Landlord or tenant pays?

Tar.Aldarion

Hi just wondering who pays somebody to fix this? Also any idea how much that would cost to repair?

A curtain rail fell off the wall on one side, it was attached by two screws to the wall, the bottom screw snapped and the screw is left in the wall, the top one has come out of the wall and there is too big of a hole for it to stay in. Looking at the fixtures on the right that are the same I can see that they too are pretty loose/dodgy.

Kimbot

I would imagine the landlord but in fairness its a very cheap and easy fix, you could try fix it yourself if you had the tools?

Tar.Aldarion

Oh yeah I would fix it myself but I have no drill or screw extractor and would like this sorted before I go on holiday soon. An option anyway to pick these up.

Gumbo

How did it fall off?
Did the landlord provide the curtains and rail originally?

Tar.Aldarion

I dunno, it just seems to have snapped from the weight or something. They supplied them yeah, they were there and old by the time I moved in 5 years ago. Might jsut head to woodies and see what I can get.

Kimbot

Maybe give your landlord a call, tell them its come down and ask would he/she send someone over to sort it out or would they like you to look after it? Most landlords would have a handyman on call they could get to knock in and sort it for you.

spaceHopper

This is not hard to fix. Call the LL and explain the problem. Better to talk to them first before you make it worse with DIY, which would make it all your fault in their eyes.

Basically they may need to buy new brackets to hold them up if there are heavy curtains. If the wall has insulate plaster board on it it is next to impossible to get a good fixing so you need to drill into brick work then get express tails.

They are hollow tubes of steel you hammer them into the holes they get a good grip and will never come out. You then put a plastic wall plug in to the hole and put your screw in that. I've done it at home where the kids have pulled out of the curtains or we have heavy ones that caused the weak brackets that came with the pole to fail.

davo10

Ask your brother/father/boyfriend/husband to fix it, seriously? It'll take 5 minutes to put back up.

GGTrek

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Hi just wondering who pays somebody to fix this? Also any idea how much that would cost to repair?

A curtain rail fell off the wall on one side, it was attached by two screws to the wall, the bottom screw snapped and the screw is left in the wall, the top one has come out of the wall and there is too big of a hole for it to stay in. Looking at the fixtures on the right that are the same I can see that they too are pretty loose/dodgy.

I just had a very similar issue sorted for a tenant of mine recently, for this kind of repairs it should always be the landlord that arranges the repair with a handyman (especially when drilling walls), you might have a clause in the tenancy agreement that repairs up to a certain small value are paid by tenants but the repair should always be arranged together with landlord.

It is small job for handyman so usually handymen will drag their feet, for example the one I found changed dates 3 times before actually going on his spare time. There is a big dearth of handymen in Dublin and even for landlords who gave handymen thousands of euros of previous work, this past revenue is easily forgotten when it comes to a small job with little profit. So something that should have been done within 48 hours, took almost 2 weeks to be sorted out.

OP do not listen to people that say it is easy, call the landlord and do not set your expectations high in terms of time, the problem is not the repair, the problem is finding the handyman willing to perform the repair in a short timeframe.

Tar.Aldarion

Thanks, I'll take a picture, send it to them and see what they say. And even if I did end up doing it myself, I don't want to just drill into somebodies wall without talking to them.

Ashbx

davo10 wrote: »

Ask your brother/father/boyfriend/husband to fix it, seriously? It'll take 5 minutes to put back up.

Or sister/mother/wife/girlfriend....women aren't completely incapable you know!

Ashbx

Im sure they would have no issue with you drilling holes if you are fixing the problem.

I had a similar issue with the cover of my vent that came off. I told the landlord it had broken and that I was fixing it and he immediately offered to cover the costs.

I think the landlord should cover it all but if its low cost, I would cover it yourself as a gesture of goodwill. Keep the landlord sweet, ya know!

the_syco

spaceHopper wrote: »

Basically they may need to buy new brackets to hold them up if there are heavy curtains. If the wall has insulate plaster board on it it is next to impossible to get a good fixing so you need to drill into brick work then get express tails.

If in drywall, I found that you'd need the anchors to ensure you get a good grip.

Del2005

the_syco wrote: »

If in drywall, I found that you'd need the anchors to ensure you get a good grip.

They are still only gripping the plaster board though. If someone gets a good hold they'll pop out. The only way to mount curtains is to get onto the solid wall.

gizmo81

Just be careful once you interfere with it it becomes your responsibility.

Ann_Landers

davo10 wrote: »

Ask your brother/father/boyfriend/husband to fix it, seriously? It'll take 5 minutes to put back up.

Jebus!

AllForIt

davo10 wrote: »

Ask your brother/father/boyfriend/husband to fix it, seriously? It'll take 5 minutes to put back up.

Don't see why someone who has no interest in the property would take the time trouble and expense to do repairs.

jimmycrackcorm

Ashbx wrote:

Or sister/mother/wife/girlfriend....women aren't completely incapable you know!

Ah sure they weren't have the time to do that stuff when they've got all the cleaning, cooking, washing and hoovering to do.

katy39

Ashbx wrote: »

Or sister/mother/wife/girlfriend....women aren't completely incapable you know!

Yes, let's have no sexism on these boards

cocaliquid

The joy of renting not the OP,s problem :pac:

Inform landlord relax and have a beer

Graham

Mod note

Let's assume this is a gender-neutral repair task and get back to helping the OP please.

Lux23

I would probably buy the replacement stuff and then ask my landlord to do the work.

Bob24

Depends how confident you feel about fixing it yourself, how much the landlord trusts you, and what kind of relashionship you have with them.

If it was me I'd definitely fix it myself after informing the landlord and making sure they are ok with it (which they would be as they trust me and over the years we have developed a bit of an informal agreement that I take care of any non-major issues myself in exchange for them keeping the rent quite bellow market rate).

If I had a landlord who tried to milk me as much as they can I wouldn't bother though and would let them take care what is their responsibility.