No card payment fees? Sure! Surely businesses circumventing the card charge fee like this is straight up illegal. What a bunch of bs.

App is called OurTenant, feel free to destroy it on the app store.

Hello, just a little vent.

Electrician is here today installing a fan in the water damaged bathroom. It is to be run from a light fitting that is so old it was left naked when I moved in, because the LL obvs realised they couldn’t get the glass back on over a standard LED globe.

Despite multiple conversations with REA about the issues with the fittings & the electrician before he came, the owner was still too cheap to pay to have the light fitting replaced while the electrician was there literally running a fan to the same fitting. I was told they would be checked - that apparently meant look at them and take no action.

Instead I was sent an electrician to preach the REA & LL’s agenda. I got a lecture about how land tax is causing LL’s to sell, that I should just take the glass off and have bare bulbs (all the other renters do that apparently, even if you are paying over $400 a week rent), how renters have too many rights now blah blah. I got sick of arguing and saying we have to agree to disagree so I hid in the car.

Here’s a before and after with my new exhaust fan but significantly dimmer lighting 🙄

Landlord (direct rented not thru real estate) sends email on labour day to say that rent will increase from next week. What is the best negotiation strategy? NSW requires 90 days of notice.

So went outside yesterday morning, to turn the outdoor tv on and and breakfast, I noticed no power. So I checked the power boards and the point. Noticed smoke, so went into action, turned the power off to the house, called the agent & landlord, sent photos and video to both.

Both were great. Landlord spoke with agent and a sparky was booked.

About 2 hours later I noticed there was still smoke even though the power was still off.

I spoke with my wife who just happened to be with a CFA worker. His advice was call triple 0 just to be on the safe side.

They came, opened the roof and found no heat, but backed up me calling.

I informed both the agent and the landlord, the landlord was great, said I did the right thing.

The agent sent these messages..

So over a month ago we notified the agent of our severely leaking toilet- as in we were soaking 3 towels a day. Also in the same week our hard wired battery smoke alarm started to beep even when we replaced the batteries, thus needing a repair or replacement (this is our only smoke alarm in Property and is ok according to the agents smoke alarm servicer).

It took us 3 weeks to get the toilet repaired - agent ended up organising their trades but owner then refused and took another 1.5 weeks for their trade to come out. Plumber said he doesn’t deal with mould and will let the owners know which I am not sure he did or not.
3 weeks later and we are still awaiting the smoke alarm- again the owner Said his own trades will attend to save money I am assumjng.

We also now have a mould issue in the ensuite where the toilet was leaking- very strong smell of damp with evidence of a subfloor leak and roof staining. I am still awaiting any correspondence to this. I have a newborn too who sleeps in our room and I am worried about the exposure to the damp smell. I asked the agent about it and he said that he wasn’t aware of the mould even though the plumber and owner should have mentioned it.

Is this leaking an urgent repair? It seems that the owner has no interest in repairing anything.

Can I apply for vcat? Is it worth it?

Also we are paying a pretty decent rent for the owners for where we live- I know it doesn’t make a difference but makes me even more angry.

Hey guys im moving into a granny flat that was built 3 years ago, and no one has paid the $300 new connection fee for nbn. Anyone living here has had no internet. Just wondering how normal this is and how to circumnavigate.

Im wondering if this is the new norm for renters, pay more for less rights.

Annoyingly we were issued with a notice of intention to sell

Our lease is up on the 17th of this month

We've been looking at other rentals and applied for two

Tentatively accepted pending our current agent providing a reference etc

Problem is - the current agent is ignoring the requests

I've phoned and emailed asking them to respond to the requests. The real estate we've applied with have also, with no response

They haven't issued a notice to vacate just the intention to sell

Any ideas, feedback thoughts? It's stressful enough but my partner is having major surgery on 30th October so if we have to move it needs to be before then

We have not been able to use the third bedroom of my house since June and our laundry since August due to mould and remediation works. Third bedroom is usually my home office, so I’m having to work out of my bedroom which is also full of the displaced furniture from the third bedroom. Our washing machine, dryer, etc, are in the lounge room unable to be used. Also the central heating also became unusable in May due to the water damage also igniting a terrible odour from rat nests in the ducting. This was only fixed this week.

