Can Tenants arrange their own urgent repairs?

When a repair is Urgent, conditions and processes still must be followed before a landlord is required to reimburse the tenant.

– The repair cannot be the tenant’s fault or the tenant’s responsibility.
– The tenant must first make a reasonable effort to contact the agent or landlord so that they can arrange the repair.
– They also must give the landlord a reasonable opportunity to repair. The time involved between reporting and repair is reasonable, and the tenant does what is appropriate to enable the tradesperson to access the property to repair the item.
– Finally, that reasonable effort is made to use the tradespeople nominated in the lease, so always check your lease.

The law intends that the tenant and landlord work together to have Urgent repairs fixed as soon as practical and without any unnecessary delay. In cases where that is not happening for one reason or another, the law enables the tenant to drive the process to have the repair carried out, provided they do so without being reckless or cavalier in approaching it.

If a tenant does have an urgent repair carried out, they are responsible to the tradesman for payment and must seek reimbursement from the landlord. They cannot instruct a tradesperson to bill the owner.