Hi

Can anyone help?

We're on the verge of signing the lease, only to be informed by the utilities connection service that the apartment does not have a phone connection. I'm aware that the phone connection lapses if there hasn't been a connection in 6 or more months. The apartment is not newly built - in fact i would think that it's about 15 to 20 yrs old. The agent did not seem to be aware of this, and asked us if there are any phone sockets in the apartment - a question that we obviously can't answer since we are not there! We were told that according to their database, the previous tenant did not seem to have a home contact number but could not tell us when the place was vacated. Has anyone encountered situations like this before? Should our alarm bells be ringing? In the current tight rental market, would it be rather strange that a place would remain vacant for 6 months or more?

I understand that without a land line we would not be able to have internet connection. Another alternative would be to use wireless broadband, however, we have not figured out which one would be a more reliable and cost effective option.

Telstra quoted a connection fee of $299 - not exactly a small sum. The agent wasn't able to help and directed us to the utilities connection service which then directed us to Telstra. We have now spent the whole day calling various parties and trawling the web to no avail.

We also had the opportunity to inspect the apartment more closely today and noticed that there are many cracks in the paintwork surrounding the built-in wall heaters (I think the heating might be gas). When we mentioned this to the agent, she acknowledged that there are cracks but said that they would not do anything about it unless it worsens. Is this normal? I hope that this is not a sign of faulty heating. Do / can we insist that it is repaired before we move in?