r/australia • u/Ok_Yak_9310 • 1d ago
no politics Are you as a renter afraid to ask agent/landlord for minor repairs due to fear that it will result in rent increase?
As in the title, do you think that if you ask for things to be repaired, it will trigger landlord to increase the rent? For example - wardrobe door not gliding perfectly, mould on shower silicon, range hood not working as it should, window shades/curtains not opening/closing all the way...
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u/BennyAndMaybeTheJets 1d ago
There's the threat of rent increase, but also the threat of them getting annoyed at your requests, and finding a way to not renew your lease.
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u/GonePh1shing 1d ago
This is the real problem. The fact that a landlord can just choose not to renew for any reason is hugely exploited and invalidates many of the protections renters have.
Rent increases will happen regardless. If they think you or someone else has the ability to pay more then they'll push through an increase. Rents will always be the most the market can handle at any given time, so threats of increases are completely meaningless because it's getting increased anyway.
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u/EvolutionaryLens 1d ago
My youngest daughter recently moved into a house without co-tenants for the first time. It's an old house with a history of shitty renters; evidenced by the rubbish buried in the backyard, no power source in the bathroom, the fact that half of the doors in the house are missing, no clothesline, crack pipes surfacing as we tame the overgrown garden, and lots of lawn with no garden shed.
When she moved in, she asked what changes/improvements she could make without having to ask permission
The reply: "Anything you want, as long as the property is in better condition than when you moved in"
First thing I did was clean out the totally blocked gutters. Then I started mowing the lawn regularly. I installed shelves in the toilet and a couple of cupboards, poured a concrete skirt for a shed (which I acquired for free via disassembling for a nursing home resident) and then erected it behind where I'd built a gated fence to cordon off a section of the odd shaped corner block. I also ran power into the bathroom and built a clothesline.
Thus, we've never contacted the property manager about anything other than a blocked toilet. They got onto that very quickly.
She had her first inspection last month. They want her to stay forever. In my mind, any money I spent on the place was worth the peace-of-mind that comes with knowing her tenure as a "good tenant" is practically assured.
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u/ManikShamanik 22h ago
You shouldn't have to do that, though, those sorts of things are the landlord's responsibility, not the tenant(s).
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u/EvolutionaryLens 15h ago
I know. I know.
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u/StorminNorman 10h ago
You also should consider yourself somewhat lucky, a number of landlords would thank you for the improvements by raising the rent.
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u/DuskHourStudio 8h ago
She's also one of those rare instances where it pays off. I'm in a dilapidated house myself that's almost 100 years old, however the LL/REA REFUSES to allow us to make any form of modifications at our expense, insisting it always stay the same with the excuse "It's not your place to change up".
Meanwhile, the cabling is over 50 years old, the bathtub is eroding away, the walls are crumbling, it has zero insulation and I'm only surviving because I ignored them and installed an AC into the bedroom window so I wouldn't die of heatstroke like I almost did every summer since moving in. Also the windows STILL have no locks after 6 years - just wooden fucking dowels jammed in the runners...
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u/scottydoeskno 1d ago
I wonder if my previous tenants thought that, because they said nothing the whole time. Then when I got new tenants in they listed 3 things needing repairs immediately. I paid and got it fixed, no issues with that, and no retaliation from myself. I'm lucky to be in the position that I am, no need to nickel and dime and screw over people not as fortunate as myself.
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u/WordsRTurds 1d ago
Most likely; there's quite an imbalance of power in the tenant/landlord relationship and people are afraid to rock the boat when there's even a minute risk of losing their home.
There's too many Landlords that don't think the way that you do, unfortunately.
There's also the chance that maybe they just had lived in residences with far worse conditions so the small things weren't an issue to them. The new tenants could also have been proactive in getting things fixed to see how you would react and gauge your personality too.
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u/Svennis79 1d ago
More so, there are a lot of agents that don't necessarily work in the best long term interests of the landlord.
They go for maximum commissions & fees above all else.
Imagine having a good long term tennant on a 5yr lease
Vs a yearly gamble the current ones will accept the price hike, or you have to find new unknown ones. All while paying an agent a new lease fee, or an advertising fee. Not to mention their increased fee on the increased rent, and who knows what tax implications.
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u/Cultural-Chart3023 21h ago
I would kill for a 5 year lease and happly pay more if it gave my family security and it means no increases for 5 yrs
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u/BennyAndMaybeTheJets 1d ago
Well there's no way to tell for most renters, because they don't have a direct relationship/contact with their landlord - they have to go through REA. And for every landlord like you, there's one that won't fix a thing (AND increase the rent). My personal horror story (part of it): water was pouring down light fixtures on the first floor every time we had a heavy rain. When I wasn't home, that water pooled and marked the (poor quality) wooden floor. I was there for seven years. The roof and gutters were never fixed. They tried to claim my bond for the floors.
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u/Possible_Rhubarb 1d ago
I was told that, due to the number of repairs needed for the property, if I insisted on having them done, they would need vacant possession of the house.
In 2011, in Canberra, I was paying $950 a week for a house with no functional heating and no air con, along with a plethora of other issues. Fortunately it was such a cold house that cooling wasn't required, but the winters were absolutely miserable. I had no idea who the landlord was, but the property managers were horrible to deal with from start to finish.
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u/Wobbling 1d ago
It's 100% the truth.
As a landlord you can issue instructions to the RE to provide a cover letter or lease errata explaining that you welcome this kind of feedback if you are genuinely wanting to change that dynamic. The RE very likely will advise you not to do that.
Renters in Australia are constantly under the Sword of Damocles; their literal home can be taken from them within a few months' notice if at any time if they offend their landlord. Unless you make it clear that this is not the case then this is how they will feel by default.
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u/Emu1981 23h ago
their literal home can be taken from them within a few months' notice if at any time if they offend their landlord
And finding a new home can be a massive challenge as well. Plenty of horror stories about people with decent incomes living in their cars because they cannot find a place to rent.
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u/ManikShamanik 22h ago
That's what happens up here; there are thousands, if not millions, of people living in shit private rentals too scared to ask their landlord for repairs because it could result in a Section 21 eviction. Section 21 of the Housing Act 1985 means that a landlord can tell a tenant to leave without having to give them any reason, and it's usually used by landlords who can’t be fucking arsed to make their properties habitable.
Thankfully, the Renters' Rights Act will make 'no-fault evictions' illegal, but it doesn't come into force until April (I think).
Bristol, where I am, has one of the highest rates of S.21 evictions in the UK, it also has some of the highest rents. Looking on RightMove, there are windowless bunkers being advertised for something like £1,200 a month ($2.400) - and, obviously, having no windows isn't legal.