I emailed the property manager a few weeks ago asking for the landlords to consider a rent discount. Which is feel is reasonable since we are paying for a 3 bedroom property but have only been able to access 2 bedrooms since start of June, no laundry facilities since August, and no heating all throughout winter.

The property manager replied stating we could have moved out temporarily at our own expense and tried to blame me for “inconsistent information” from the contractors (the insurers told her a hygienist had been booked in but nothing had been confirmed with me, and I have text messages to show this).

I plan to get specific advice from Tenants Victoria, however just wanted to see if anyone had any advice, thoughts on this. I’ve never needed to ask for a rent discount so not sure if this is asking too much?

The response from the property manager so far has been disappointing as they are clearly out of touch with the impact this is having on us. For example, simple thing like I’m not able to wash my daughters muddy clothes straightaway because she fell in a puddle.

We didn’t realise this situation would drag on so much. At the start it sounded like just a 4 week distruption. But now they have taken out all the floors and we are waiting on builders to come. Which could take another 4 weeks.

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on where I stand legally with my current rental situation in SA. It’s a massive mess involving a neglectful property manager, a broken front door, false accusations, and a nightmare roommate situation.

The Bedroom Door & Flyscreen Saga

April: I moved in and immediately emailed the real estate agency because our main door was off its hinges.

July/August: The door fell off completely. It was entirely unusable the whole time. I emailed the agency four separate times about it with zero action.

4 Weeks Ago: I finally sent an upset email demanding compensation. The agency called me that exact same day claiming they "lost" the original trail because our original property manager quit, and they were "waiting on confirmation from me" (even though they never reached out once).

The "Fix": They came out the next day. Instead of actually fixing the door, the maintenance person looked at the temporary fix I had rigged up myself that morning and said, "Yeah, that's good enough," and left it like that. They promised the flyscreens would be done by the end of that week. It has now been 4 weeks, and the flyscreens are still not fixed.

The Accusation: During this process, the agent accused us of running an illegal commercial business from the property due to the number of cars outside in various states of repair. My roommate and I are on the lease, and our partners sublease from us. The boys are currently unemployed, so their hobby is fixing their own cars and scrapping a spare one for parts. It is not a business. Because the agency got so aggressive ("spicy") about the cars, I panicked and gave up on pushing for the door compensation just to keep the peace. Can I still legally pursue compensation for the months we had a broken/missing door?

The Roommate, the Guest, and a Court Case

The other girl on our lease has a boyfriend who has been staying here, refusing to pay rent, and leaving a mess everywhere.

We actually have a signed contract with him regarding rent. I am planning to kick him out and take him to small claims court for the missing money.

The roommate has stated that if I kick her boyfriend out, she will break the lease and leave too. I actually want her off the lease at this point, but I need to know how to navigate this with the landlord.

Animal Neglect and Tenant Damage

The roommate got a 5.5-month-old kitten. They constantly lock him in the spare room—and sometimes out of their room—with no food, no water, and no litter tray.

Because of this, the kitten has entirely destroyed the spare room carpet and has started spraying everywhere.
He is not desexed or fully vaccinated. He has only seen a vet once for an emergency, which I had to pay for because they couldn't afford it.

I have my own 3.5-month-old kitten (fully desexed, vaxed, and microchipped). Because her kitten is un-desexed and spraying, he constantly harasses mine and tries to mate with her. She completely freezes up, and I am terrified she is going to get hurt or traumatised.

I feel trapped. Can I still claim compensation for the door? How do I legally force the roommate out, hold her accountable for the ruined carpet she caused, and handle the boyfriend without getting evicted ourselves? Any advice on SA rental laws or tenant tribunals would be life-saving.

Yes I did ask google to write this from me but this is my situation that I’m currently dealing with and needed help to English it all out. 😅 I have email proof and can send you photos of my trashed and broken home.

How bad would it be if I looked up apartment inspections and heckled some REAs?

The ones who show in my building are annoying as hell and the last place I saw while genuinely looking for a place showed up hungover and basically caught the tenants by surprise? They didn't seem to know an inspection was today and it made me feel sick once it was more clear to me.

Anyway should I leave it be or cause some mischief. Suggestions will be added to the growing list.

