrong and become financially responsible for any damage not only to the dishwasher but to the flat. My ‘relationship executive’ said nothing about installation, only delivery.
So after the delivery guys left, I immediately rang the agent’s office and left her a message. I also followed it up with an email. That was 12.30pm today on the 11th of June 2008. Let’s see when she replies or get back to me and better still, let’s see how long the dishwasher sits idly in my loungeroom.
