What all failures have in common is that they happen at the least appropriate moment. Clogged drain in a sink or dishwasher, a burst pipe in the wall or damaged electrical wiring – sooner or later they affect everyone. As far as a rented flat is concerned, there are always questions of who should deal with the failure removal and pay for the repair. Since failures are unpredictable, you better prepare beforehand for what to do when it does happen.

The basic equipment of a rented flat is a furnished and equipped kitchen and bathroom. Flats subscribed to in Resi4Rent feature a high standard of finishing and equipment – the premises are furnished, equipped with household appliances and internet access, housed in buildings with CCTV, and are regularly refreshed. However, any item can fail. While this is a problem both in an owner-occupied flat and in one rented on the private market, in the case of a subscribed flat, you don’t have to worry about it.

What should I do when a failure happens?

If – despite taking care of the equipment – your freezer has suddenly stopped reaching the desired temperatures and you are taking out water in the container instead of ice cubes, this needs an intervention. You don’t have to look for professionals. All you have to do is report the problem in the Resi4Rent app or in the customer service office situated in each building, and the technical team will help you in no time. If the whole thing turns out to be more serious and it’s impossible to rectify the failure on site within a reasonable time, the owner will provide you with replacement equipment. You can rest easy.

Who will pay for it?

The failure must be removed, and this always entails costs. The subscription gives you the right to make use of the technical package free of charge – you can check its details in the application or in the customer service office. When you decide that you want to boost its scope – no problem, you can do it even during the term of the agreement.

You’ll have to notify the owner of the fault immediately. If such a situation pops up, it’s also of significance whether the damage has been caused by negligence, operational reasons or maybe the fault of the tenant. The reason for the failure is key in assessing who should pay for the repair – flat owner or tenant?

Once you’ve reported the failure, the administrator will verify it and see how long it’ll take to fix it. Moreover, new tenants have 24 hours from the moment of moving in to submit additional comments regarding the premises. If there are any defects in there that weren’t noticed by the administrator during the acceptance after the previous tenant, they’ll be added to the report.

Lease agreement is the basis

The conclusion of the agreement involves certain obligations. You can read about the Resi4Rent Accommodation Agreement, for instance HERE (https://r4r.pl/en/let-us-make-it-clear-a-good-apartment-lease-agreement-is-a-must/). This is a form of securing the interests of each party as well as the basic document that allows the settlement of repair costs because it explicitly defines who and when removes a failure in a rented flat.

A handover report is signed alongside the agreement, and it includes a reliable list of everything in the flat and the current condition of the equipment put into use together with the rented premises. This document protects against potential misunderstandings and discussions with arguments “but that’s how it was”. The report is drawn up and signed in the presence of both parties, just before the start of the service.

General rules in renting

The agreement clearly states:

“The User undertakes to repair any Damages (damage, loss, deterioration or destruction of the Subject of the Agreement, not resulting from normal wear and tear) arising in the Subject of the Agreement and within it for reasons attributable to the User.”

This means that the tenant is responsible for repairing all devices and elements of the rented flat damaged by the tenant by using them incorrectly and in a manner inconsistent with their intended use. For the sake of avoidance of such a situation, the tenant should use the equipment in line with the operating manual, which is available in each flat.

The flat owner is responsible for various types of failures not caused by the occupant’s carelessness, but caused, for example, by structural defects or random causes. On the part of the owner, they include:

It’s worthwhile to add, however, that while the owner of the facility should shoulder the repair of common parts, it rests with the tenant’s responsibility to take care of them and protect them from damage. This applies to all equipment that is intended for common use, e.g. lifts, benches in front of the facility, greenery around the building, garbage chute, etc. If someone misuses these places and damages them, they’ll have to pay for the repair costs. This is an important argument that should be a driver towards being careful and caring for places that others use too 🙂

Forewarned is forearmed

The flat in Resi4Rent subscription, as well as its permanent elements, are insured by the owner. It isn’t responsible, however, for everything that is owned by the tenant and brought into the facility by them. Therefore, it’d be good to insure the most valuable equipment on your own in order to protect yourself against the effects of an unwanted failure. The lease agreement also imposes an obligation to have an individual civil liability insurance agreement – civil liability insurance of a natural person in private life. It’s particularly useful in situations that we’re not able to predict, e.g. when a dog bites a courier, we accidentally break the heating plate in the kitchen or our child enters the neighbour’s garden and destroys the plantings.

How does it look in practice?

To sum up, the tenant shall pay for repainting a scratched wall, a door torn out of its hinges or a glass that is broken through the fault of resident. The tenant can use the technical support available at each Resi4Rent facility. However, the most common failures in flats include those relative to the normal use of the equipment, and the cost of replacing a burst pipe, a leaking tap or a loosened door handle is then borne by the owner.

If renting from private owners is the case, the tenant, after the expiry of the lease agreement, is still obliged to refresh the flat and restore it to the state of the so-called normal wear and tear. Its interpretation in the case of private rental is often abused; it also does happen that the owner of a private flat refuses to return the deposit, justifying it with the need to refresh the flat. When renting a flat with Resi4Rent, you don’t have to worry that it’ll be on you. In the case of a subscribed flat, this task is taken over by the owner who will make sure that the flat has the appropriate standard and smells brand new for the next tenant.