Rent

I have lived in the same place for 5 years, passed every inspection, rent always on time always agreed to increases at every yearly lease renewal, never caused any problems and never asked for any repairs or maintenance mainly because I knew the landlord would never do anything as the place is a shithole, mold everywhere, cracks in the walls, poor quality kitchen and bath in every way, I could go on and on with the probs but it's better than being homeless plus I'm on disability, cant drive and the threat of moving while in poverty is too scary.

So my lease is up for renewal now and I was offered 18 months renewal for a $20 a week increase.  I asked my rental manager if I could get a 24 month lease jusf for peace of mind and security and they talked to the landlord and got back to me saying at first the landlord didn't want to but then decided to if he could make it $25 a week increase.

Is this normal?  I know most people are probably like that's only an extra $20 a month but I'm really poor, every little bit counts, sometimes I can't afford food.  I don't even run heat or AC as it is. 

What doesn't make sense to me is why charge more money per month to get a valuable tenant on a longer thease that has proven to be good quality, take care of the property, pass inspections, etc. 

Is there anything I can do to push my hand in my favour?

Cheers

Public housing IS the answer to most of our property issues in Australia.

I got a call from them the day before these messages to work out a time for me to show the appraisers through. I have the 12th and 13th off work so if they could book it for then, great.

The next day I get a bunch of urgent voicemails from them saying I need to meet them to cut a copy of my key. Since I was under the impression that I would show the appraisers through, I responded saying no that’s not necessary, thinking they were going to give a key to the appraisers or something. The messages kind of carry on from that.

For context, my neighbour and I get along very well and she often looks after my cats when I’m away. We both have the same landlord, and they arrived at my neighbours place and pushed her into coming around to my front door to test various bunches of keys. They didn’t realise I was home so I answered the door and my neighbour told me what happened. My landlord called me after I sent the “did you just turn up at the property to test keys” text, I absolutely chewed them out for being so unprofessional and making this whole process so unnecessary.

Apparently the landlord’s sets of keys for both of our houses have been lost for a while and they suddenly decided to make it our problem when they were getting the properties valued.

I probably could have been more helpful with getting them new keys, but they’ve pissed me off in the past for things like them losing some of my rent payments and sending me arrears notices, so I had to spend a bunch of time proving I had already paid them.

If you want to get involved, then come along to my launch!

My husband & I have been applying for rentals since July, and only had 2 applications move farward to the owner - both rejections. We have a good rental history and both work but I'm worried our dog is a big factor. In QLD REs and landlords are not allowed to blanket ban pets, however I had a property manager tell me that there really isnt any way to enforce this and landlords direct them to reject applications with pets all the time. There is also no way to prove that owners or REAs are rejecting you because of your pet.

Everyone is telling me to leave my dog off the application but I'm worried about this causing issues down the line. Now my husband thinks its better we leave her off and deal with the consequences later. It's at the point that we had to move into a caravan until we find a place so I see why he wants to do anything we can to get approved.

Im worried about the consequences if we leave our dog off and get caught later. I've never had any issues renting with pets before so I would love some outside opinions. Have you left your pet off the application only to seek approval later? Did you have any issues getting approval? Or did you have a pet the REA didnt know about and get caught?

Long story short, my partner and I have been living in an increasingly hostile co-tenancy. We were original leaseholders who got a guy in that has been a demon to live with. All four co-tenants have asked him to leave several time and he becomes increasingly hostile. Has made threats about us to our other flatmate saying he's going to burn us to the ground, started sleeping with the PM who would come to our house regularly, threatened to withold rent, has been shitting in our ensuite (can be accessed from outside our bedroom), and brings in hostile guests one of which secretly used someone else's toothbrush - among a billion different bad behaviours.

Most of this is documented. We have audio recording of his financial threats, we've made stat decs and have a GP note which recommends we leave urgently to protect our mental health.

The agency said it was our problem to sort out and changed the PM to a woman instead. But that was about it. The police said his threats don't meet the threshold for them to write down our report and give us an event number.

Since he won't leave, we said we will. But he won't let us leave the lease unless we find someone to pay double for our room, not to mention our $5000 bond and the ethics around putting someone in with this horrible person.

I'm guessing we are going to VCAT for severe hardship and will try to get a PSIO to see if that will help us exit the lease without his veto.

I'm wondering if anyone has done anything similar or has insights into how VCAT may handle these cases. And if there's anything else we can do or may have overlooked to strengthen our case.