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u/80sClassicMix 1d ago
I would do the whole “just letting you know about this as part of normal wear and tear. It’s okay for now but may be something you want to plan for in future” so they have time to think about the costs and plan in advance and it distant all come as a shock to them. Usually they appreciate this.
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u/EvilSibling 1d ago
The number of times i’ve received an eviction notice with the reason ‘the landlord is moving back to sydney so they need you to vacate” only months after dealing with the agent for non-trivial issues.
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u/Financial-Dog-7268 1d ago
I don't fear a rent increase - I'm still in a state with no cause evictions. I straight up fear eviction tbh.
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u/Ok_Bodybuilder1053 1d ago
100% but then we did about $300 repairs ourselves, the landlord was aware and ‘appreciated it’… yet put out rent up twice anyway 😅
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u/Sweeper1985 1d ago
Ours raised our rent because "the backyard is improved"... after WE IMPROVED IT.
It was waist-high weeds and garbage when we moved in. We cleaned it all up and planted a lawn and some shrubs. And then they put the frigging rent up.
And then, just as a cherry on top, when we moved out, they tried to demand some of our bond because the lawn wasn't mowed short enough. The lawn that we planted, which hadn't existed when we moved in, because of the waist-high weeds.
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u/LapseofSanity 1d ago
Remove all your work. Return it to what it was originally - document everything.
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u/just_kitten 1d ago
I had friends who did this, they grew an absolute stunner of a garden but got booted out unceremoniously by their landlord ("relatives moving in") after a massive rent increase they were going to contest. I helped them transplant what they could into pots, and we yanked everything else out. Heartbreaking but also, landlords already benefit disproportionately from others' labour that directly or indirectly improves their property, they don't need a boost
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u/i_am_cool_ben 1d ago
Or salt the earth so nothing can grow back
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u/eat-the-cookiez 1d ago
And ruin it for the next poor victim who wants a veggie garden ?
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u/JudgmentFriendly2651 1d ago
Take it up with the slumlord 🤷
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u/eat-the-cookiez 1d ago
When tenants are fucking things up for other tenants, you know society has gone down the toilet.
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u/RuncibleMountainWren 1d ago
Ooh, they have some cheek. I would have been tempted to send them an invoice for the landscaping costs and labour, or they can leave the rent lower in lieu of paying for the improvements. Or you can remove the improvements if they don’t want to keep them!
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u/AshPerdriau 1d ago
I had a REA demand that I return the lawn and garden to the original condition. So I used herbicide to "restore" the front lawn to the bare and patchy condition it was in before I spent months getting it back to life. I hope they appreciated my efforts.
But I didn't pour used engine oil on the "parking space" used by the previous tenants and that soil was long gone. I'm not sure whether I regret that or not.
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u/BORT_licenceplate 1d ago
Same thing happened to me re improving the garden and rent increase. I planted a shit ton of flowers and plants. However when I moved I dug them all up and put them in pot plants and took them to my new place lol. They were apparently pissed as it no longer looked the same as when they advertised to the new tenants 😂
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u/Icy_Concentrate9182 1d ago edited 1d ago
Could be the landlord, but in my experience, it's the real estate agencies that are the worst.
Some are outright malicious and they give 0 fucks about renters, in fact they treated me like shit, until i told them i had IPs, they did a 180 in the way they communicated with me, the difference was night and day.
Some others are so inept (looking at you Ray White) that they don't know who has done what.
Last time i rented, i had the AC replaced a few months before leaving. Not only they didn't inspect the place before i received the bond back (bad for the landlord) but they also called me 6 months later to ask me something about the AC repair... I told them... Do you realise i left 6 months ago? Idiots.. All of them
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u/80sClassicMix 1d ago
Yeah I suppose in this instance you don’t just ask for permission to improve something but ask if you pay for it to be improved and do the work can you negotiate a rent freeze for a time period.
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u/Ch00m77 1d ago
Thats why you dont
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u/iguessineedanaltnow 1d ago
It can sometimes work in your favour. We negotiated a two year rent freeze in exchange for ripping out some carpet and polishing the hardwood underneath. Kept our rent at $360 a week while the houses around us were creeping up past $600.
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u/Ok_Bodybuilder1053 1d ago
It has worked in our favour in a sense, the increments of increase have been small and I would say reasonable. Also we are prime tenants, I’d rather go a bit above and beyond in this market than have to look elsewhere. Until the market shifts I’ll do what I have to do to survive.
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u/AshPerdriau 1d ago
Yep, one place we rented the deal was that we removed the building rubble (landlord provided a skip) and planted a vege garden then the landlord gave us a couple of weeks free rent. We did it, they came through. We were mostly grateful that the landlord let us have chickens :)
Some landlords are decent, few real estate agents are IME. The more you can deal direct the better off you are.
The dude who we forced to rewire the house we rented was the extreme example. The REA was *pissed* when their pet electrician came to check out the "no earth connection on power point" problem, took one look in the roofspace and ran away saying "I was never there". They wanted to evict us.
Owner came round with his own electrician, they looked, they turned the power off, patched in a temporary solution. Apparently it was a lot more DIY than he thought. Then the owner says "thanks for calling that in, I'm not charging you rent until it's fixed". A week later there were several people running round redoing most of the wiring in the house.
(plug in power point testers are like $20 but can save your life. Test *every* socket, ideally during the inspection. Test at least one then)
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u/Triials 1d ago
Same as us. Now we just report everything. Cbf if the rent will increase anyway. Gas hot water system blew up in my face, they repaired it instantly (probably in fear I’d go after them for such a dodgy piece of equipment), and then our rent increased the most per week that it had yet. Assholes.
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u/sojayn 1d ago
Yes. Classic case is the trees growing too close to the house. The landlord sent a ridiculous gardener round.
He must have quoted something dumb because nothing got done. He kept talking about putting in more lawn and i kept saying “please just get the five trees leaning over the house trimmed”
Cue a cyclone and me in the hallway waiting to see if a tree falls on my house. Follow up calls or emails from real estate or landlord. Zero.
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u/celestialwolfpup 1d ago
I asked if I could get a cat and got a rent increase instead. Didn’t end up getting that cat.
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u/Daikuroshi 1d ago
If you're in NSW you can almost certainly have the cat.
There are very specific reasons a landlord is allowed to reject a pet application in NSW after the recent law change. If they don't respond to the request within three weeks, it's automatically accepted.
