Cleared the same day where we can. And if you rent, a blocked or broken toilet is named in the Act as an urgent repair, so you have more options at nine on a Sunday than you think.
Online Now!·--:--
Two thirds of Bondi Beach households rent, and almost everyone is in a flat. So the person standing in front of an overflowing toilet at nine at night is very often not the person who can approve paying for it.
Most people assume that means waiting until Monday. It usually does not. A blocked or broken toilet is expressly listed as an urgent repair in the Residential Tenancies Act 2010, and for urgent repairs a tenant can arrange a licensed plumber and claim reasonable costs back, up to $1,000, within 14 days of giving written notice.
There is an order to it though, and the step people skip is the one that costs them. Try the agent first, on whatever number your agreement gives, and write down when you tried. Notice, or a genuine attempt at it, is a condition of getting paid back.
Then, if nobody is reachable, ring us. We will keep the figure sensible, put the licence number on the invoice, and write down plainly what failed so you have something to send on.
It sounds like a formality. It is actually one of the conditions of being reimbursed, and it is the step most people miss.
It is named in the Residential Tenancies Act 2010, alongside burst water services, gas leaks and a failure of an essential service. That is not our opinion, it is in the legislation.
Which makes this the single most claimable plumbing job a Bondi tenant will ever have, and a great many tenants do not know it.
The rest of this page is about the conditions attached, because they are what decide whether a reimbursement actually happens.
Giving notice, or making a reasonable attempt to, is a condition of reimbursement. Ringing and getting no answer counts as an attempt if you can show you tried.
So make the call, then follow it with a text or an email so there is a record with a time on it. That takes thirty seconds and it is the step people skip.
Note the number you called and when. A written trail is worth more than a recollection afterwards.
Where a tenancy agreement nominates a particular tradesperson for repairs, you are expected to try them first, and going elsewhere can affect reimbursement.
It is worth knowing what your agreement says before there is a problem rather than at eleven at night with a pan rising.
If the nominated tradesperson cannot attend, that is worth recording too.
Reimbursement applies only where the work was done by a licensed or properly qualified person. That is a straightforward condition and it is easy to satisfy.
Ask for the licence number and keep the invoice. Both should be on the paperwork as a matter of course.
Anybody who cannot supply one is not somebody a tenant should be engaging for a repair they expect to be reimbursed for.
Where the blockage is in a line serving the whole building it is generally the owners corporation's rather than your landlord's, and the process is different again.
The test is simple: ask whether anybody else in the building has the same problem. Several apartments at once means the common line.
In that case the useful thing is to report it to building management and get a written finding, rather than to arrange a repair yourself.
We can tell you what failed, where, and whether the fault sits in your lot or in a shared line, and we will put that in writing.
We are plumbers rather than advisers, so we will not tell you what you are entitled to or what anybody owes.
For that, NSW Fair Trading is the place to look, and their material on urgent repairs is written for tenants rather than for lawyers.
Washing machine, dishwasher, showers, kitchen sink. Everything adds to a system that already has nowhere to send it, and a machine partway through a cycle keeps pumping.
If a pan is rising, do not flush it again to see what happens. It will do the same thing with more in it.
This costs nothing and it is the most useful thing anybody does before a plumber arrives.
The largest single cause of what we cut out of drains regardless of what the packet claims about flushability. They stay intact, they snag, and they hold everything behind them.
That matters here beyond the usual, because damage caused by a tenant's own actions affects reimbursement.
It is worth knowing what actually caused a blockage, which is another argument for having the finding in writing.
It cools onto the pipe wall, narrows the bore a fraction at a time, and then collects whatever comes past. A drain getting steadily worse over a year is usually this.
In a building it arrives from many kitchens onto one line, which is why common stacks block more often than a house of the same age.
It responds to jetting rather than to a cable, and on a common line that is generally scheduled maintenance rather than an emergency.
What was found, where it was, and whether it sits in your lot or in common property. That document is what an agent, an owner or a strata manager can act on.
A tenant's account of what a plumber said is not evidence and it does not move anybody.
We write one as a matter of course, and it is worth asking for it at the time rather than a fortnight later.
Quoted as a fixed figure before we start, which matters if you are claiming a capped amount back. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
Through an existing access point, cleared and flow tested before we leave.
Common-area access, with the flat below protected while we work.
Footage handed over. Settles whether this was habits or a failing pipe.
Roots and hardened build-up take longer than a soft blockage.
What failed and whose responsibility it appears to be, in a form you can send on.
It changes who we invoice and what paperwork you leave with, so it is the first thing worth establishing.
Agreed up front rather than counted afterwards, because a capped claim cannot absorb an open clock.
Run properly afterwards to confirm the line is genuinely clear rather than just moving again.
With our licence number on it and a plain description of what failed, ready to send to an agent.
Try the agent and note the time, then call us. We can be there tonight and you will leave with the paperwork you need.
Call 1300 381 569In order. First, try the agent or landlord, including whatever after-hours number your agreement gives, and write down the time you tried and how. That step is not optional: giving notice, or making a reasonable attempt at it, is one of the conditions of being reimbursed later. Second, if you cannot reach anyone and it is genuinely urgent, you can arrange a licensed plumber yourself. A blocked or broken toilet is expressly named as an urgent repair in the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. Third, keep the invoice and send it with written notice. The landlord must reimburse reasonable costs up to $1,000 within 14 days.
We cannot promise that, because reimbursement depends on conditions that are between you and your landlord rather than anything we control. What we can tell you is what the conditions are: the damage must not have resulted from you breaching the agreement, you must have given notice or genuinely attempted to, you must have allowed a reasonable opportunity to fix it, you must have tried any tradesperson named in your tenancy agreement, and the work must be done by a licensed or properly qualified person. For advice on your own situation the Tenants' Union of NSW and NSW Fair Trading are the right people to ask.
It matters more than almost anything else in this process. Reimbursement applies only where the repairs were carried out by a licensed or properly qualified person, so using someone unlicensed because they were cheaper or available can cost you the entire claim. Our licence is NSW 368473C and it is on the invoice, and you can confirm it on the Fair Trading register in about a minute. Ask any plumber for their number before they start.
Then it is likely on you, and we would rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise. Reimbursement does not apply where the disrepair resulted from the tenant breaching the agreement, and wipes or objects down the toilet generally fall there. What it usually is not is a line that has been failing for years in a building older than everyone in it, and a camera will show which of those you are dealing with rather than leaving it to argument.
No. They clear the bowl, which is all the label really promises, then fail to break down the way paper does. In a block of flats one household's habit becomes the whole building's blockage. They are also the version of this problem most likely to be treated as the tenant's own doing, which makes them expensive twice over.
Yes, and usefully so. A blockage in a shared stack is generally the owners corporation's responsibility rather than any single tenant's or owner's, which changes who pays entirely. It also means the flat that floods is very often not the flat that caused it, because water backing up in a shared line surfaces at the lowest opening. We establish which situation it is and write it down.
A standard clear through an existing access point is $150 to $400. A shared stack where access is in a common area is $250 to $550. A camera inspection is $250 to $450 with the footage handed over. We quote a fixed figure before starting, which matters if you are claiming a capped amount back, because an open hourly clock could exceed it without warning.
Tell us whether you rent or own, and whether you have managed to reach the agent. Both change what we do and who the invoice is made out to.
Fixed price agreed first, licence number on the paperwork, and a written description of the fault you can pass straight on.
Online Now!·--:--
