Any advice?
Hi,
I am out of options and need advice please. I have provided false street numbers and names.
Last month, we secured a rental as first-time renters. It is a new build property with its own mailbox and driveway, on sub-divided land. The land is on the corner of two roads - Fairybread St & Fantasy Lane. The principal property - #12, faces Fantasy Lane whilst ours - #12A, faces Fairybread St.
Everything was fine until it wasn’t and before I knew it, things began not to add up.
It was time to connect our internet and after searching the house up and down, I realised there was no NBN. To confirm this, I reached out to an ISP who advised me that “12A Fairybread St” did not exist in their database and therefore, raised a ’missing address’ ticket with the NBN. ISP then advised me that I had two options:
Complete a ‘new build‘ application and lodge it with the NBN, to install our own NBN. This would incur a $300 initial connection fee and a $400-$600 developer contribution fee.
Connect to the principal property’s NBN and have the connection extended to our property
They also advised me to contact my property manager to discuss the next steps.
To exhaust all possible options, I called Vodafone because I wanted to explore their 5G Wireless Broadband options. Unfortunately, I was advised the same thing - 12A Fairybread St could not be located in their system and that I was required to register it through a “government portal”.
After that, I thought installing our NBN was my only hope. After contacting my property manager, of the two options provided to me by my ISP, he advised me that installing our own NBN would be the best option. He also advised me to have this arranged through my ISP as it would take less time. I asked him if the landlord would be willing to cover the initial connection fee of $300, to which the landlord agreed.
I proceeded with the ‘new build’ application. The very next day NBN themselves withdrew it on the grounds that secondary dwellings did not require a ‘new build’ application. I would have to request a ‘Subsequent Connection’ through my ISP which will be sourced from the principal property - 12 Fairybread St. My issue with this is I don’t want to impose on my neighbours. It’s awkward to think about waltzing over there and asking if I connect to their NBN.
I have sent two emails to my property manager about the issue, in which I am still awaiting a response. I am beginning to think my landlord may have cut some corners and is a bit dodgy for the following reasons:
The principal property - 12 Fairybread St is listed as such across all databases. Make sense right? Especially if we are 12A Fairybread St. Welp tell me why their street number is 2 Fantasy Lane.
Upon searching both addresses using my local council’s website, 2 Fantasy Lane does not exist. Guess what else doesn’t exist? Yup you guessed it! 12A Fairybread St. At this point, it was safe for me to assume that the land was not sub-divided with council approval.
I read something where if the property hasn’t been registered with the appropriate authorities, landlords will pocket the bond themselves. I decided to look for the email confirming my bond had been lodged with the RTA. After inspecting the email, the email address seems correct - “noreply@rta.qld.gov.au”, and I was provided a bond number. However, what caught my eye was the RTA stamps on the bottom of the email which looked like someone screenshotted the logo off Google and did a poor job at erasing the white background. The stamps were fringed and were in poor quality. The confirmation email also failed to include the address it is for. Is this normal? I’ve never dealt with the RTA before so I don’t know what a normal RTA receipt/confirmation email should look like.
I can’t help but feel like we were deceived and taken advantage of as first-time renters. If I had possessed the knowledge that I have now, back before I applied, I definitely would have proceeded with more caution. Don’t get me wrong, I am truly grateful that we have been entrusted to rent this place as first-time renters, I just don’t know how to move forward with getting wifi/internet to our home. I am also scared to keep asking questions or get the landlord in trouble, in case we end up with nowhere to stay. I don’t want to report any of this because I’m grateful for the opportunity, I just feel stuck.
Please let me know if you have any advice.