Got charged by rental agency for hot water call-out in WA. Is this legal?
Hi everyone,
I’m renting in Perth, WA and recently our hot water stopped working, so we reported it to the property manager as a maintenance issue.
They sent a worker out, and afterwards the agency emailed us an invoice saying the “hot water heater pilot was cut off” and the contractor attended to relight the system/check taps.
Now they’re trying to charge us the call-out fee.
We didn’t intentionally turn anything off or damage the system, and we reported it because we genuinely thought the hot water system had failed.
Just wondering:
- Is this something tenants are legally responsible for in WA?
- Can a rental agency charge tenants for this type of attendance?
- Does a pilot light going out count as normal maintenance or tenant fault?
Would appreciate any advice, especially from anyone familiar with WA tenancy laws.
Thanks!