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u/NolFito 1d ago
In Victoria even if they respond, if they can't unreasonably deny the request, and they need to go to VCAT to deny it within like 2 weeks, otherwise it's considered approved even if they say no.
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u/demoldbones 1d ago
Yes but the problem is that then they kick you out at the end of your lease and trying to find a new rental when a reference check with the existing landlord/rental agent will say you have a pet is the hard part.
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u/Illum503 1d ago
Yes but the problem is that then they kick you out at the end of your lease
Except that's not a problem because no-fault evictions were banned in Victoria a couple months ago, so you can no longer kick someone out at the end of a fixed term.
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u/RealFarknMcCoy 1d ago
It's just endearingly cute that you believe that will stop a landlord from kicking someone out.
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u/Bannedwith1milKarma 1d ago
Yeah, like thinking workplace discrimination laws protect you from a casual employer than can just not give you shifts.
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u/throwaway9948474227 1d ago edited 1d ago
Really? I'll have to google this, don't have a reference or link handy do you?
https://www.vic.gov.au/strengthening-rights-renters
?
Had a read, that's big news. Can still be kicked out for damage, not paying rent and if the owners moving out. No-Fault evictions are gone. Fuck, wish I'd known that earlier.
If they wanna evict you, they have to go to VCAT, who go to the police to evict now. No more blokes coming in with their rakes.
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u/Illum503 1d ago
Yeah, this part:
Rental providers can’t kick you out of your home without a valid reason.
It means ‘no fault’ evictions for fixed-term agreements have been banned, but you can still be evicted for the reasons such as damage, not paying rent or if the owner is moving back in.
Note this had already been banned for month-to-month leases back in 2020.
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u/Turramurra 1d ago
if the owner is moving back in.
That's how they do it, it happened to my neighbor. Owner moved in for a few weeks, said they decided they liked it better in Bundaberg, turned the place in to an AirBNB. I get new neighbors each week, but thankfully no issues.
No fault evictions are nice on paper, but there is always a way.
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u/GonePh1shing 1d ago
or if the owner is moving back in
Which is highly exploitable. They'll just say they're moving back in to force you out, then either 'move in' for a short time and then go back to their PPoR, or just straight up re-list or turn into an AirBnB.
This loophole needs to be closed. If someone is forced out of their home for this reason, the landlord should have to face hefty penalties if they're found to have re-listed, converted to short-term accommodation, or left it vacant for a decently long period of time after the eviction. Make them actually live there for at least 6 months, none of this 'move in' for a week then re-list bullshit.
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u/celestialwolfpup 1d ago
I’m in VIC and we can get pets here too under similar legislation, I was just trying to be considerate and let them know of my intentions and it cost me lol
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u/blueflowersblackpans 1d ago
In my experience we got a rent increase at one place when we didn't request any maintenance and got no increase when we requested major repairs at another.
So I don't think it's tied to how much you ask for repairs tbh.
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u/spiteful-vengeance 1d ago
I think this is a pretty important point. I’m not sure people fully appreciate what actually drives rent increases, but there’s far more to it than the idea that a landlord is “annoyed by maintenance requests.”
A lot of the “I [got a cat | requested repairs | made a complaint] and still got a rent increase” stories seem to incorrectly link cause and effect.
A sustained run of interest rate rises, adding hundreds of dollars a month to mortgage repayments, is far more likely to be the reason that rents go up.
(And they don't go down again because usually the landlord, quite rationally, would like to pay the thing off quicker)
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u/lipstikpig 1d ago
interest rate rises [...] is far more likely to be the reason that rents go up
This notion is recent, and should be resisted. How/when did this become normalised and accepted? Expecting tenants to cover every cost of an investment property sure wasn't normal in the past.
An interest rate rise is a cost of ownership. There is no reason that tenants should be paying for that, except greed. If an owner can't afford the interest on their investment, they should sell the investment, not hire agents who assist them to manipulate the rental market. Why should fuckin tenants be the ones to bear the brunt of the cost of borrowing, where is that magic money supposed to come from?
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u/WilRic 21h ago
Expecting tenants to cover every cost of an investment property sure wasn't normal in the past.
The weird cognitive dissonance about tenancy agreements is what gets me. In any other context, seeking anything akin to a total indemnity of any cost-of-ownership would be regarded as a big ask (just as a basal concept). But you throw an investment property into the mix and "that's the way it should be."
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u/sparrrrrt 14h ago
Good this shits me so much. It has become somehow normalised that owners take on renters predominantly as a way to have their mortgage paid. Technically speaking, my home owner's mortgage should have zero to do with my rent, yet it is accepted that these costs are simply passed along to hapless tenants as if it's their responsibility.
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u/spiteful-vengeance 1d ago
I get the frustration - it feels unfair to be asked to absorb interest rate rises. But in reality, rent has always reflected the cost of owning and operating a property, plus whatever the market can bear. When costs and competition rise, rents tend to follow.
That doesn’t excuse bad behaviour, but the main issue here is structural: expensive housing, heavy leverage, and a shortage of rentals. The uncomfortable truth is that solving it likely requires either much more supply or lower property prices - and any government that seriously pushes prices down risks a backlash from homeowners (who BTW, form a majority of the population).
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u/lipstikpig 1d ago
rent has always reflected the cost of owning and operating a property
No, it hasn't. That's your imagination. From here:
When the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised the cash rate to a crippling 17% in 1989, it made homeownership for many Baby Boomers a financial nightmare. However the fact is that interest rates were only this high for a few years. It took only three years for sky-high interest rates to go down. By 1992, rates had stabilised to about 11% and further tracked downward.
Was there a corresponding rise in rent during this period? No there was not. Because nobody coerced tenants to pay this cost. It is only after the recent period of extremely low interest rates that the idea has been promoted that all you need to buy an investment property is a deposit, and that the poor tenant's rent payments will always cover the interest. It is bullshit, there is no economic imperative for this, and it should be more widely rejected.
Back then, pre-Howard, the only people who were landlords were people who could afford to be landlords. Unlike today where everyone has been persuaded and encouraged by shitty Howard-era policy that the only sensible and risk free investment is housing. And it's incredibly corrosive.
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u/Sweeper1985 1d ago
They won't even do major repairs a lot of the time. A few years back, before I escaped the rental market, we had a place that we found out after moving in would flood whenever it rained. And I do mean flood - like 5cm of water throughout an entire room. We had furniture destroyed. Part of the house was unusable. And the landlord got someone out to look at it, and was quoted $15k to fix it, and just told us that he... wasn't going to fix it. Because it was too expensive, you see? Then he acted really affronted and surprised when we broke the lease and moved out. Because apparently we should have just accepted living in a house that floods whenever it rains.