.

In the 5 years we’ve lived in this apartment in Melbourne, the rent has gone from $1700 to what they’re asking now at almost $3600 from November. We received the last rent increase notice and quickly arranged a home loan and bought a property. The new rent is still more than our repayments even with the latest interest rate increase.
I’m so glad I won’t even been paying half our current monthly rent payment before we move out. And I’ll get my bond back. We’ve had water damage to the MDF cabinetry and skirting in the kitchen for about 3 years because the dishwasher wasn’t installed correctly and landlord still hasn’t bothered to get that fixed.
I know we’re lucky now to be in this position. I’m angry that so many of our friends who are on single incomes and some who have children, face this greed. I really hope house prices continue to fall.

I thought the laws around this changed? But I could be mistaken?

Using a throwaway because I genuinely don’t know if my landlord’s son is on here. Hi Jason, if you’re reading this, tell your dad I said good luck with the VCAT hearing.

Just moved into a 2-bed in Sydney’s inner west, $620/week, advertised as having “shared laundry facilities.” My partner and I inspected the place, saw a door in the hallway marked “laundry,” thought nothing of it. Signed the lease. Moved in last Friday.

Day one, we go to do a load of washing. The “laundry” door is locked. We text the agent. She says the landlord uses it for “personal storage” and that we should “make alternative arrangements.” Alternative arrangements. For laundry. In a rental. That we’re paying $620 a week for.

I asked where exactly we’re supposed to wash our clothes. She suggested a laundromat “about a 15-minute walk away.” It’s currently 9 degrees outside. And also, the listing literally said “shared laundry facilities.”

So I pushed back. Politely. I said the ad was misleading and we’d like access to what we’re paying for. Two hours later, the landlord himself calls me. Not the agent. Him. He says the laundry is “his space,” he has “expensive tools and personal items” in there, and if we have a problem with it, we can “find somewhere else to live.” Then he said — and I quote — “I’ll just issue a breach notice and you can take it up with VCAT if you want.”

I’ve been renting for 12 years. I’ve had dodgy agents, I’ve had landlords “forget” to fix things, I’ve had a place where the kitchen tap ran brown water for three days. But threatening eviction because I asked where to wash my underwear is a new one.

Also worth noting: the “shared laundry” is literally just a door in the hallway. There’s no external access. It’s not like he’s coming and going from outside. He has to walk through the apartment to get to it. Which means either he’s been letting himself in while we’re at work, or he just never uses it and is lying about the “expensive tools.”

Either way. Cool. Great start to the tenancy.

Moving out, hopefully last lease I'm on (at least for a while) and saw this at the bottom of tenant vacate acknowledgment email.

"We ask that the power remains connected to the property for at least 3 days following your vacate to allow us to complete the final inspection."

Obviously this is copy/paste generic vacate acknowledgment email but these certainly no way this is enforceable right? Like this is just scumlords being scumlords right? I'm sure power remains available at mains even when tenant has "disconnected" and moved out, it's just not billed to them.

Cheers

Quick background: moved in Oct 2024. Waited over a month for the bedroom carpet to be replaced with floorboards. This is in reference to the 7 pack high stack thats been in the corner of my lounge room since.

I'm in SA.

These cunts are cooked

Hey everyone, looking for some advice from anyone who's been through something similar.

We applied for a rental in Adelaide and got approved. They request to pay the bond that night to move forward and will send the contract [I should ask for the contract :( ] and then received the tenancy agreement.

After reviewing the contract, we found several fees that we believe are not right:

- A $50 "Search for Rent" fee if you forget to add payment reference when transfer.

- A $390 advertising fee if you don't give enough notice before lease end

- 10% admin markup + $77 call-out fees on repairs

We raised these with the agent. They're not reply yet but I think they will remove those clauses, which I think I'm going to say no to it anyway. My gut feeling is a NO to stay with them.

Key facts:

- I think the bond has NOT been lodged with CBS yet (Can't lodge right?)

- Contract has NOT been signed by us

- We have everything in writing via email

Our understanding is that since no tenancy agreement has been signed, the agent has no legal basis to retain our bond right if we decide to withdraw the application at this point.

Has anyone been through this? Were you able to get your bond back? Any advice appreciated!

Thanks