GUBU - Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented

This is a new column where we invite you to share grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented (GUBU) goings on in land lease communities in New South Wales.

To start the column off we have an example of outrageous behaviour where a tradesperson accessed a home owner’s site without permission and removed her water meter and gas connection. This home owner had been working hard to get back on her feet after her home was destroyed in the 2022 floods. A new home was ordered from overseas and arrived in a shipping container and had to be assembled onsite.

The home owner engaged the operator’s plumber to carry out the plumbing work to connect water and gas to her home. There was a dispute about whether all the work was completed and to a satisfactory standard. The home owner arranged for a different tradesperson to carry out an inspection and they made a list of work that needed to be fixed. The home owner asked for the works to be completed by the plumber before she paid the last invoice for the work. After a couple of weeks of back and forth the home owner came home and was shocked to discover that the operator’s plumber had without any warning disconnected her water supply and removed her water meter from her site and took away the gas lead. The home owner told the manager at her community what had happened and negotiations took place.

After a week the plumber returned and reconnected her utilities and completed some of the outstanding work. It was a very difficult week for the home owner with no running water or gas supply in her home. She was forced to rely on communal facilities and her neighbours for buckets of water.

The plumber did not have any right of entry in this situation to access the home owner’s site without her permission and absolutely no right to disconnect her utilities.

If you want to find out more about your rights regarding access to your residential site and home, see our factsheet ‘Access arrangements’. If you would like to share GUBU examples for future editions of Outasite please send them to contact@tenantsunion.org.au marked attention Eloise Parrab.

This article was published in Outasite magazine issue 11. Outasite is published once or twice annually. Outasite Lite email newsletter is sent several times a year – subscribe subscribe here. All past issues are available in the archive.