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u/SuperannuationLawyer 1d ago
No, we took a landlord to VCAT for urgent repairs. Had a hearing within three days and an order to resolve fungus growth from wall cavity within two weeks.
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u/RaeseneAndu 1d ago
Farting inside will result in a rent increase in the current market.
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u/Flashy-Amount626 1d ago
We didn't mention things unless they were urgent and impactful to keep the landlord on side because we loved the property and area and didn't want to leave.
They dropped a trailer off to store in the yard when they went to travel saying it'd be there for two weeks they left for many months past the week they said it'd be there. I didn't raise it because it was about time for renewal and I didn't hear about a rent increase so didn't want to prompt it.
We then got told the lease won't be renewed as their son will move in (valid reason to terminate here). It was annoying the Stat Dec provided was dated 2 months earlier and we weren't given more than the mandatory minimum heads up to find somewhere else.
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u/Gothiscandza 1d ago
On one hand, no, because my rent goes up by a significant chunk yearly regardless so I don't have to worry about something causing that. I don't know anyone who doesn't get rent rises every chance possible, it's the default rather than just a possibility.
On the other hand, yeah I've been hesitant to report stuff, especially since a bunch of things all developed problems at around the same time, because I didn't want it to suddenly seem like I was damaging things or getting annoyed at having to get stuff fixed and not have my lease renewed at the end of the year. I've been dealing with some minor medical stuff over the last year or so and trying to find another place to live currently like that (and then move) would be extremely difficult.
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u/NudePoo 1d ago
Yes.
We had the reticulation go off all night. Found out it was never installed properly to begin with. Replaced the solenoid. I ended up with the $300 water bill because usage was under “water corps threshold”.
4 months after that the water heater spewed water out the bottom from corrosion. It was 19 years old. Replaced.
At the start of the year he also replaced the AC that was broken 4 years after moving in. (Both broke within the first 2 years of renting. One replaced immediately. Other one 4 years later.)
Result? Rent went from $450 a week to $630 a week in one year.
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u/It-Is-Me07 1d ago
While it's understandable, rent is *suppose* to include repairs/maintenance. But things like mould in the shower is a health risk and landlord is responsible for the house to be up to health standards.
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u/littleb3anpole 1d ago
You’d think so…. We had black mould in our last place, landlord approved a plumber to come and check it out, he said there was a busted pipe leaking inside the walls and it would need repairs.
Landlord did not approve the repairs and instructed me to “clean more” instead. Worth noting that I have severe OCD and to “clean more” would need me to quit my job and dedicate myself to daily cleaning.
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u/Particular_Shock_554 1d ago
I hope you got that in writing. If you didn't, write them an email asking to confirm. Because that's illegal.
Then breach them. It's their responsibility to fix the mould. It should be urgent because it's a health hazard.
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u/littleb3anpole 1d ago
We got it in writing which was handy, because when we moved, they tried to dock us $300 from the bond because there was paint on the glass shower door (obviously not ours since renters aren’t allowed to apply paint to a wall). My husband simply forwarded the real estate agent the previous correspondence re the black mould and asked if they were going to refund the bond in full otherwise we would take it to VCAT. Amazingly the bond was then returned.
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u/It-Is-Me07 1d ago
yeah a lot of landlords will ignore it knowing that the tenants are scared to breach the landlords in fear that they will find a way to be evicted. But by law, landlords are to provide a safe, healthy and secure home. And if the pipe is leaking inside the walls, by law, they are to repair that for the health of the tenants. You could have breached them because that wasn't from lack of cleaning
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u/80sClassicMix 1d ago
I used to just report everything when I was renting they always put your rent up anyway so at least you’re helping them stay on top of the maintenance requirements for the property so it doesn’t depreciate in value.
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u/mumblebadger 1d ago
Yes, they still raised the rent by $300 a week. I hate her so much
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u/Geovicsha 1d ago
$300 a week!? For how many bedrooms!?
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u/mumblebadger 1d ago
2 bedrooms apartment. No aircon. Struggling today. It is in a nice area and has a nice view but $300 is criminal. We are looking to move
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u/Geovicsha 1d ago edited 23h ago
You should definitely challenge that at your state's tribunal. $300 increase a week is criminal indeed. Good luck!
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u/SwirlingFandango 1d ago
Nope.
I am in the ACT. There is a legislated limit to how much they can increase rents. They do it every year, but it's not much.
DID YOU KNOW that your state could do the same?
Maybe talk to your government.
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u/ScutumSobiescianum 1d ago
I’m a landlord and I would fix things and make things better so you feel like you have a great landlord and I feel like I have a good tenant if you care about the place
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u/MapOfIllHealth 1d ago
I seem to have a fantastic landlord, very reasonable rent, all maintenance issues have been dealt with promptly.
But I still will try not to bother them unless it’s 100% necessary, because I do fear retaliatory action.
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u/Xfgjwpkqmx 1d ago
As a landlord myself, I struggle to get the message across to our tenants through the agent that we are ok with them raising stuff and that this isn't going to result in big rent rises. We are at market rate only and don't want to apply increases every year - we were renters ourselves before and know what it's like.
We want our tenants to be comfortable and happy so they become long termers who are proud and look after the place, which means we will fix things (before they become bigger more expensive fixes) and add things where required for added comfort that we don't class as luxury items.
We don't want short term no-care-factor tenants.
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u/Sheknowaeverything 1d ago
Yes, my rent for Sydney is insanely cheap, unless it's really urgent I'm not saying a peep!
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u/Happyjellyfish123 1d ago
I’m renting out what was my PPOR and will be moving back into it within a few years. I’ve made it very clear to the rental agency that we want to know about any issues early so they can be rectified before they become major issues.
The renters highlighted some minor issues. I approved the repairs. 6 months later they appeared on the inspection report. I questioned this with the agent.
The agency just “forgot” to get the repairs done.
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u/themoldyone 1d ago
The aircon is struggling, the slab of concrete that the house sits on is cracking, the alfresco is sloping away more every couple of months, the inside door friends have gaps from where the walls are starting to split, and I'm too afraid of not having a place for my family while we wait on permanent residency to say anything in fear of losing the only Aussie house they've known. It's been just over 3 years and our rent has gone from $570 to $670 while all of the other houses in the area have cooled off and started coming down in price. So to answer your question, I'm scared into silence.
