advice re rental property

we are about to move to a new rental property, but have just found out that telstra did the connection but the original connection fee was not paid 300.00we rang the estate agent and we were told the rental union changed the rules and the telephone is no longer considered an essential item, and so we will have to pay the 300.00, we said that means if we leave the next tennants do not pay ie we have paid for the connection and they will just pay the re-connection fee about 59.00, we also said isn't it the responsibility of the owner and she said no. To say I was angry is an understatement perhaps somebody may have a suggestion. We asked the agent to contact the owner to see if they can come to some arrangement, so far no reply. We cannot back out because we have signed a lease and we dont have much time left to look elsewhere, we have also booked a removelist, and changed all our addresses

any advice please.

Jean Bloom

Get in contact with the Tenancy Tribunal mob that look after this.

Sounds like someone is trying to have you pay for someone else's mistake. As stated, Rental Board/Tribunal, or see if any of the 'shame, shame' TV shows are interested.

It's not the owners responsibility to pay for a telephone connection, that's the responsibility of the tenant.
If having the phone connected was part of the rental agreement, then you may have a reason to complain.

A telephone has never been an essential item for a rental property. We have a couple of rental properties and although we have the properties hard wired for a landline telephone, none of our tenants have ever used them.
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I could be wrong, but the hard wiring of a telephone line to a property, becomes part of the property, just like a permanently attached light switch, so to speak. Did you initiate the hard wiring of the property? If you did, then would have had to get permission from the owner because this becomes a permanent change to the property.
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It sounds to me as though you may unfortunately, be in a bit of a bind.
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However if you didn’t initiate the initial hard wiring, then I fail to see how you are responsible for that fee or service
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We have had requests from tenants to put in foxtel or like products, which necessitates a hard wired cable and (usually) external box, not entirely dissimilar to having the telephone landline connected. In these instances they have to pay for the entire set-up, as they wish for a service to be connected that isn’t considered an essential service like water or gas.
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Mick.

The reconnection fee only applies if there has previously been a telephone service in the property and you are in fact taking over the service "intact" and can quopote the previous phone number.

In this case it would appear that the property has been cabled but a telephone service has never been installed. If this is the case, the landlord has done the right thing by installing the cable but the cost of the new connection is yours, not the landlords.

We have Optus at are house and they use the mobile towers and it is cheaper then Telstra by far.
David

Use mobiles, getting cheaper all the time. I have several friends who dont have landlines at all, wireless internet and mobiles only. 2nd hand handsets are cheap as well.

At my last rental place i asked the landlord if she would have the telephone line installed, her reply was if you want it you pay for it. I did.

I was there 15 month and moved i asked the new landlord if he would install the telephone, line he did.

depends on how much you want it i suppose