They have to do it and hot water is an essential service. here in qld tenants are entitled to spend 2 weeks rent on emergancy repairs with the repairer listed on the lease agreement no questions asked with the bill sent to the real estate
:yeahthat:

They HAVE to get it fixed. Have a look at your lease, there should be some emergency tradepeople contracts on there. Ring your PM once more and inform them that if they do not get back to you in an hour with confirmation that this issue is going to be sorted out ASAP, you will be ringing one of the emergency tradepeople and having the account charged directly to the LL. Also tell them that they are required to maintain these essential services under the RTA, and that is they fail to do so then you will be taking them to the Tribunnal.

If it were an 'non-essential' service, then they still have to make a concerted effort to rectify it, but the time factors are not as important - and being so close to settlement it likely wouldn't happen. But an essential service is non-negoitable.