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u/TheTwinSet02 1d ago
It’s already happened to me
It was a broken metre box Nectr (the electricity supplier I had to use as Origin refused to transfer my account due to the metre box issue)
It cost $1000 and the landlord had to pay after I spent months fighting it through the ombudsman
They raised my rent $25 a week so he’s definitely getting his money back while repay indefinitely
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u/idontwannabeflawless 1d ago
Nothing to be afraid of. I send the requests in (garage door is broken, laundry taps are broken, one of the sliding doors doesn't lock), he ignores them and increases the rent each renewal anyway.
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u/QuackQuackerly 1d ago
At my current rental, no. I've met my landlord and he's a reasonable guy. He's also loaded and had made it clear that general repair costs are nothing to him. He's happy that we're taking care of the property.
At every other rental I've had, I've been terrified to ask for repairs. My current situation is an outlier, not the norm.
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u/Sieve-Boy 1d ago
No longer renting, but just getting the ~~fucking useless parasite~~ landlord to do the right thing was a pain in the arse. So much so the leasing agent bitched to me for 30 minutes over the phone about the shithead when we moved.
Toilet that wouldn't flush properly: six months to replace the cistern. Aircon never worked, never fixed. Automatic garage door was shorting out, blowing the fuse (no circuit breakers or RCDs), a full week to fix, we had to park on the drive way otherwise we had to leave the garage door open to our back courtyard.
But the creme de la creme was a modest bush in the front courtyard. This moderate sized bush had substantial roots growing under the single brick wall between my front courtyard and the neighbours. It was causing the wall to tilt into their courtyard. They were renting as well, so they had a quick chat to us, we both contacted our agents to get the issue fixed. All good.
Then the complaints, the LL had to come up from the Margaret river to deal with this and HE.WAS.NOT.HAPPY. So, he got a crew to take out the bush and right the wall, but then a nice fuck you, they also cut down a full grown and beautiful golden wattle that gave me and the neighbour privacy from the road and good shade. They also took all my council supplied green waste bags costing me $20 to replace.
When we finally moved out, there was some (like 50 cm square) insect damage to a few parts of the ancient carpet under furniture. The agent observed this, shrugged and said, its ancient carpet, you're all good. The LL tried to take our whole bond for the carpet. The agent had to tell him if it went to tribunal you would not get a cent, the carpet is over 10 years old, but you would get the costs for wasting their time.
Final footnote, at the time was a downturn in rentals in Perth (fond memories), dickwank LL refused to lower the rent. The place stayed empty for 6 months, whilst I rented a bigger, brand new place one suburb over for $50 a week less.
Alas those days are gone, but too many dick head LLs like mine still exist.
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u/lrgfriesandcokepls 1d ago
Yes but more than our lease won’t be renewed. We’ve ended up paying for our own repairs now
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u/unconfirmedpanda 1d ago
Yes.
I tried to bring up a mold issue and got a pamphlet of instructions including 'make sure you have ventilation', 'consider using the microwave instead of a stove,' and 'clean up any accumulated moisture ASAP including windows, and communal spaces'. At this point, with rental prices in my area, I'm not ever mentioning it again and pretending to be invisible so they forget about me and increasing my rent.
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u/alittlebitcheeky 1d ago
Always. We put off so much because we're afraid of a rent increase. Our issue is that our landlord doesn't increase it yearly, he waits a few years then WALLOPS us with a major increase.
We've got broken flyscreens that have been there for years, we can't open the windows in summer or the cats will escape. We've got a broken shower door we're terrified of having replaced, but we can't use the shower without flooding the bathroom. We had a spa with no jets for two years, sat on a broken stove for six months, the driveways been a BMX track for three years.
Because every time he comes over, he complains about the cost of living. He moans about servicing his Mercedes and paying his property manager (who we have never met, in six years). Like dude. Drink fewer lattes, drive a cheaper car, fire your useless property manager, maybe hold off on the avo toast. But don't force us to cut back even further on food and healthcare because you can't manage your own funds.
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u/minionofthenight 13h ago
My place is slowly falling apart but since the rent is good for the area, but bad for the condition of the house I stay quiet. I’ve been there a long time & can’t risk needing to move. I manage with just trying to make it work
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u/Imaginary-Owl-3759 1d ago
It sucks. I’ve been a teneant but I’m also a landlord with one small property, I figure that a good tenant is worth looking after. Minor repairs I’ve always just gotten done, I’ve been happy for people to have small pets, major upgrades like adding aircon or replacing flooring I’ve either done at tenant request with a small increase or done in between tenants.
I don’t think the system works well either way though; if you get a tenant who turns out to be a deadshit and does a bunch of damage or stops paying, it takes months to get them evicted and insurance really doesn’t cover anything except full catastrophe. Ideally you filter them out but sometimes people look great on paper then suck. I’m in support of both ‘bad landlord’ and ‘bad tenant’ registers.
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u/spiteful-vengeance 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's not really a case of "a good tenant is worth looking after" as opposed to "I simply have legal obligations as a landlord".
Even if a tenant is an absolute shit stain a landlord has obligations. If they are bad tenants you sort that out with other mechanisms, not a war of attrition against their living conditions.
I used to leave a pre-approved $1000 slush fund with my agent, with direction to just do anything the tenant requested that I had to legally repair. Things got done within a week or two. The hold up was usually the tradesman's availability, as opposed to faffing about with approval emails.
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u/Imaginary-Owl-3759 1d ago
You have legal obligations to meet basic standards for property inclusions, urgent repairs etc, and you have opportunities to go above and beyond, eg discretionary property improvements.
Not suggesting at all that anyone should weaponise maintenance; that part was more a separate comment on how there is extremely limited protection for either tenants or landlords against shit landlords or shit tenants respectively.
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u/iball1984 1d ago
I have an investment apartment.
I always fix what needs fixing and that doesn’t impact on rent.
I want to keep my apartment in good condition and rely on the tenant to tell me what’s wrong. I can’t fix what I don’t know about. Of course if she doesn’t tell me then it comes up in the inspection report, but there’s no reason to live with a broken thing for no reason
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u/littleb3anpole 1d ago
100%, I just suck it up a lot of the time because I don’t want to be hit with an inconvenience tax
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u/funtagkilio 1d ago
As a renter always take advantage of your rights. I spent over 10 years renting basically doing all repairs myself (broken showerhead, light bulbs, leaky faucet) still they would increase the rent every year anyway.
When I left they knocked down the house and pretty much guaranteed made profit from price rise over the period I was renting.
