Just handed the keys back today after what feels like an Olympic level battle with a Brisbane property manager over mould, maintenance, and basic living conditions.
Moved into the apartment mid last year and straight away noted on the entry report that the bathroom with no window had a non-functioning mechanical exhaust fan, plus mould in the bathrooms and that one of us had a documented allergy to mould so we needed to get on top of it.
We followed it up constantly. Their main solution seemed to be asking for more photos and hoping we’d eventually give up despite having allergy symptoms only when in the home
In January they finally sent a plumber who removed the mouldy sealant around the bath and redid it, but the mould was also through the grout, so it came back even worse not long after. He also found holes/voids in the grout at the base of the ensuite shower (that had no fan or window) and we ceased using it then because the mould was growing back persistently and there was no way for it to ventilate.
Then we found the air conditioner was heavily affected by mould too. That maintenance request was also ignored, so we ended up paying ourselves to get it professionally sanitised 11 days after reporting it because apparently “safe to breathe” was a premium upgrade.
Over 8 months we issued 2 Form 11 breach notices for failure to remedy.
Still nothing was properly fixed. Pics for fun.
So we issued a Form 13 to terminate for unremedied breaches and handed the keys back today.
Now they’re trying to argue this should have been treated as a break lease instead, despite the repeated breaches, failure to remedy, and only partial repairs.
I’ve rented before and used to own in WA, and I have genuinely never dealt with property management this bad until moving to Brisbane.
Has anyone actually had success with QCAT over this kind of thing? Especially with mould, failed maintenance, and agents trying to turn it into a break lease after ignoring the problem for months?