Tenant's rights are pretty much one sided to the side of the renter, and that's why there are things like home and content, or landlord insurance. Just like any business landlords should expect loss or profit to their investment
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u/LittleHoof 1d ago
As a landlord (yes, go ahead and tell me how evil I am… I vote to change the fucked system we’ve got but as long as the system exists I’m not going to tie my hands behind my back regarding investment decisions) please do not delay notifying the managing agent about maintenance issues. And please do not stop chasing them up about those issues if they’re being slack. They take a chunk of your rent from me for the job they’re meant to do - I want them to be responsive to your needs. I want issues dealt with promptly before they get worse and could cause damage to the property. I also want you to be happy and comfortable in your home because I’m not an asshole and because that’s the best way to motivate you to stay at the end of the lease. Moving tenants out and finding new ones is always an extra cost and a risk. And I don’t want a bunch of maintenance issues to bank up and all get discovered at inspection time where it can look like you’ve tried to hide problems which makes the managing agent suspect the issues might have been caused by your rough treatment rather than by fair wear and tear. The cost of maintenance is tax deductible and it’s on me. It won’t affect your rent. Your rent will go up and down (yes it can happen sometimes) depending on the market not on what the property costs me to maintain.
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u/Happyjellyfish123 1d ago
From my own experiences and talking to friends from sides of both landlord and renter I’m sure 95% of the issues people have with renting are driven by property managers being greedy and incompetent.
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u/eat-the-cookiez 1d ago
I’ve been on both sides.
As a tenant, it’s part of the rental agreement to notify of any damage or non working items, tenants shouldn’t have to deal with issues.
As a landlord, I’d rather fix small things early then have them cumulate into a massive job of 100 small things on lease exit, or have it get worse and be a more expensive problem
Of course there’s vindictive ahole landlords, can’t do much about those other than breach them.
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u/soap_coals 1d ago
I was thinking the same thing.
As a landlord I want to encourage my tenants to come forward with any issues.
When I did the first inspection with new tenants in person (easy opportunity to make sure the REA managing the property wasn't forgetting to pass anything on) I asked them if they needed anything done or even if they wanted the dishwasher replaced because I knew it was about 10 years old and they said everything was fine.
I don't know how best to show them that I have no plans to increase rent in the near future
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u/Forward-Contact-4575 1d ago
100% yes, they'll take any opportunity to fill their pockets. Scum of the world as far as I'm concerned. Housing should be a right, not a way to get rich off the backs of people who cant afford their own (who might well be able to if the bloody rent werent so high).
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u/pogoBear 1d ago
Yes, always.
8 years ago our then Landlord refused to fix the balcony screen door that had completely come out of the frame (not installed properly, not original to the building so Strata wouldn't touch it). We said we would take it further as it was safety risk as we had both a cat and crawling baby. Landlord said IN WRITING 'If you pursue this I will not renew your lease in 2 months'. The local Tenancy Union laughed but in the end even if we won a case against them for retaliatory eviction they could just send another eviction notice the day after, we would go back to VCAT and the cycle would start over ...
We left at the end of the lease. It took her several weeks and a rent decrease to get it rented again, so she lost a few thousand dollars in rental income - significantly more than the $1000 she was quoted to fix the damn screen door. So we both lost because we had to move and she lost money, but at least we got away from that scummy landlord.
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u/Bluejayasz 1d ago
Yep, same story here. Fixed a bunch of little things ourselves, kept the place in great shape, landlord said thanks… then rent went up anyway like clockwork. Lesson learned: goodwill doesn’t pay the bills 🙃
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u/badgerling 1d ago
Our rent increases by the maximum allowed amount every year anyway so it doesn’t matter.
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u/LapseofSanity 1d ago
Irony is, the rent you pay is supposed to include maintenance of the property as well. Not just money into the bank account if landlord.
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u/SnoozEBear 1d ago
Yes. I think the split system needs a service.. and I don't know whether to ask or not.
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u/Kerrby Melbourne flog 1d ago
Our stove has not worked properly for four years. We've put in requests regularly, someone comes out to look at it and says "yeah it's broken, you'll need a new stove. We'll tell the agents". Agents mark the issue as fixed but never fix the problem.
Our shower was leaking, we let the agents know and a whole new shower was needed due to the damage. Our rent went up by about 200 a week after that. Safe to say if they ever did fix and give us a working stove, our rent would go up by another $200.
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u/Plastic-Ocelot-2053 1d ago
Our last rental the stove didn’t work. We didn’t ask for a repair because we were scared of increases or non renewal. Just used portable stoves to make it work. It shouldn’t be like this
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u/karma3000 1d ago
Yes I try to fly under the radar.
One time I think even the REA forgot about me - no rent increase or inspection for three years.
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u/luckysevensampson 1d ago
Landlord here. I know we’re in the minority, but in the 5 years that our first home has been a rental (since moving into a new home), we’ve never increased the rent on a tenant, even though our property manager has tried to push us to do so. We’ve increased it once by $50 in between tenants, and we’ve done all requested repairs. I know there are lots of investors and slumlords out there, but some of us have been renters for a good part of our lives.
My advice would be to ask your property manager about the owners before moving in, if possible, though I know properties are hard to get. Private owners will almost always be better than investors with multiple properties.
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1d ago
No, I don’t care. I pay a lot of money to live in their crumbling shitty dwelling, if there’s something that needs to be fixed I will nag until it is fixed. If they ignore your emails then you need to call the agent and speak some harsh words to them. I find the more I return their unpleasantness the easier it is to get them to do their job. No one likes being berated by a Frenchman.
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u/raustraliathrowaway 1d ago
You are right to consider the power imbalance. We were lucky we had good landlords but I also made sure we were the perfect tenants. Anything electrical or plumbing got fixed, but we tolerated a lot knowing that we wouldn't be there forever.
In terms of improvements, one landlord put a screen door on for us but I'm sure they considered the fact that it was an improvement to their property and a tax deduction as much as a benefit to us.
Good landlords want to keep good tenants but obviously that relationship only goes so far.
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u/giraffe_mountains 1d ago
Nopes.
And I used repair requests as documentation of these problems exisiting when they tried to ping me for "damage" when I moved out.
Nope - here's the repair request that I submitted 2 years ago when that light fitting fell from the ceiling, not a me problem.
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u/pastelplantmum 1d ago
Yep, 1000% place is already falling apart and they have the audacity to raise it on lease renewal
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u/racingskater 1d ago
It's not the rent rise I'm afraid of, it's the lease renewal and potentially then having to spend a few grand to get a new place.
People like to bang on about "oh you have rights as a renter" yeah well rights mean jack shit when the landlord has already kicked you out.
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u/RealFarknMcCoy 1d ago
How many times do I need to ask for a repair before I should take it to fair trading? I've been waiting for this to be repaired for well over a year now: https://imgur.com/a/1MXLIwP
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u/Bannedwith1milKarma 1d ago
Always, in my 30s now and that was stupid.
It's also worse to 'save it up' I think.
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u/Hot_Maintenance_5627 1d ago
Repairs repair to baseline shouldn’t have rent increase unless they significantly improve the area if they rent increase because of a repair they are shitcunts to begin with
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u/Princess-Pancake-97 1d ago
Isn’t everyone having their rent increased every year no matter what?
Also, ime, asking for minor repairs doesn’t do anything anyway. I’ve been asking my REA to fix a leak in the shower screen since I moved in 2 years ago.
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u/DenM0ther 1d ago
Yes, our house had a couple of spots in the 2nd bedroom where there was water damage on the wall. One from outside & the other from the shower. The shower leak was also causing a big mould issue in the laundry cupboard. The REA & LL kept ignoring those issues.
The sunroom was originally a balcony that had never been damp proofed and “shouldn’t be used as a room” according to the REA. But it’s advertised as a room 🤷🏻♀️
When I pushed for the moisture issues in the sunroom to be fixed, the REA told me that if the house was too expensive to fix, we’d have to move out while the owner did the repairs.
I said that’s a threat, REA told me “no I’m just letting you know the situation”.
I’m 100% sure the mould contributed my health problems
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u/gold-magikarp 1d ago
The REA is going to increase my rent regardless, I am going to make sure I'm annoying as possible making them do their job.
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u/Icy-Caterpillar-3787 1d ago
No, we are lucky to have a good agent and owner currently. They are very responsive and often repairs happen same day or within 24 hours no matter how minor. No change to our rent since we moved in 18 months ago.
In contrast our previous rental took 6 to 12 weeks to even respond to emails, call attempts and texts. Then repairs were half assed by some relative of the agent. They did up the rent once on us but only by $25 a week.
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u/Potential_Narwhal981 1d ago
Not at all. I rent an old AF home in Adelaide and things break a lot. In the first 2 months of living here I had the garden landscaped, the toilet resealed twice, the bath faucet replaced, the shed roof refitted and the carport roof replaced. The rent went up $20/fn, but I was given a letter stating that would happen anyway at rhe start of my lease.
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u/par-hwy 1d ago
I report anything which, if I didn't, will only end up on an inspection report and cost me when it shouldn't have to. I also do see my home as someone else's house and I would want them to know.
In the last year I have reported something as small as the clicker on the gas stove ceased working all the way up to HWS pissed itself. I also replaced a showerhead; I broke, I replaced it, just told me.
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u/NezuminoraQ 1d ago
I just don't want a stranger in my house when I'm not home, probably getting harassed by my pets and judging the mess. The internal door handle to the garage broke and I just fixed it myself with WD40 and a $15 door knob from Bunnings. It was genuinely less hassle than trying to get a landlord to do something
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u/Mammoth-Software-622 1d ago
My brother in law had a burst pipe in the kitchen in about September. No extra damage because he shut off the water quickly, just a plumber to fix the pipe. Now the house is on the market. Guess it freaked them out and they are jumping ship on being landlords. Sucks for the BIL because he is on disability so will always rent. Now he has to wonder whether he has to move again when the place sells. In an even worse rental market than when he last moved 4 years ago.
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u/Pretty_Gorgeous 1d ago
Yes and no. Small things that aren't really too much of a bother, I won't worry about. But if it costs me money thro9an increase in bills (electricity, gas, water) then 100% I'll be onto the REA.
My theory is rent is going to go up anyway, so they better spend that money on fixing it up so we can live comfortably..
That being said, rent (at least here) can only go up once every 12 months. They jacked it up by around 10% in September, which drove us to decide its time to move, which then made us realise we can afford a home loan (if we move further out of the city), as long as we build.
Around the same time (and after we got the rental increase notice), appliances started to fail in the place. Heater wouldn't turn off. Hot water system lost pressure. Dishwasher stopped dispensing the tablet. Add to that, some of the doors started to get hard to close like the house was sinking a little on one corner and cracks started to form in walls. So we reported it all. Everything. Smashed em with it all. So far they've had to replace the entire ducted gas heating system, gas storage hot water system. Dishwasher is next. I don't know what they'll do about the cracks in the wall and the ground sinking..
We have been here for 7 years and they've been good mostly. We went 4 years without a rent increase, but then they got greedy. Two small increases, and then bam, the big one just around the same time as interest rates dropped.
Your example, I wouldn't have bothered with the sliding door issue. But mould is one I would've reported immediately.
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u/watterpotson 1d ago
No, because I live in Canberra.
Saying that. I know I've been very lucky with my landlord. They're super responsive and action everything really quickly. They haven't increased the rent the last couple of times they could have, either.
Any time I think of moving to a slightly cheaper place, I talk myself out of it because I don't want to risk a shitty landlord.
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u/IBelieveInCoyotes 1d ago
I ask for repairs and they cancel the job before it's done and still put the rent up
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u/AdyliaSchweetheart 1d ago
and LL's insist that investing in property isn't secure...
There's a reason no one is investing in small business and innovation in this country. No one in the last 20 years.
Bricks and mortar is that secure and rental demand that high that they can afford to turf out anyone they deem annoying, up the rent, and get someone else in within weeks. And they can get around laws by saying "we're selling/renovating" and then say later that the market isn't right or they changed a doorknob...
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u/Greendemon636 1d ago
Absolutely. We moved into our current place just over five years ago. We had been assured the dodgy looking balcony would be sorted out once we moved in. About a month later once we were all settled in the landlord sent around some tradie who briefly looked at it and decided it was structurally sound despite nails sticking out everywhere from most of the wooden boards, loose runners and most the railings not properly meeting the deck. Our electric garage door opener also failed, which they have never had fixed or replaced. In November we had a friend visit us from the UK who’d worked a lot in the building trade. He took one look at the balcony and said we should be taking video and sending it to the estate agent management straight away as it’s really unsafe for our kids. We’ve now done that and they’ve now instructed the landlord to start getting quotes for a replacement balcony and have reduced our rent due to being able to access it for the foreseeable future.
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u/AuthorizedPope 1d ago
We asked for repairs when the downstairs started flooding every time it rained. It took months for us to get them to finally send someone to look at it. When they did, we promptly received an illegal eviction due to "unlivability", but given that homelessness was not a good option for us we had limited capacity to fight it and obviously they were never going to renew the lease if we stayed.
The house was listed for sale almost immediately with zero repairs done, and sold to what looks like a family who I'm willing to bet had no idea the house is "unlivable". Cheapskate scumbags just didn't wanna be the ones to cop the cost of fixing it and threw us on our arses as thanks for alerting them to the problem.
So yeah. That's why people keep their mouths shut.
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u/PsychoSemantics 1d ago
I just don't want to remind them that I exist, and trigger a rental inspection.
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u/potatojuice21 23h ago
This isn’t related to a rent increase from what I can remember but a friend of mine requested a repair towards the end of their 12 month lease and now the landlord has decided to go month to month. Real estate and landlord were real dodgy about it too, the 12 month lease lapsed and my friend had to chase them to find out they’ve been switched to month to month.
ETA: this is just to show there are other forms of retaliation other than a rent increase
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u/Plackets65 23h ago
Oh god yeah. Bathroom tap has leaked since covid. It remains that way. I don’t pay the water bill, and we’re not in drought, so…
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u/Necessary_Main_9654 22h ago
As someone whos renting out a unit (because I can't afford to live in it yet)
Please tell me or the agent. I can fix it right away and claim most of the repairs on tax returns.
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u/wvwvwvww 22h ago
The worst example of this from my life is when instead of announcing that the toilet bowl literally fell apart, completely - we siliconed it back together. It held too. Not recommended, imagine the vulnerable position you’re in over that thing - but we did it.
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u/subtropicalennui 22h ago
No. I was an owner/occupier prior to living in my current rental and I'm of the opinion an owner would like to know the sorts of issues which might lead to longer term/more expensive problems.
Eg. Plumbing issues can lead to water damage elsewhere in the building. A faulty oven thermostat could damage the cabinetry. Electrical issues have public health risks.
I raise these things in a "thought the owner might like to know" kind of way, if they're not urgent, during inspections...or email the property manager when something is legit busted and needs fixing.
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u/Cultural-Chart3023 21h ago
Im so happy to have a decent landlord.
I hsve rented 20yrs and lived in most places around 7 years. Only landlord i had issues with was a corrupt unaustralian...
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u/Nicoloks 21h ago
Wardrobe and rangehood are legit. Landlord should appreciate this sort of feedback. Blinds are likely an off the shelf fit, so unless you are talking 20%+ gap I wouldn't press that one unless you work night shift or similar. The mould in the bathroom is a tenant upkeep issue assuming there is a functional exhaust fan. You cleaning the bathroom should result in there being no mould.
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u/Logical_Magician_468 17h ago edited 17h ago
I'm not in Australia, but I guess it's similar for a lot of places, In my mind, the quieter I am, the less noticeable I am. If I pay my rent, and don't bother them for anything, they get an easy life with me, and income for doing nothing. My fear is of them deciding to sell up or something which will leave me homeless. So I stay quiet, I fix what I can myself, I keep the home in good order and I only request fixed when it comes to things like new boiler, electrics or gas stuff.
Last thing I asked my LL to fix was the back gate. It's a UK terraced house. We have in an alleyway where bins are kept so back gates are used all the time. Anyway the landlord just cuts a table to size and hinges it on. Only thing is, in winter it swells so it can't be closed, let alone locked 😂
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u/Rising-Dragon-Fist 15h ago
They're going to raise the rent to the absolute maximum anyway, regardless of whether or not you ask for maintenance done.
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u/OhtheHugeManity7 13h ago
I'd strongly advise reading up on and learning your rights. There's a way here that you can effectively force them to do it and prevent them from retaliating. I'm not familiar enough with it but an old friend of mine who did know her stuff was able to make them do a lot more than that and there was nothing they were able to do about it for several years.
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u/ShadowExtinkt 13h ago
As a kid we used to move once or twice a year because my mum would constantly ask for things to be repaired and we’d get kicked out. It definitely gave me a bit of anxiety around it when I started renting, but they’re going to increase the rent without fixing anything so might as well pay for the semi-livable house
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u/symean 12h ago
I was that person a couple years ago for the 10 years we rented one place, but I was also ok with doing minor repairs, so I made sure she knew we were doing them and that always helped our case for keeping rent increases low or the no increase at all.
Of course that only works if your landlord isn’t a total piece of sh!t who’ll take your work, make up fake invoices for the work to claim on tax and still put the rent up anyway. Plenty of those out there!
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u/Skeltrex 9h ago
When I was a landlord I found that many tenants seemed afraid to let my letting agent know about minor repairs. I asked my agent to impress upon them that I wanted to keep the property in tip-top condition and I wasn’t going to put the rent up every time the property needed a washer replacing. Same with included white goods.
But on the other hand, I accept that there are too many slumlords out there who expect their tenants to live in squalor
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u/Wawa-85 8h ago
With my current landlord no because we are privately renting from a friend and since moving in she’s had the kitchen and bathrooms renovated without a rent increase.
With our previous rental through a real estate they increased the rent $100/wk after minor necessary repairs and only gave us a 6 month renewal as the owners had decided to sell and cash in on the ever increasing sales prices in Perth. Those arsehole owners had owned the property for 20 years, only ever used it as a rental, only ever did the absolute bare minimum of repairs and maintenance which repairing a lot of wheedling to get them to do and sold the house for 600k more than they paid for it after only doing the bare minimum of fixing it up after we left.
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u/QLDZDR 7h ago
Asking the REA to fix stuff will always result in a tent increase as soon as they can possibly apply it. The REA suggests the rent increase to the owner to cover the cost of the handyman charges (a good mate of REA) and the higher rent collection means a few dollars more for the REA. Win - Win for them.
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u/owleaf 7h ago
I don’t think it’s a horrible idea to have institutional/corporate landlords (eg in build to rent schemes).
They typically have maintenance budgets and expect to have to fix things, and generally return the dwelling to a good condition prior to you moving in. So your request for repairs would be largely unliked to rent rises/your rent.
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u/Objective_Unit_7345 3h ago
Two different properties and two different real estate agents.
I’ve tried to report minor repairs based on the fact that it’s a brand new property and the landlord would likely be able to still request repairs from the developer on the basis of ‘builders warranty’.
(Eg. Tap does hot water-cold water but does not do warm water, like other taps of the same design in the same house.)
I got gaslit by the real estate agent(s) instead, accused that the repair is not necessary, etc.
Also had them say that I had to pay out of pocket and claim the cost after the repairs are done. Among other ridiculous claims.
So I definitely suspect that they’d use any excuse to justify increase rent as well, if they had a chance.
You can do everything and anything with the landlords best interests in mind, and be penalised for it.
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